Evil, which was the source of this crime, is still lurking around us – said Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Sunday during the central celebrations commemorating the 85th anniversary of the Katyn massacre. He added that this evil threatens the peace, “what we feel every month more and more severely in Poland and Europe.”
On April 13, the Memorial Day of the Victims of the Katyn massacre is celebrated. On Sunday in Warsaw, a central celebration took place commemorating the 85th anniversary of the Katyn massacre. This year's celebrations with the participation of Katyn and Police families and representatives of state authorities began in the field of the Polish Army, where a mass was celebrated for the victims of the Katyn massacre and their families.
Then the celebrations were moved to the Katyn Museum. There, a solemn appeal of memory combined with official speeches was made. The celebrations at the museum were attended by, among others Prime Minister Donald Tusk, head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland Małgorzata Paprocka and Senate Deputy Marshal Rafał Grupiński representing the Senate Marshal of the Republic of Poland Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska.
During his speech, the prime minister emphasized that there was a lack of definition to understand the enormity and senselessness of the Katyn massacre. “We are never able to accept the triumph of evil. We are never able to accept the fact that victims, those who serve a good cause, can be powerless (…) but today we cannot remain silent” – he said. Donald Tusk pointed out that the victim of 22,000 elite of the Polish nation is not only a screaming history lesson, but also a lesson that we must listen to today with particular sensitivity.
“Although that evil was defeated. (…) But the evil, which was the source of this crime, is still lurking around us” – he said. “Palm Sunday. A moment ago the mass ended. In the city, the sums a few hours ago fell on the praying women, children, men, men, men, men, men, on the streets of this city, are corpse,” he continued. He added that “just like for centuries, this evil threatens today.” “It threatens our neighbors, threatens the peace, which we feel every month more and more severely in Poland and Europe,” said the prime minister.
Tusk, speaking to those present during the celebrations, said that they are together not only to remember, but also to warn “ourselves, the whole world and future generations (…) – one cannot be powerless towards evil, you cannot be powerless towards lies, you cannot be powerless towards aggression.”
The prime minister noted that his generation remembers history lessons, during which young people were taught a false version. He quoted the story “what thousands were” when the students asked the teacher of history if it was true that the Russians murdered Poles in Katyn. “She paled and began to ask us to stop, because either us or throw her out of school” – he added.
“Everyone has it in our experience, how omnipotent was a lie, how a lie can paralyze. (…) If we are talking about a Katyn lesson, we must speak with full conviction, faith, determination that we will never succumb to a lie, that we will not give up any lying propaganda that we will never be weaker from evil, that we will never go to evil.”
As the head of government said, when we see paintings from Ukraine today, even if the whole world pretended, we will not pretend, “where the evil is where the torturer is, where the executioner is, and where is the sacrifice, where there is justice and where is good.” “It is necessary to promise those who gave their lives that Poland will never be lonely in confrontation – if it comes – with evil, with a lie, with injustice. And that we will not be naive” – said Prime Minister Tusk. “We will never be weak,” he added.
“Nobody who raises his hand to Poland will be able to do it with impunity. (…) Nobody will be able to say in the world or around our borders: +Yes, we will go to Poland, it is powerless, it is lonely +” – emphasized the prime minister, talking about soldiers and policemen participating in the celebration.
The prime minister said that as a nation “we make gigantic efforts so that no such crime would happen again, so that Poles would never be powerless victims.” He pointed out the threats that we must now fight: lie, meanness, disinformation and enemy of propaganda, which – as he noted – flows every day, every hour from the east.
The head of the Chancellery of President Małgorzata Paprocka read on behalf of President Andrzej Duda a letter, in which it was indicated that “the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Katyn massacre unites us, Poles, in reflection on the price of freedom.” “It reminds that the Independent Polish State – a common house in which we cultivate our culture, traditions and values in which we freely realize our aspirations and dreams – is a priceless good that we have to take care of every day. It warns that the sovereign Rzeczpospolita as an idea, as a distance Empire, “she continued.
“This army of shadows also stands at the side of the Soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland, who continue the most convenient traditions of the Polish weapons. He guards the values and symbols of the most expensive to us. Her silent testimony penetrates deeply, prompts you to sacrificing work for security, wealth and development of the Commonwealth” – wrote in the letter.
The president of the Federation of Katyn Families Izabella Sariusz-Sarvska in her speech pointed out that “now we should be in the Katyn forest and below the epitaph plates to lay flowers brought from the Krakow market.” “We should now follow a black path, through which the cemetery of victims of totalitarianism is crossed. In Kharkov, where Poles and Ukrainians rest under stone mounds,” she continued.
As she emphasized, “Russian shells fall on Kharkiv, no different from those Soviet balls that killed our loved ones.” “Russian drones are flying over Kiev and death again. The Katyn cemetery divides the fate of the living, contemporary victims of unprecedented Russian aggression in a civilized world” – summed up Sarius -Skale.
The celebrations at the Katyn Museum ended with a ceremonial ceremony of wreaths in the museum epitaph, which commemorates the victims of the Katyn massacre.
The office of veterans and repressed persons, the Federation of Katyn families and the Polish Army Museum together with the Katyn Museum, was responsible for organizing the celebrations in the capital. The event was covered by the honorary patronage of the Prime Minister, Vice President of the Council of Ministers of the Minister of National Defense and the Minister of the Interior and Administration.
The Sejm of the Republic of Poland established 2025 with the Year of Polish Heroes from Katyn, Kharkov, Miednoje, Bykownia and other places. This year we also celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Uprising of the Katyn cemeteries.
In the spring of 1940, the Soviet NKVD killed nearly 22,000 Polish citizens, including 14.5 thousand prisoners of war – officers of active service and reserve, police officers, border guard officers, KOP, prison guard – from camps in Kozielsk, Starobielsk and Ostaszków and 7.3 thousand. prisoners arrested in the eastern part of Poland occupied by the USSR. Prisoners from the Kozielski camp were shot in Katyn, those from Starobielsk – in Kharkov, while policemen from Ostaszków – in Kalinin (today's Tver, buried in Miednoje). Executions of prisoners were carried out in prisons in Minsk, Kiev, Kharkov and Kherson. (PAP)
Maku/ Akar/ AMK/ KSC/ MHR/
