There is an image of the Mother of God that is moving in its simplicity of expression. [It is] the sad face of the Savior's Mother, who is pressing to her breast the head of a Polish prisoner of war with a bullet hole through his skull.

Buzek refers to the image known as the Matka Boska Katyńska [Katyn Mother of God].

This [is] the symbol of the victory of love over hate—of hate, which took away the lives of the best sons of our nation, and of love, which will always rise above hate.

“Love demands sacrifice”—these words were the motto of Polish soldiers who fought sixty years ago for the independence of Poland, which they loved.

At Katyn, four and a half thousand soldiers' lives were thrown down on the altar of love for the Fatherland. It is difficult for us to cry for them today because we have no tears left, and our hands, clasped together for so long, are numb.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Many of us present here today were undoubtedly born in 1940. Seeing the inscription “Katyn 1940,” I also recall the year of my birth—when, at this time, in this forest, in this place, our fellow countrymen were thrown into open pits. We belong to the generation of the sons and daughters of these soldiers. Fate decreed that many of us, including myself, did not receive the bad news of the father who would not return home. Still, there is no deeper wound for all Poles than the one which remained unhealed for so long, regardless of whether or not our family members lie in this cemetery.

For Katyn was not only a terrible crime carried out under the majesty of Soviet law; it was also a lie; a lie repeated thousands of times, but one which, for all that, did not cease being a lie. The word “Katyn” will, for whole generations in Poland and in the whole world, signify genocide and a war crime.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are here today to say, “We remember, and we will remember.” For, as the poet said, “If we forget you—then You, O God, forget us.”

The quotation is from the Polish national poet, Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855). The precise wording is: “Jeśli zapomně o nich, Ty Boże na niebie, zapomnij o mnie” [If I forget about them, then You, God in Heaven, forget about me]; see Adam Mickiewicz, Dziela [Works], vol. 3 (Warsaw, 1995), p. 144 (translation by A. M. Cienciala). A. M. Cienciala would like to thank Professor Halina Filipowicz of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, for providing the reference.

From here, from this place, I wish to say in the name of the Polish Nation, that we will not rest until we know the names of all the citizens of the [Polish] Republic murdered by Soviet authorities and find their burial sites.

Buzek was referring to the prisoners shot in the jails of what is today western Belarus in spring 1940 and elsewhere in the USSR in 1939–1941. Many names and burial sites are unknown to this day. The names of the prisoners shot in the jails of western Ukraine at that time are known, but not the dates of executions and burial sites.

We are not doing this out of revenge but out of a feeling for justice.

In our tradition, life has its beginning and its end. Just as we feel joy at the birth of every human being, so every human being must be buried with dignity. Part of this tradition is also the concept of crime and punishment. The Katyn crime must be fully explained. There must also be a full accounting for it.

This is a reference to the Russian investigation of the 1940 massacres.

In this place I pay homage to all the people murdered and tortured to death at Katyn, as well as in the whole territory of the Soviet Union. Our pain is equal to yours.

I am thinking here of the Russians, who are hosting us in their land. I thank you, Russians, and all the other nations that experienced communism, for what you have done to memorialize the past and to settle accounts with it. Without your help and your goodwill we would not be here today; nor would we be at Mednoe and Kharkov.

The two other Polish war cemeteries opened in 2000.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I also wish to thank all those, who contributed over the years to uncovering the truth about the crime committed at Katyn, thanks to whom the Polish War Cemetery came to be opened today. Special thanks should go to the Russian Memorial [society], to its Coordinating Committee to Commemorate the Victims of Totalitarianism at Katyn and at Mednoe,

Memorial is the Russian organization that worked to uncover and publicize Stalinist crimes, including the executions at Katyn and Mednoe. It also published the work edited by A. Yu. Daniel, L. S. Eremina, T. I. Kasatkina, M. M. Koralov, and N. G. Okhot, Istoricheskiie Sborniki “Memoriala,” Repressii Protiv Poliakov i Polskikh Grazhdan [Historical Collections of “Memorial,” Repression of Poles and Polish Citizens] (Moscow, 1997). The name is short for the International Volunteer Public Organization “Memorial Historical, Educational, Human Rights and Charitable Society.”

and to the authorities of the Smolensk region, especially the governor, as well as the Russian journalists and scholars who uncovered the truth—often despite obstacles [presented] by fate.

This is a reference to the journalist Vladimir Abarinov and the historians Natalia Lebedeva, Valentina Parsadanova, and Yuri Zoria and to the obstacles they met in their search for the truth about Katyn.

I also thank the designers and builders of the Polish War Cemetery at Katyn and the Council for the Protection of the Memory of Combat and Martyrdom.

The Rada Ochrony Pamiěci Walk i Měczeństwa [Council for the Protection of the Memory of Combat and Martyrdom], at the Polish Academy of Sciences, was involved in financing the construction of the Polish cemeteries. It also subsidized the publication of the second Russian volume of Katyn documents (KD2), thanks especially to its general secretary, Andrzej Przewoźnik; see KD2, p. 10.

I turn again to the officers and soldiers of the Polish Army. You are the heirs of those who were murdered. Poles have always treated their army with the greatest respect and honor. I am convinced that this legacy passed on to you by your forebears, the officers murdered here, is important for you; a legacy that you will always protect.

I turn now to the Katyn Families. Among you are the widows of those murdered sixty years ago, as well as their closest relatives. I am convinced that none of us can fully understand the enormity of your suffering, the enormity of the misfortune that you had to live with for sixty years. But although these were not our relatives, they are family to us. For this is a fragment of our dramatic, tragic history in the twentieth century.

I would like to thank all of you, members of Katyn Families, for preserving the memory of that crime, from which we can learn.

The Katyn Families Association has a central organization as well as regional ones. Members lobby the Polish government to press the Russian government for an official apology for the crime and compensation for the victims' families. They pressed the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) to open an investigation, which it did on 30 November 2004. Above all, they work to preserve the memory of Katyn.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today we have the great chance to make history together without hatred and without lies. When our mutual teacher Jesus Christ was asked how many times a human being should forgive—he answered seventy-seven times. Here at Katyn we should remember these words and learn the difficult art of forgiveness.

I believe that the Polish War Cemetery at Katyn will become for us Poles and for people of other nationalities a place to visit, particularly the young generations. They will come here to see, remember, and forgive. Katyn, Mednoe, Kharkov. Together with Monte Cassino, Powăzki, Narvik, Tobruk—our national cemeteries—[they] are part of our national identity, the national identity of Poles.

Monte Cassino has a Polish war cemetery for those who perished in taking it from the Germans in May 1944, as well as for those who died later and wished to be buried there, including General Anders. Powăzki is the name commonly used for the main cemetery in Warsaw, located in the district of Powăzki; it has a military section as well as a section for famous Polish artists, scholars, statesmen, writers, and others. The Polish war cemeteries at Narvik, Norway, and Tobruk, North Africa, hold the bodies of Polish military men who died in those battles.

Here we left our national soul and our tragic national memory. We will draw from here faith, hope, and love.