Museum of Katyn Staff Participate in the 16th Memory Forum in Sztutowo
On 4–5 September 2025, the 16th Memory Forum – Seminar of Polish Martyrdom Museums was held in Sztutowo. The event was organised by the Stutthof Museum in Sztutowo and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim.
For many years, the Forum has brought together museum professionals and researchers dedicated to the most difficult chapters of twentieth-century history, the history of war crimes, and education at memorial sites. It provides a forum for discussing how best to preserve remembrance, apply appropriate methods and educational tools, and seek answers to the challenges of the present day. Participants in the 16th Memory Forum represented Poland’s leading martyrdom and memorial institutions: the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, the Stutthof Museum in Sztutowo, the Majdanek State Museum, the Katyn Museum in Warsaw, the Dulag 121 Museum in Pruszków, the Pawiak Prison Museum, the Museum of Warsaw, the Memorial Chamber at the Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery, the KL Plaszow Museum in Kraków, the Museum of Polish Children in Łódź, the Central Museum of Prisoners of War in Łambinowice, the National Museum in Lublin, the Museum of Independence Traditions in Łódź, the Palmiry Memorial Museum, the Treblinka Museum, the Greater Poland Martyrdom Museum – Fort VII, a branch of the Martyrdom Museum in Żabikowo, and the Memory, Education, Culture Foundation in Zgorzelec. The Katyn Museum was represented by Sebastian Karwat, Kacper Ciesielski and Dr Bartłomiej Bydoń.
This year’s Forum once again demonstrated the importance of meetings of this kind. They provide an opportunity to reflect together on how to speak about the past in ways that are both historically accurate and deeply moving.
At a time when there are ever fewer eyewitnesses to history and historical narratives are increasingly simplified or challenged, such discussions are becoming more important than ever. Martyrdom museums not only preserve the memory of the victims, but also build a bridge between the past and the present.
