Polish War Cemetery in Katyn

The world beca­me fami­liar with the infa­mo­us name ‘Katyn’ on 13 April 1943, when the Ger­mans anno­un­ced the disco­ve­ry of mass gra­ves in the ter­ri­to­ries they occu­pied near Smo­lensk. The con­di­tion of the rema­ins, as well as the docu­ments and let­ters found, allo­wed to iden­ti­fy the vic­tims as Polish pri­so­ners of war from the NKVD spe­cial camp in Kozelsk. Spe­cia­li­sts from the Ger­man-appo­in­ted Inter­na­tio­nal Medi­cal Commission/ Inter­na­tio­nal Katyn Commission/Katyn Com­mi­sion and the Tech­ni­cal Com­mis­sion of the Polish Red Cross deter­mi­ned the time of death to be the spring of 1940, which une­qu­ivo­cal­ly pro­ved that the mas­sa­cre was com­mit­ted by the Soviets. In respon­se, Sta­lin shi­fted the bla­me onto the Nazis. The seve­ran­ce of diplo­ma­tic rela­tions with the Polish govern­ment-in-exi­le in Lon­don, the balan­ce of power among the Allies, and the post-war divi­sion of the world, with the USSR sub­ju­ga­ting part of Euro­pe, all for­med the foun­da­tion of the Katyn Lie – a nar­ra­ti­ve hol­ding that the Katyn mas­sa­cre was com­mit­ted by the Nazis. On 13 April 1990, the Soviet Union admit­ted respon­si­bi­li­ty for the Katyn mas­sa­cre.

After the Ger­man exhu­ma­tions in 1943 and the inve­sti­ga­tions of the Soviet Bur­den­ko Com­mis­sion, which aimed to fabri­ca­te the evi­den­ce of the Ger­man invo­lve­ment in the mas­sa­cre, the­re rema­ined ano­ny­mo­us mass gra­ves in the Katyn Forest. Over the deca­des, vario­us ‘memo­rials’ have appe­ared the­re, per­pe­tu­ating a lie abo­ut the ‘Nazi cri­me’. The asso­cia­tions of the Katyn Fami­lies, esta­bli­shed in 1989, stri­ved to build ceme­te­ries in the pla­ces of the burial of the­ir loved ones. In the 1990s, Polish teams of spe­cia­li­sts car­ried out field work and exhu­ma­tions, pre­pa­ring the site for the ceme­te­ries. The team in the Katyn Forest was led by Pro­fes­sor Marian Gło­sek (Insti­tu­te of Archa­eolo­gy of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Łódź; Insti­tu­te of Archa­eolo­gy and Eth­no­lo­gy of the Polish Aca­de­my of Scien­ces).

An archi­tec­tu­ral pro­ject for the ceme­te­ry was selec­ted in a com­pe­ti­tion. The authors of the win­ning entry were Zdzi­sław Pidek, Andrzej Soły­ga, Wie­sław and Jacek Syna­kie­wicz, and Leszek Wit­kow­ski. The imple­men­ta­tion pro­ject was pre­pa­red by Zdzi­sław Pidek and Andrzej Soły­ga. The ear­th­works and con­struc­tion works were car­ried out by Polish com­pa­nies: Budi­mex S.A. and Ener­go­tech­ni­ka Sp. z o.o. from Knu­rów, whi­le the sculp­tu­ral ele­ments, as well as the­ir deli­ve­ry and instal­la­tion, were pre­pa­red by a con­sor­tium of Budi­mex S.A. and Meta­lo­dlew S.A. from Kra­ków. The bell was cast by Odlew­nia Dzwo­nów Janusz Fel­czyń­ski i S‑ka from Prze­myśl.

Accor­ding to the con­cep­tu­al guide­li­nes, deve­lo­ped by the Rada Ochro­ny Pamię­ci Walk i Męczeń­stwa (Coun­cil for the Pro­tec­tion of Strug­gle and Mar­tyr­dom Sites, which was the com­mis­sio­ner of this pro­ject), on each ceme­te­ry we see simi­lar ele­ments, illu­stra­ting a cohe­rent mes­sa­ge. The main mate­rial is cast iron, cho­sen for its dura­bi­li­ty.

The cor­ner­sto­ne was laid on 4 June 1995, and the ceme­te­ry was ope­ned on 28 July 2000.

When ente­ring the Polish War Ceme­te­ry in Katyn, we see pylons bearing Polish mili­ta­ry eagles and the cros­ses of the Vir­tu­ti Mili­ta­ri, as well as the 1939 Sep­tem­ber Cam­pa­ign, which were destroy­ed by the Rus­sians in 2025. The outli­ne of the ceme­te­ry is mar­ked by a wall with epi­taph pla­qu­es: name, sur­na­me, date and pla­ce of birth, mili­ta­ry rank, pro­fes­sion or offi­cial posi­tion. An ele­ment com­mon to all the pla­qu­es is the date of death: 1940. In the Katyn Forest, the natu­ral height dif­fe­ren­ce of the ter­ra­in was used so that tho­se wal­king the path along the wall feel as if they were below gro­und level.

Fur­ther on, among the tre­es, the cast iron pla­qu­es cover the death pits. This is whe­re Polish pri­so­ners of war died and were ori­gi­nal­ly buried. The rema­ins reco­ve­red by the Polish teams of spe­cia­li­sts now rest in the com­mon gra­ves at the cen­tre of the ceme­te­ry. The only excep­tions are the indi­vi­du­al gra­ves of the gene­rals Mie­czy­sław Smo­ra­wiń­ski and Bro­ni­sław Boha­te­re­wicz, who were iden­ti­fied as ear­ly as in 1943.

On one side of the cen­tral squ­are stands the Gate of Remem­bran­ce, on which the names and sur­na­mes of all the vic­tims are listed in alpha­be­ti­cal order. This gate opens as on the mor­ning of the Resur­rec­tion, with the cross visi­ble in the back­gro­und. A bell tol­ling for the dead was hung in the under­gro­und niche and inscri­bed with the ver­ses from Bogu­ro­dzi­ca [Mother of God]. In front of the gate stands the Meeting Table, whe­re visi­tors can gather and the litur­gy is per­for­med during the com­me­mo­ra­tion cere­mo­nies. On the axis, on the oppo­si­te side of the Gate, the­re are sym­bols of reli­gions pro­fes­sed by the citi­zens of the Second Polish Repu­blic who rest here: the cros­ses of Eastern and Western Chur­ches, the Star of David, and the Isla­mic Cre­scent and Star.

Bey­ond the wall of the Polish ceme­te­ry lies Gra­ve No. 8, and the unco­un­ted and une­xplo­red name­less gra­ves of the Rus­sians, who died here during Sta­li­nist pur­ges in the 1930s.

Infor­ma­tion abo­ut the vic­tims can be found in the edi­ted volu­me Katyń. Księ­ga Cmen­tar­na Pol­skie­go Cmen­ta­rza Wojen­ne­go [Katyn. The Ceme­te­ry Book of the Polish War Ceme­te­ry], publi­shed by the Rada Ochro­ny Pamię­ci Walk i Męczeń­stwa (Coun­cil for the Pro­tec­tion of Strug­gle and Mar­tyr­dom Sites) in the year 2000.

More infor­ma­tion abo­ut the esta­bli­sh­ment of the ceme­te­ry in Katyn can be found in the sec­tions TIMELINE and RECOLLECTIONS.

Text pre­pa­red by Iza­bel­la Sariusz-Skąp­ska
Trans­la­ted by Ilias Sta­nek­zai