Opening of the exhibition entitled “The Katyń Crime 1940. The extermination of Polish elites" began present in Lublin celebrating the 86th anniversary of this crime. In the spring of 1940 the NKVD in Katyn and another places murdered about 22 1000 Polish citizens.
– This exhibition will remind you of this crime [...], due to the fact that the memory of those 22 1000 Polish citizens who were murdered must last forever – said the president of the Katyń household Association in Lublin Danuta Malonowa during the beginning ceremony of the exhibition.
"The Katyn Crime 1940. The extermination of Polish elites” prepared by the Institute of National Memory consists of 15 boards, set on Jan Kochanowski Square. The boards depict the genesis of the crime, among others, the russian assault on Poland of 17 September 1939, the imprisonment of Polish officers in prisons and NKVD camps, the decision of 5 March 1940 to shoot prisoners of war. The mechanics of crime has besides been described, and executioners and their statements have been shown.
A separate plan was devoted to the past of concealing the crime by russian authorities, the search for missing Polish officers, the circumstances of revealing the fact about the execution and carried out exhumations, as well as the Katyn lie – i.e. the propaganda of Russians throwing work for the crime on Germans. The portraits of any victims, fragments of their journals and letters were besides presented, as well as the fight to commemorate them.
The manager of the IPN branch in Lublin Robert Derewenda emphasized that the Katyn crime was not only a execution on Polish officers and Polish intelligence, but besides a lie about it imposed by the then authority.
– Katyn lie lay at the base of the full communist system, which was imposed on Poland after planet War II. [...] The discussions on Katyn alone threatened various types of harassment and repression [...]. Until the end of the Polish People's Republic, this lie was kept," he said.
He stressed that Poles nevertheless kept the fact about Katyn, among others, in the household memory, so that now the awareness of Russian work for the crime is common.
The exhibition entitled “The Katyń Crime 1940. The demolition of Polish elites will be available until 8 May.
APW, PAP
