Director Sławomir Z. Frątczak Represents the Katyn Museum at the Nationwide Academic Conference “Kapelani Katyńscy”
On 12 April 2023, the nationwide academic conference “Kapelani Katyńscy” (in English: The Katyn Chaplains) was held in the Column Hall of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. The conference was dedicated to the chaplains of the Polish Armed Forces who fell victim to the Katyn Massacre. The event was organised to mark the 80th anniversary of the disclosure of the truth about the crime committed against Polish officers by the NKVD in the spring of 1940.
Among those attending the opening ceremony were Speaker of the Sejm Elżbieta Witek, Deputy Speaker of the Sejm Professor Ryszard Terlecki, and Minister of Education and Science Professor Przemysław Czarnek. Representatives of the families of the Katyn victims were also present. The Katyn Museum was represented by its Director, Sławomir Z. Frątczak, who delivered a paper entitled “Baruch Steinberg – Chief Rabbi of the Polish Armed Forces.”
During the conference, the publication “Gdy nieme groby przemawiają… Archiwum dr. Jana Zygmunta Robla” (in English: When Silent Graves Speak… The Archive of Dr Jan Zygmunt Robel) was presented. The volume contains diaries, notes, postcards, letters and other documents recovered in 1943 from the anonymous burial pits at Katyn. One of the editors of the publication is Dr Ewa Kowalska, a long-serving member of the Katyn Museum staff who is currently affiliated with the Institute of National Remembrance.
Conference participants also had an opportunity to view the Institute of National Remembrance exhibition “The Katyn Massacre of 1940: The Destruction of the Polish Elite.”
