https://www2.polskieradio.pl/eo/dokument.aspx?iid=80251&fbclid=IwAR04upLelY8mNdMoCtoI0JreOLYYjrT6N6r6re39mEXe4iNMk-5-TjhRhhg
The Lower House has established 13 April last year as the Day of Remembrance of the Katyn Massacre Victims in Poland. The main celebrations took place in Warsaw, but masses in memory of the over 20,000 Polish officers murdered by Stalin's NKVD, were held in churches throughout the country.
Agnieszka Bielawska reports
13 April 1943 was the day when the world learned about the Katyn massacre. On that day, Radio Berlin broadcast the news of the discovery of mass graves of Polish officers. On Stalin's orders, some 22,000 Polish officers were killed in the forests of Katyn and Miednoye on 5 March 1943.
For years, the crime had been attributed to Nazi Germany, and it was only in 1990 that the authorities of the Soviet Union admitted to the killing being committed by the NKVD.
Witold Wasilewski, from the Institute of National Remembrance:
'This decision was made by not only Stalin by also by Molotov, former prime minister of Soviet Union and also Mikhail Kalinin who was, we can say, Soviet president. The aim was clear, Stalin and the Soviets started eliminating Polish high society, after they divided Poland with Hitler. They wanted to destroy the Polish nation in the eastern part of Poland after the so-called Ribbentrop Molotov Pact.'
During the mass celebrated in Warsaw by the field chaplain of the Polish Armed forces, Bishop Tadeusz Ploski said that the memory of Katyn should be cherished for many reasons:
'Katyn is not only a terrifying crime performed on the authority of Soviet law. It is also a lie, a lie repeated for thousands of times. For generations and for the world over, Katyn should remain as the sign of genocide.'
But the fact that in 1992 Soviet President Boris Yeltsin decided to reveal certain documents about the Katyn massacre, does not imply that Russia agreed to admit the crime being genocide. Historian Wojciech Roszkowski argues that judging by international regulations the 1943 massacre cannot be called otherwise.
'It fits the definition of genocide as formulated by the UN resolution of 1948, in which not only execution killing of a special category of people but also maltreatment or massacre of people belonging to to a certain, defined category of people is genocide. These were Polish officers, Polish policemen and other people belonging to the ruling elite of inter war Poland, these people were not interrogated, not tried. This is exactly genocide according to the UN definition.’
The ceremonies in Warsaw were a very touching event, apart from official delegations they were attended by families of the Katyn victims. One major moment of the day was the burial of a skull of Major Ludwik Szymanski, one of the officers murdered in Katyn. The skull was brought to a forensic institute in Copenhagen in 1943 by dr. Helge Tramsen, who took part in the international commission investigating the Katyn forest massacre.
It now was brought to Poland and in line with the wish of the major's son left to rest in the chapel of the Field Cathedral in Warsaw. Deeply moved the major's son said that that he hoped we are allowed to forgive, but God help us not forget the crime.
Witold Wasilewski underlines that the establishing of the Katyn Day in the Polish calendar is a tribute to the victims, but also a lesson to the future generations.
'It is important to say that during the communist rule in Poland we knew only the untrue version, only lies about Katyn were heard. That it was done by the Nazis, was common especially in the first period of communist rule and next it was the strategy of silence. Communist officials wanted to cancel from Polish minds this part of history. Now we have such day of remembrance and it is very important.'