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Remembrance Ceremony in Kharkiv for Polish officers murdered by the NKVD

05.09.2009   

A memorial service [panykhyda] was held on 3 September at the Polish-Ukrainian Memorial in Kharkiv for the Polish officers shot in 1940. It marked the seventieth anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War in which Poland was the first to be invaded by the Nazis on 1 September 1939. Over 6 million Poles were killed in the War.

The Memorial marks the place where around four thousand Polish officers, shot in the basement of the Kharkiv NKVD, lie buried.

The memorial ceremony was attended by participants in the IX International Katyń motorcycle event organized by the Kharkiv Polish Consulate. The event was dedicated to the seventieth anniversary, with around 100 motorcyclists taking place. They began their journey on 1 August in Warsaw, and as well as Ukraine, will visit Russia, Belarus, Estonia and Lithuania. At each place they will take part in ceremonies at memorials and cemeteries where Polish officers and other Polish nationals are buried.

The Polish Consul in Kharkiv, pan Grzegorz Serochinski stressed that the Memorial in Kharkiv was a sacred place for Poland.

At the obelisk with the names of the Polish officers and the Memorial to the Victims of Totalitarianism from Kharkiv murdered in 1937-1938, white and red flowers with blue and yellow ribbons were laid, marking the colours of the Polish and Ukrainian flags.

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