News
Unveiling and blessing of Monument to the Victims of the Katyn Massacre
On Sunday, 25 April, a ceremony of unveiling and blessing of a Katyn Monument took place in the area by the church of Blessed Czeslaw Parish in Opole at Józef Hallera Street. The consecration act was performed by the parish priest and also chaplain of the Katyn Family Association in Opole, Father Rafał Bałamucki. Our Museum was represented by the deputy director, Dr. Renata Kobylarz-Buła.
The initiative to build the commemorative monument was taken in 2019 by the Katyń Family Association in Opole, which is headed by Urszula Gawor (one of the heroines of the last instalment of "Łambinowice Museum Meetings"). Besides the "Golgotha of the East" at the Communal Cemetery, it is the second site of remembrance of the victims of the Katyń Massacre committed by the NKVD in 1940, in the capital of the voivodeship but now dedicated exclusively to them.
The monument is made up of four stone tablets with the names of prisoners-of-war camps and execution places in the former USRR, and a cross featuring the Katyń Mather of God designed by the late priest Zdzisław Peszkowski, prisoner of war in the Kozielsk camp himself, who for years was the chaplain of the Katyń Families and a honorary citizen of Opole. Profesor Bogusław Szuba is the author of the monument.
The ceremony was held under the patronage of Arkadiusz Wiśniewski, Mayor of Opole. The organization of the event was supported by the Opole Branch of the Institute of National Remembrance.
