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Exactly 47 years passed between Radio Berlin's announcement of the discovery of the bodies of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest, shot by the NKVD, and the confirmation of this fact by the Soviet Union. Both, this first announcement in 1943 and the second one in 1990, took place on 13 April. To commemorate these events, the Polish Parliament (in 2007) established 13 April as the National Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Katyn Massacre.

Let us remind that in the spring 1940, following a political order of the top political leadership of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, the NKVD committed a massacre of about 22 thousand of Poles. By this order, were killed 14,5 thousand of prisoners-of-war, mainly officers of the Polish Army and the State Police housed in the camps in Kozielsk, Starobielsk and Ostaszków, and 7,3 thousand of those who were detained in the prisons of western Belarus and Ukraine.

Due to the pandemic, this year's commemoration of the so-called Katyn Massacre could not be hold in the traditional form – in Opole it was usually held in front of the Cross of Eastern Golgotha at the municipal cemetery. However, this does not mean that veteran circles limit themselves only to virtual acts of remembrance. The Association "Katyń Family" in Opole is currently finalizing the construction of a monument commemorating Poles murdered by the NKVD. Its unveiling is scheduled for 25 April in front of the Church of Blessed Czesław Odrowąż.