Warsaw Katyn monument looking for new site
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
28.02.2012 15:01
A Warsaw monument to the 22,000 Polish victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre by Stalin’s security services has been removed from the centre of the capital after the land was sold.
photo - wikicommons
The original site now adjoins a beer garden in the summer months.
The Katyn memorial was first erected in 1998 in the immediate vicinity of the Royal Castle (at the corner of Senatorska Street and Castle Square). It was designed by noted sculptor Andrzej Renes.
The land changed hands in 2011 and the current owner insisted that the monument be removed by the end of February 2012.
According to Andrzej Melak, chairman of Poland's Katyn Committee, the monument will be unveiled once again on 13 April, following conservation.
The new location will be on the corner of Podwale Street and Castle Square, virtually opposite the old setting.
The inscription on the monument is dedicated “to the memory of Polish army officers murdered as a result of Soviet totalitarianism throughout the entire empire of evil.”
Some 22,500 Polish citizens were executed in the so-called Katyn Crime of 1940. The executions took place at various points across the Soviet Union. Over half of the victims were reserve army officers. (nh/pg)
Source: IAR