The New Poland Express
“Katyn became a painful wound in Polish history, but also for many decades poisoned relations between Poles and Russians It is our duty to see that the wound of Katyn finally heals and scars over"
The Polish government has released the speech that their late President Lech Kaczynski was to give at the ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of World War II's Katyn massacre. President Kaczynski talked of Russia's attempts to heal the international wound left by the slaughter at the hands of the country's former Communist leaders.
Below is the full text of that undelivered speech.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In April 1940 over 21,000 Polish captives of the NKVD camps and prisons were murdered. This crime against humanity was carried out by the will of Stalin, on the orders of the highest rulers of the Soviet Union. The alliance of the Third Reich and the USSR, the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact and the invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939 came to a horrific conclusion in the Katyn genocide.
Not only in the forests of Katyn, but also in Tver, Kharkov and in other killing fields, known or unknown, the citizens of the Second Republic were murdered, the people who laid the foundations of our nationhood, people who were indomitable in the service of their homeland. At the same time the families of those murdered and the thousands of residents created a Golgotha of the East for the Polish nation.
The most tragic station of that journey was Katyn. Polish officers, clergy, bureaucrats, police officers, border guards and prison officers were wiped out without trials or sentencing. They were victims of an undeclared war. They were murdered in a breach of the laws and conventions of the civilized world.
Their dignity as soldiers, Poles and human beings was trampled on. These death mounds were meant to cover, for all time, the bodies of the murdered and the truth about this crime.
The world was never meant to find out. The families of the victims were denied the right to public mourning, to weep for their loved ones and dignify their memory. The soil covered the traces of the crime, and lies were intended to erase them from human memory.
Hiding the truth about Katyn – an effect of the decisions of those that brought the crime about – became a cornerstone of the policies of the communists in post-war Poland: the founding lie of the Polish Peoples Republic. It was a time when you could pay a high price for remembering the truth about Katyn. Yet those close to those murdered, and other brave people steadfastly held that truth, defended.
Yet those close to those murdered, and other brave people steadfastly held that truth, defended it and passed it on to following generations of Poles. They bore it through the period of communist governments and entrusted it to their countrymen in a free, independent Poland.
That is why we owe them all, especially the Katyń Families, a debt of respect and gratitude. In the name of the Polish Republic I offer my deepest gratitude that in defending the memory of your loved ones you preserved such an important dimension of our Polish consciousness and identity for the nation.
Katyń became a painful wound in Polish history, but also for many decades poisoned relations between Poles and Russians. It is our duty to see that the wound of Katyn finally heals and scars over. We are already on that path. We, Poland, appreciate the efforts of Russia in recent years. This path, which is bringing our two nations together, needs to be walked further, neither stopping along it, nor retracing our steps.
All the circumstances of the crime of Katyn must be fully researched and explained. It is important to legally confirm the innocence of the victims, to reveal all the documents related to this crime, so that the lie of Katyn may disappear from the public sphere for all time. We demand this above all on account of the memory of the victims and out of respect for the suffering of their families. But we also demand it in the name of the shared values which must form the foundations of trust and partnership between neighbouring countries throughout Europe.
Together we honour those who were murdered and pray above them. Praise to the heroes! Honour to their memory!
