Opening of the Exhibition “Lekarze Szpitala Ujazdowskiego w mogiłach katyńskich”
On 14 July 2026, the official opening of the temporary exhibition “Lekarze Szpitala Ujazdowskiego w mogiłach katyńskich” (in English: Doctors of Ujazdowski Hospital in the Katyn Mass Graves) took place in the Ballroom of the Przebendowski/Radziwiłł Palace, the main seat of the Independence Museum in Warsaw. The exhibition was prepared by the Department of Rare Medical Books of the Stanisław Konopka Main Medical Library in Warsaw in cooperation with the Katyn Museum and the Independence Museum. The exhibition was curated by Dr Jacek Konik. On behalf of the Katyn Museum, the project was coordinated by Curator Karolina Wesołowska, who has devoted many years to researching the fate of medical personnel — particularly doctors and pharmacists — who became victims of the Katyn Massacre. The Katyn Museum was represented at the opening ceremony by its Director, Sebastian Karawat.
The exhibition is dedicated to distinguished Polish physicians who served as officers of the Polish Army, reserve officers and volunteers associated with Ujazdowski Hospital (later the Training Hospital of the Medical Training Centre). In the spring of 1940, they were murdered by the Soviet NKVD. The exhibition presents them not only as victims of Soviet terror, but above all as scientists, physicians, pioneers of medicine, university lecturers, public servants and patriots whose professional work and military service helped build the independent Polish state.
The exhibition features archival materials from the collections of the Main Medical Library and the Katyn Museum, illustrating their lives, professional achievements and service to their homeland. In April and May 1940, the NKVD murdered approximately 600 Polish physicians serving as regular or reserve officers of the Polish Army Medical Corps, as well as volunteers. According to incomplete records, at least 306 medical officers were held in the Kozelsk camp, at least 288 in Starobilsk, and around ten in Ostashkov.
As the exhibition’s creators explain: “By paying tribute to these Heroes, we wish to remember them as individuals rather than as remains exhumed from the pits of death […] We commemorate them as living figures representing a sovereign and proud Poland.”
The exhibition can be visited at the Przebendowski/Radziwiłł Palace (62 Solidarności Avenue, Warsaw) until 30 September 2026.
