“Keys of Hope” Memorial Run – Museum Staff Among the Finalists
In the 85th anniversary year of the Katyn Massacre, the Federation of Katyn Families, together with the Warsaw Marathon Foundation and with the support of the City of Warsaw, once again organised the virtual memorial run “Keys of Hope”. The initiative commemorates the victims of one of the most tragic chapters in Polish history.
The organisers’ aim is to preserve the memory of those who were killed — to remind people of their names and to show that their lives were shaped by hopes, values, and everyday aspirations much like our own today. When they left their homes, many put their keys in their pockets, believing they would return. Even when they were sent off to war, they took their house keys with them — a symbol of hope that they would come back to their loved ones.
Remembering the names of those who never returned is, in a symbolic sense, like opening the door for them with the keys they carried. The memorial run recalls the powerful symbolism of these keys — personal belongings recovered during exhumation works at the mass graves in Katyn, Kharkiv, Mednoye, and Bykivnia, where victims of the Katyn Massacre were buried. Some of these artefacts are now displayed at the Katyn Museum.
Participants competed in running events over distances of 5 km and 10 km, while those preferring a less demanding challenge could take part in a 1,940-metre memorial walk, a distance referring to the year the massacre took place.
Among the women, Dr Joanna Kurczab was the fastest finisher in the 10 km event, while Kacper Ciesielski took first place in the men’s category — both members of the Katyn Museum staff. The winner of the 5 km event is listed in the results table as Kostek Ciesielski. This distance was also completed by Kacper Ciesielski, this time running with his son in a jogging stroller — a moving gesture, as he is the great-grandson of a victim of the Katyn Massacre. The Katyn Museum Team was also represented by: Bartłomiej Bydoń, Daniel Cichorski, Grzegorz Jakubczyk, Sebastian Karwat, Nela Kogut, Małgorzata Pol, Piotr Skotnicki, and Karolina Wesołowska.
