We decided to write about our visit to the Katyn Museum after several people expressed increased interest in it following our post on dark tourism memorial sites and museums in Warsaw. It was encouraging to see such interest in the Katyn Museum – and massacre for which it is named – because we believe it to be an important part of history.
Our visit to the museum occurred on a particularly gruelling day. We planned to fit in several dark tourism sites, with some Warsaw street art viewing (for me) and reading (for Dagney) planned for the late afternoon to balance the overall mood. And I’m glad we did, as the day took an emotional and physical toll on both of us.
We had started our morning with a double bill of wartime internment: the Pawiak Prison, followed by the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom. While by no means upbeat experiences, my predominant feeling of those former prisons was chilling. The Katyn Museum, however, merely made me feel sad.
You might think that would be a strong deterrent against travelling to dark tourism sites such as these. But far from it. These feelings are, in my mind, valuable side effects of empathy.
And fully justified, as they were brought about through learning.
Why You should visit the Katyn Museum
Pretty much everyone’s heard of the Holocaust. Right? When you’re talking about World War II, it’s one of the first things that comes to mind. It’s one of, if not arguably the most horrific war crimes in history, notorious in its scale and its inhumanity.
However, one side-effect of the enormity of the Holocaust is that it often distracts from the many other tragic events of the time. When six million Jews are being slaughtered it does tend to distract the historical eye. Often times this leads to other contemporary brutal events being obscured, devalued, or forgotten about completely.
But they still happened; they are no less evil, and they too deserve to be remembered. Like the erasure of the town of Lidice, or the lesser-known forced labour camp in Schöneweide, they provide insight into the bigger picture of the war, and a better understanding of the whole ordeal.
The Katyn Massacre – A Brief History
The Katyn Museum was created with this ethos in mind. It documents the events of the Katyn Massacre – a movement designed to rid the Polish people of an autonomous future. In the spring of 1940, the Soviets executed 22,000 Polish citizens in a series of mass shootings across a number of locations.
(I am a little amazed that this has been largely forgotten outside of the Polish/Jewish communities. There are several Katyn memorial sites across the globe. Even Dagney knew nothing about it before this, and she’s been studying WW2 history since she was a kid!)
In 1939, following the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany on September 1st, the Soviet Union began its own insurgency two weeks later. In the coming months, the Soviet forces captured and imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens. Many were interned in camps run by the Soviet secret police (NKVD).
On March 5th 1940, Joseph Stalin signed an order intended to weaken the Polish military and deprive the country of its intellectual talent. By eliminating the intelligentsia, he “reasoned”, the Polish people would be less of a potential future threat to the Soviet Union.
As such, beginning on April 4th 1940, 22,000 Polish citizens were executed at various Soviet sites, including Katyn forest in Russia. Around 14,000 were soldiers or police officers. The rest were educated civilians who were deemed to be dangerous nationalists and counterrevolutionaries.
This was the Katyn Massacre. Its name was derived from the Katyn forest, where the first mass graves resulting from the massacre were discovered. The Katyn Museum is a memorial to the victims of that time.
The Katyn Museum: A thematic design
The museum is built into part of the southern wall of the Warsaw Citadel, a 19th century former stronghold. The main entrance still resembles a military base. A long, slow incline takes you towards a set of large wooden doors built into a brick wall. The effect is a little intimidating, but then it did used to be a military fortress.
Once inside, however, you are greeted by rows of trees rather than soldiers. Visitors are led along a symbolic trail, meant to represent the road the victims followed to their doom. The whole complex has a very high-concept design.
At the centre of a former parade ground lies a carefully designed copse of trees. The path deliberately threads through it, giving you a short sense of tranquility and oneness with nature. I found it very effective and moving, but it would not be the most humanising part of our visit.
Once through, the path takes you into the first main exhibits, built into the underground spaces of the Citadel. Again, you are given a connection to those who died at the hands of the NKVD. Ghostly silhouettes of walking figures accompany you down towards the exhibits.
Here begins the second notable aspect of the Katyn Museum: it contains vast amounts of information on the subject.
Books, clothes, manuscripts, photographs and biographies of victims, the amount of artefacts accumulated is phenomenal. While there is some information that is only provided in Polish, there are English audio guides available. They too are extensive, and could have kept us occupied for hours on their own!
The trail continues through vaulted rooms and loops back around to lead you seemingly back out the way you came in. But instead you are directed into an elevator, which takes you down into the third and most emotionally hard-hitting area of the museum.
The physical human connection
Further underground, the final area contains several large display cases. Each one is made of dozens of small, amber coloured cubes about 6” across. Inside each of them is an item taken from the body of a victim unearthed from the mass graves of the Katyn massacre. Each container represents a different person, and it really hammers home the scale of the crime committed.
The objects are all everyday items (earrings, jewellery, a comb, a photograph) but they help to connect with the former owners in a deeply personal way. The relatability of the collection is incredibly strong. I found myself putting my hands into my own pockets. “If I was led away to be executed now, what would they find on me?” I wondered. What would it say about me? Would someone in the future find themselves connected to me through my phone case? My glasses? My camera’s lens cover?
I was struck by the weight of lost knowledge. These trinkets each show us just a glimpse of each victim, but there’s so much that’s been lost. So much we’ll never know about those taken away to die, many of whom remain unidentified.
But we can connect to a part of them, at least, and relate to them as people, rather than statistics.
Such a simple way to put yourself in the shoes of those the museum is commemorating.
The trail leads ever on …
The final section of the trail leads you outside again, around the edge of the Citadel grounds and back to the entrance. After the museum, it is an excellent time to take stock of everything experienced and learned.
Towards the end, there is a final exhibition room. One item that drew my eye was the scale replica of the ‘Monument to the Fallen and Murdered in the East’. The original also lies in Warsaw, near to the Romualda Traugutta park, a short walk south of the Katyn Museum. While it is a memorial for many, it is often associated with the Katyn Massacre, and referred to informally as the Katyn Memorial.
Its symbolism is powerful: a wagon of crosses being led inevitably to their doom along a track. But for some reason I found it more moving as a smaller version. It almost seemed like a toy train, reflecting the innocence of those killed in the executions. A powerful lesson indeed.
Related: The East Grinstead Museum commemorates another relatively unknown WWII story
How to get to the Katyn Museum
The Katyn Museum is located at Jana Jezioranskiego 4, Warsaw 99-200, (Poland). The Park Traugutta 04 metro stop is practically outside (just walk down to the road beneath the bridge), and can be reached on trams 1, 4, 6, 18, 28, or 41. The N12 and N62 busses can also be used to get to that point.
The museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays but open every other day, opening at 10am except on Sundays when it opens at 9am.
The museum is free for individuals to enter. Audioguides in English can be rented for 10 PLN each ($2.50), and I thoroughly recommend them!
Have you been to or heard of the Katyn Museum? Are there any other important museums like this you recommend we visit? Let us know in the comments below!
