Inventory of Artefacts from Mednoye at the Headquarters of the Nationwide Association “Police Family 1939”
On 12 December 2023, staff members of the Katyn Museum, the Martyrdom Department of the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw, paid a working visit to the headquarters of the Board of the Nationwide Association “Police Family 1939” in Katowice. Led by Curator Sebastian Karwat, the museum team carried out an inventory of artefacts recovered from the mass burial pits at Mednoye during archaeological survey and exhumation works conducted in August 1991. These artefacts, loaned to the Association by the Katyn Museum, form the core of an educational exhibition and the programme Discovering History: Ostashkov – Tver – Mednoye, organised by the Association. Curator Sebastian Karwat highly praised both the presentation and preservation of the artefacts, as well as the educational impact of the exhibition, reflected in the large number of visitors it has attracted.
The Memorial Room is also used for educational and historical programmes, including Encounter with History, Police Officers in the Service of History and The Silesian Police: Past and Present. Between January 2008 and December 2023, more than 23,000 people participated in the Association’s educational activities. Visitors have included police delegations from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Germany, Serbia, Slovakia, the United States and Hungary. The primary audience for these programmes is secondary school students. Through direct contact with authentic museum artefacts, participants gain a deeper understanding of the history of the State Police of the Second Polish Republic, the wartime experiences of its officers during the Second World War, and the fate of those policemen who became victims of the Katyn Massacre.
