Temporary Exhibition “… you will hear no birds singing here”
On 29 September 2026, the Katyn Museum hosted the opening of the temporary exhibition “… you will not hear the birds singing”, dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Katyn massacre and to the significance of the Katyn cemeteries as sites of remembrance.
The event was attended by members of the Katyn and Police Families associations, donors to the Katyn Museum, representatives of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Armed Forces, the Police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Military Ordinariate, as well as representatives of cultural institutions, partner museums, associations and other institutions, the Institute of National Remembrance, the Mieroszewski Centre, higher education institutions and the media.
Welcoming the guests, Sebastian Karwat, Director of the Katyn Museum, emphasised the particular significance of the exhibition in the current situation, when access to the burial sites of the victims of the Katyn massacre is severely restricted. For several years now, we have not been able to freely visit the places where the victims of the Katyn massacre are buried. The cemeteries in Katyn and Mednoye remain practically inaccessible to us, and Polish symbols have disappeared from these sites. A similar situation applies to the memorial sites around Minsk. The Cemetery of the Victims of Totalitarianism in Kharkiv is located close to the front line and has been shelled – traces of this event include the broken grave plaques presented in the exhibition. Kyiv, meanwhile, is shelled almost daily, making travel to the cemetery in Bykivnia extremely difficult as well.
During the opening, Lidia Sadowska-Fryszer, President of the Mecenat Kultury Foundation, thanked everyone involved in creating the exhibition, including the project’s initiator and exhibition curator, Magda Sasal of the Mecenat Kultury Foundation.
Kacper Ciesielski, the exhibition’s curator, spoke about its concept and message, introducing the visitors to the subject of the exhibition and reflecting on the significance of memory and its role in preserving traces of the past.
For the families of the victims of the Katyn massacre, who spent decades seeking dignified commemoration of their loved ones and the establishment of cemeteries, restricted access to these sites means losing the possibility of visiting the graves of those closest to them. Today, scattered across Poland, memorial sites – monuments, plaques and Memory Oaks – serve as a substitute for the Katyn cemeteries. The Katyn Museum, together with the adjacent Katyn Epitaph, where the names of all known victims of the Katyn massacre are commemorated, plays a particularly important role. It is here, rather than at the Katyn cemeteries, that the most important state ceremonies dedicated to their memory are now held.
In this context, the exhibition “… you will not hear the birds singing” becomes a symbolic link between the graves of the victims in Katyn, Kharkiv, Mednoye, Bykivnia and Kuropaty and those who have remained behind to remember them. It reminds us that even when the possibility of physically reaching the sites of execution and burial is restricted, the memory of the victims remains alive.
The exhibition, prepared by the Mecenat Kultury Foundation, explores the remembrance of the victims of Soviet repression at a time when places associated with the Katyn massacre are difficult to access or cannot be visited in person. It invites visitors to reflect on how memory can be sustained when it is no longer possible to experience the place itself – its silence, its space and its material traces.
Can a place be replaced by a word, an image, a memory or a gesture? Can a photograph, a story and memory passed down from one generation to the next become a bridge between us and places we cannot reach today? The exhibition leaves these questions open, while at the same time reminding us of our responsibility to preserve the memory of the victims.
The exhibition “… you will not hear the birds singing” will be on display at the Katyn Museum from 30 September to 30 October 2026. We invite you to visit the exhibition and to pause and reflect on how we can remember those whose graves we are unable to visit today.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an educational programme. The Museum will host screenings of historical films and meetings devoted to reflecting on the memory of the Katyn massacre.
The programme is open to everyone interested in twentieth-century history and the study of memory, particularly young people, teachers, students, older people and families of the victims of the Katyn massacre.
Programme
29 September 2026, 5.00 pm Exhibition opening
13 October 2026, 6.00 pm Historical film screening – Day One
20 October 2026, 6.00 pm Historical film screening – Day Two
All events are free of charge.
The exhibition and accompanying programme are being organised as part of the project “Cmentarze katyńskie – upamiętnienia ofiar sowieckich represji” (“Katyn Cemeteries – Commemorating the Victims of Soviet Repression”), supported by funding from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund, a designated state-purpose fund.
