The Remembrance Museum of the Land of Oświęcim Residents (MPMZO) cordially invites you to the conference titled “Victims of the Katyn Massacre from the Oświęcim Region”, which will take place on April 7, 2025 at 11:00 at the museum’s headquarters. The event will be dedicated to commemorating the residents and people associated with the Oświęcim area, who 85 years ago, in the spring of 1940, became victims of mass executions carried out on Polish officers by the NKVD on the orders of the highest authorities of the Soviet Union.
The Katyn Massacre is one of the most tragic episodes in Polish history. Following the decision of the members of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, including Joseph Stalin, on March 5, 1940, at the request of Lavrentiy Beria, over 21,000 Polish officers, police officers, civil service officials, and intellectuals were murdered. Among the victims there were also individuals associated with the Oświęcim region. The memory of this crime was falsified and concealed for decades by the Soviet authorities and the communist regime in Poland, remaining the victims in the shadow of oblivion. Only after the political transformation, thanks to many years of historical research, exhumations, and the partial opening of Russian archives, it became possible to gradually reveal the facts about those tragic events.
During the conference at MPMZO, lecturers will present various aspects of the Katyn Massacre – from its historical context, through the results of exhumation works from the 1990s, to the fate of victims of the murder associated with the Oświęcim region.
The conference program includes the following presentations:
“Katyn Massacre – The destruction of Polish elites” – a lecture by dr hab. Andrzej Synowiec, Professor at Jagiellonian University, researcher at the Institute of History.
“Polish exhumation works in Katyn” (a report from a research participant) – a lecture by PhD Dominik Abłamowicz, IPN in Katowice, The Office for Commemorating the Struggle and Martyrdom.
“Elites of the Oświęcim Region – Victims of the Katyn Massacre” – a lecture by PhD Marcin Krzek-Lubowiecki, IPN in Kraków, The Office for Commemorating the Struggle and Martyrdom.
“Police Constable Michał Ptaszkowski – Oświęcim Policeman, Victim of the Katyn Massacre” – a presentation by Jarosław Ptaszkowski, Katyn Families Association.
We cordially invite everyone interested in the history and commemoration of the victims of the Katyn Massacre to participate in the conference.
If you would like to participate, please register by phone: 33 447 40 84 and/or by e-mail: biuro@muzeumpamieci.pl.
The event will be broadcasted online.
