A simple memorial to the Katyn massacre

[Gunny Hartmann]

Krakow 236.jpgKrakow 235.jpg
Situated at the end of Grodzka street in Krakow!...

[SteveR]

Far to simple for the thousands murdered by Stalin.

[Wagriff]

Bykivnia, Piatykhatky, Kurapaty, Mednoye....all were scenes of enormous mass graves of thousands of murdered Poles(and Others they included as well) by the Soviets...and yet, sadly, Katyn is the only name a person ever seems to hear. Some of these gigantic grave sites dwarf Katyn in sheer numbers and size entirely. One wonders just how Many mass grave sites are located throughout the whole of Europe and just how many souls they contain. The numbers must be staggering.

[TrondK]

Far to simple for the thousands murdered by Stalin.

Not to get political, but we all know that if it was the germans who did ut, there would most likely have been big monuments to remember this horrible event in history.

Thats the way it is, some can do evil acts of warcrimes and get away with it, while other criminals get punished.

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((( No no no, there is no reason to attack my post or me just because i write acouple of lines against Stalin and the evil acts done by his henchmen )))

[Gunny Hartmann]

Notice it was erected in 1990 just after the fall of communism in Poland!...

[StefanM]

Maybe one difference was that Germany (West) wanted to be "rehabilitated" with the rest of Western Europe after WWII as much as the West wanted them back in the fold so acts of contrition such as building monuments, repatriations to the victims of the Holocaust, slave labourers, and various national banks were all part of the rehabilitation process.

Stalin and the Soviets sought nothing from the West, other than its destruction so had no need to erect monuments for its own crimes against humanity.

However how many other nations apart from Germany have erected monuments for the victims of its own crimes against humanity? It doesn't work like that unless the party wants something in return.

Katyń is remembered more for a number of reasons. Firstly because the forest massacre grave discovery and announcement in 1943 was used by the German's in a worldwide propaganda campaign against the Soviets. "Zbrodnia katyńska" also became a symbol for the years of cover-up of the crime by Poland's former allies in the US and Great Britain especially in the Polish emigre community and the Polish government in exile based in London. It was forbidden to discuss Katyń as a Soviet crime in communist Poland so it therefore became a symbol of resistance and martyrdom for the Polish independentist groups in Poland. "Katyń" was used extensively in the propaganda pieces produced by Poles in the West against the communist regime in Poland as well as by the Solidarity movement within Poland during the 1980's. Katyń memorials in Poland are post-communist and commemorate the victims of the massacre as well as being symbols of Polish resistance and the perceived betrayal by its allies.

For Poles, Katyń is still an unhealed wound in its relations with Russia.

[Gary J]

I think it might be best to close this thread before "we" all go down the expected path of "who did what to who".

With Respect.

Gary J.