Katyn memorial inaugurated in Budapest

A memorial of the victims of the massacre of Polish officers by Soviet internal security forces in 1940 has been inaugurated in the Hungarian capital. The ceremony was attended by visiting Polish president Branislaw Komorowsi.

One of the inexplicable dreadful events in World War II was the execution of Polish army officers in the forests near Katyn (near the Russian city of Smolensk) and other areas of what now Russia is. The number of people killed is estimated by historians to be between 15,000 and 22,000. The killings were ordered by Stalin and the Soviet Politburo and the Soviets denied their reponsibility until an announcement by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990.

Budapest is the first capital in Central Europe that established a memorial park (in 2010) in the northwestern part of the city as a memento of these horror events. The municipality and the Polish government announced a tender back in 2008 to erect a monument worthy of the memory of the Katyn victims.

The tender was won by sculptor Géza Széri-Varga and architect Zoltán Széri-Varga. The monument was inaugurated this Friday in the presence of Polish president Branislaw Komorowsi, Hungarian president Pál Schmitt and Budapest mayor István Tarlós as well as the representatives of the families of the victims.

The politicians and Andrzej Kunert, the secretary general of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites in Poland laid wreaths to the monument and planted two oak trees to honor the memory of the two Hungarian victims of the massacre, Aladár Emánuel. The oak trees symbolize the pledge to never forget the victims of dictatorships.

In his speech, President Komorowski said this memorial was another proof for Polish-Hungarian friendship dating back a thousand years. He added that the monument shows the victory of truth over that of lies.