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Katyn massacre epitaph unveiled

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 18.09.2014 08:27
President Bromislaw Komorowski and ambassadors from 20 countries were present, Wednesday, at the unveiling of the Katyn Epitaph, a tribute to the 22,000 Poles killed in the Katyn massacre.

President
President Komorowski during events marking the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939: photos - PAP

The date also marked the 75th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland during the Second World War.

The massacre took place in 1940 when the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, executed Polish officers, police and intelligentsia who had been taken prisoner during the invasion. The Soviet Union denied being behind the massacre until 1990.

The Epitaph is the first part of the Katyn Museum to be opened, with construction of the new museum began in October 2013.

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Zbigniew Wawer, director of the museum, explained that “the Katyn massacre will be presented both in the context of European and world history and politics, as well as from the perspective of individual men- certain officers and their families... We want to show not only the course of the massacre, but also how it came about.”

President Komorowski gave a speech at the ceremony, declaring “there is no such crime which will be forgotten. Every aggressive behaviour, every brutality, every crime in the name of personal, egoistical interests, will always sooner or later be revealed, will be discovered, taken and used against those who perpetrated it.”

Referring to the current situation to the east of Poland, he continued “we are ending a certain important step, which gains particular importance in a situation when it has become not entirely safe around Poland.”

The President added, “one of the most important foundations of a free Poland was the investigation of the truth about Katyn and the strengthening of remembrance about the Katyn massacre.”

The new Katyn Museum will be located within the Warsaw Citadel, a fortress built by the

Russian Empire following the failed Polish November Uprising of 1830 and originally designed to terrorize the city. It will have 26,000 objects recovered from the scene of the massacre and is expected to be opened on the 17th September 2015. (sl)

Source: Gazeta Wyborcza, PAP

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