Police Training Centre Students Visit the Katyń Museum
On 1 March 2025, thirty-five students from Companies I and III of the SZP-3/25 basic police training programme at the Police Training Centre in Legionowo visited the exhibition of the Katyn Museum in Warsaw. The visit was organised on a voluntary basis during the students’ free time. The group was accompanied by Superintendent Grzegorz Banaś from the Command Department of the Police Training Centre.
The tour of the museum was led by Tomasz Szczepański. For the participants, the visit proved to be both a moving and highly engaging history lesson. The students were deeply impressed not only by the exhibition itself, but also by the curator’s compelling narrative, which presented the history of the Katyn Massacre within a broader historical context.
The visit encouraged reflection on the tragic fate of nearly 22,000 Polish citizens imprisoned in Soviet camps and prisons between 1939 and 1940, including thousands of military officers, members of the pre-war Polish State Police, representatives of other uniformed services, and civil servants. Particularly moving for the visitors was the display of personal belongings recovered from the victims — among them letters from family members that never reached their intended recipients and were later returned to the senders.
As many of the students admitted afterwards, the visit was not only an important lesson in history, but also a reminder of the significance of truth, remembrance, and historical memory. It helped them better understand the past and its continuing impact on the present day.
The visit also marked the beginning of cooperation between the Police Training Centre in Legionowo and the museum. An initiative introduced by Inspector Ryszard Jakubowski, Commandant of the Police Training Centre, will provide interested students attending basic police training with regular opportunities to visit the Katyn Museum as part of their educational development.
Visits to the museum represent a valuable complement to the Centre’s educational and professional training programme. They help foster patriotic values among young police officers and contribute to building a strong ethos of public service. At the same time, they support the statutory mission of the Katyn Museum, which includes promoting historical education — particularly among younger generations — and preserving the memory of the experiences of Poles deported and persecuted in the East after 17 September 1939.
Based on an article by Superintendent Grzegorz Banaś, Command Department of the Police Training Centre (O prawdzie i pamięci. Wizyta słuchaczy CSP w Muzeum Katyńskim w Warszawie, „Kwartalnik Policja” 2025, no 1, pp. 27-28)
Photographs: Superintendent Grzegorz Banaś
