Minute's silence in Polish parliament for victims of 1940 Katyn massacre
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
11.04.2018 13:50
Poland’s lawmakers on Wednesday observed a minute's silence to pay respects to the victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre of Polish officers and intellectuals by the Soviets.
The lower house of Poland's parliament, the Sejm, in session on Wednesday. Photo: PAP/Jakub Kamiński
Exactly 75 years ago, on April 11, 1943, Germany's Transocean news service reported the discovery of mass graves of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk, western Russia.
Almost 22,000 Polish prisoners of war were killed in the spring of 1940 on orders from top Soviet authorities, according to Polish Radio’s IAR news agency.
Following the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, thousands of Polish officers were deported to camps in the Soviet Union.
POWs from camps in Kozelsk, Starobelsk and Ostashkov as well as Poles held in prisons run by the Soviet Union's NKVD secret police were among those murdered in April 1940.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR