Nine years ago, in tragic circumstances, in a plane crash in Smolensk, we lost the best president of free Poland.

The late Lech Kaczyński, along with his wife and a government delegation, flew to pay homage to the Polish officers murdered 70 years earlier.

We would like to take this opportunity to recall a fragment of a speech which Lech Kaczyński was supposed to give in Katyń, at the site of the massacre of tens of thousands of Polish officers carried out by Soviet oppressors in 1940:

That was 70 years ago. They were killed - previously restrained - with a shot in the back of their heads. So that there would be little blood. Later – still with eagles on the buttons of their uniforms - they were put in deep pits. Here, in Katyn, there were 4400 such deaths. In Katyn, Kharkiv, Tver, Kiev, Kherson and Minsk - 21,768 in total.

The murdered were Polish citizens, people of various faiths and professions; military, police and civilians. They include generals and ordinary policemen, professors and rural teachers. There are military chaplains of various denominations: Catholic priests, Chief Rabbi of the Polish Army, Chief Greek Catholic Chaplain and Chief Orthodox Chaplain. All these crimes - committed in several places - are symbolically called the Katyn Massacre. They are linked by the citizenship of the victims and the same decision of the same perpetrators. The crime was committed by Stalin, on the order of the highest authorities of the Soviet Union: Political Bureau of the WKP(b). The decision was taken on March 5, 1940, at the request of Lavrentiy Beria: Shoot them! In the justification of the motion we read: they are unregenerate, showing no promise for improvement enemies of the Soviet authorities.

These people were killed without trials or sentences. They were murdered in violation of the laws and conventions of the civilised world. What is the death of tens of thousands of people - citizens of the Republic of Poland - without a court of law? If this is not genocide, what is it then? We are asking and we will never stop asking: why? Historians point to the criminal mechanisms of communist totalitarianism. Some of its victims lie right next door, also in the Katyn forest. These are thousands of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and people of other nations. However, the source of the crime is also the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which led to the fourth partition of Poland. These are Stalin’s imperial, chauvinistic intentions.

(…)

Let us recall: it was us, Poles, who were the first to oppose Hitler’s army in an armed manner. It was us who fought the Nazi Germans from the beginning to the end of the war. (…)

In May 1945, the Third Reich lost the war. Nazi totalitarianism collapses. Soon we will celebrate the 65th anniversary of this event. For our nation, however, it was a bitter, incomplete victory. We were in the sphere of influence of Stalin and totalitarian communism. After 1945, Poland exists, but without independence. With an imposed regime. There are also attempts to falsify our memory of Polish history and Polish identity.

An important part of this attempt at forgery was the Katyń lie. It is even called by historians a founding lie of the People’s Republic of Poland. It has been in force since 1943, when Stalin broke off his relations with the Polish government. The world was never to know. The families of the victims were deprived of the right to public mourning, to weep for and to commemorate their loved ones with dignity.

(…)

Katyń and the Katyń lie became a painful wound to Polish history, but also poisoned relations between Poles and Russians for many decades. It is impossible to build lasting relations on a lie. Lies divide people and nations. They bring hatred and anger. That is why we need the truth. The rationale is not evenly distributed; those who fight for freedom are right. We Christians know this well: the truth, even the most painful one, liberates. It connects. It brings justice. It shows the way to reconciliation.

(….)

The tragedy of Katyn and the fight against the Katyn lie is an important experience for the next generations of Poles. It is a part of our history. Our memory and our identity. However, it is also a part of the history of the whole of Europe and the whole world. It is a message that concerns every human being and every nation. It concerns both the past and the future of human civilization. The Katyn Massacre will always be a reminder of the threat of enslavement and destruction of people and nations. The power of lies. However, it will also bear witness to the fact that people and nations are able - even in the most difficult times - to choose freedom and defend the truth.

Let us all pay tribute to the murdered ones: let us pray at their graves. Honor and glory to the heroes! Hail their memory!

Tłum. K.J.