Valuable Collections Donated to the Katyn Museum
On 2 June, the Katyn Museum enriched its collections with two exceptionally valuable donations – testimonies to the individual stories of victims of the Katyn massacre and, at the same time, evidence of how important and vibrant family memory remains across generations.
The first donation consists of memorabilia connected with Second Lieutenant (Reserve) Józef Lutyński. Among the materials donated is an extensive collection of correspondence with his fiancée, and later wife, Maria, dating from 1933 onwards. The collection includes five postcards and a moving telegram sent from the prisoner-of-war camp in Starobilsk, including two messages from April 1940. The documents were donated by his niece, Barbara Müller, who, together with her daughter, visited the Museum and had the opportunity to view the exhibition dedicated to the Katyn massacre.
The second exceptionally valuable donation is a collection of documents related to Captain Doctor Wiktor Urbański. The materials date from the period of his studies at the University of Wrocław and his professional training, and also include photographs from the First World War. They were donated by Dr Łukasz Jastrząb, owner of Stalowy Jeż Ltd. The documents were secured during the clearance of the flat of the victim’s niece, Zofia (d. 2022), carried out on behalf of a housing cooperative. As the donor emphasised in his accompanying letter, “their natural place for further preservation and scholarly study is the Museum”.
Every such gesture represents far more than the donation of documents and photographs to a collection. It helps to create a space of remembrance devoted to specific individuals, their lives, relationships and the traces they left behind, preserved across decades. As Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated on 7 April 2010 during the commemorative ceremony at the Polish War Cemetery in Katyn, “every name, every piece of information, every testimony matters to us”. At the Katyn Museum, we also honour with gratitude those who, despite difficult circumstances and official restrictions, safeguarded the truth about this crime for many years.
Thanks to such donations and these invaluable mementoes, the Museum can continue to fulfil its mission: to preserve and sustain memory that endures despite the relentless passage of time and generational change.
The Katyn Museum expresses its profound gratitude to Mrs Barbara Müller and Dr Łukasz Jastrząb for donating these priceless items connected with the fate of the victims of the Katyn massacre. Every such donation reflects a commitment to preserving historical memory and a sense of responsibility for the heritage passed on to future generations.
We would also like to thank all donors who place their trust in the Katyn Museum by entrusting it with family archives, documents and photographs. Thanks to your generosity, the memory of the victims endures and remains accessible to future generations.
