KATYN MUSEUM - EU Mies Award 2017 finalist
Katyn Museum
Film about architecture of Katyń Museum
The video was made by Unit80 and GoldenSubmarine.
Special thanks to Wienerberger Polska, PBN Południe, PERI Polska, Ewa P. Porębska, Michał Krasucki, Aaron Betsky, Ewa Kowalska, Magda Sasal, Bogdan Izdebski, Wojciech Gil, Sławomir Frątczak, Dariusz Matlak, Marcin Szczelina
The museum constitutes an outstanding example of how pre-existing architecture can be employed to serve the designed purpose. The faraway forests which had witnessed the horrible Katyń massacres were somehow made present in a military fortification in the centre of the city. The exhibits tell the story of Katyń in a manner one could find in a book or a documentary.
“Our instincts could be summed up by the words of Peter Smithson: ‘things need to be ordinary and heroic at the same time. We were looking for an ordinariness whose understated lyricism is full of potential.'”
—Stephen Bates, Jury Chairman
The Katyń Museum was designed by Jan Belina Brzozowski and Konrad Grabowiecki with the team BBGK Architects, Jerzy Kalina (installations, site-specific) with the team Plasma Project, Justyna Derwisz, Adam Kozak and Krzysztof Lang with the team Maksa. It presents the tragic events of the Katyń massacre that took place during World War II and commemorates 22,000 Polish Prisoners of War murdered by Red Army.
I am impressed by the simplicity and strength of the design. The use of brick, plaster, and stained concrete, rather than the more monumental materials that are usual for such memorials, gives the place a humble and contemplative atmosphere. The deep cut with its view of the sky is truly dramatic, and stands in stark contrast to the delicacy of the imprints left by the personal effects and the ephemeral quality of the names incised in the wall.
—Aaron Betsky, Architect Magazine
The museum is located in the southern part of a 19th-century fortress—the Warsaw Citadel—and includes three historical buildings. The whole complex was designed as a park, with a symbolic Katyń forest in the centre of the main square. The 100 trees planted there refer to the truth about the dreadful war crime, which used to be concealed in the woods for more than 50 years. The main exposition is arranged on two levels of the Caponier—a historic fortification structure. The first level contains information about the Katyń massacre, where the visitors can learn about historical facts and see exhibits found in the mass graves in Katyń forest. The second level of the exhibition is devoted to personal tragedies of the victims’ families, constituting a place for contemplation.
The exit of the museum turns into the Death Tunnel—a 20-metre-long passage constructed from black concrete, designed by Jerzy Kalina. This dark corridor opens towards the Alley of the Missing Ones. “Missing” because the alley is filled with empty pedestals, on which only the professions of the deceased are engraved: “police officer, doctor, lawyer, architect…” The path leads further to the third building—the arcaded cannon stand with glazed arcades, displaying 15 plaques with the names of the 21,768 murdered officers.
Wherever the narration of the exhibition required it, the architects used stained concrete, turning it into a means of architectural expression. Parts of letters and other personal belongings of the victims are imprinted on the concrete, continuing the exhibition outside the buildings. The architectural expression here is especially strong. The gap between 12-meter-high walls dividing the Citadel leads in two directions: down—towards the plaques with the victims’ names, and up—towards the sky and light. An oaken cross placed among the trees concludes the dramatic story of Katyń.
The origins of architecture lie as much in tombs and memorials as they do in shelter, and the Katyn Museum takes us back to that sense of the fixing in one place of lives that were lived, but are now gone. As a grave marker you come across in the forest, which was Adolf Loos’ definition of pure architecture, it is effective and clear, despite its remove from the actual location. It reminded me exactly of the alienating, removing, and making present that are at the core of monumental architecture.
—Aaron Betsky, Architect Magazine
Kresy Siberia's Jola Wolska at the Katyn Museum in Warsaw
Kresy Siberia's Jola Wolska at the Katyn Museum in Warsaw
Katyn exhibit at Warsaw Uprising Museum
June 13, 2010 part of the University of Michigan Alumni Association tour of Poland
General Kuklinski Museum - Episode Katyn
Episode - Katyn
Lecturer - Andrzej Melak
generalkuklinski.com
Public project co-financed by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
within the Co-operation in Public Diplomacy 2017 category
of the Public Diplomacy 2017 competition.
The publication expresses only the views of the author
and can not be identified with the official position of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland.
Another movie called Katyn
Plot Summary:
The events of Katyn are related through the eyes of the women; the mothers, wives and daughters of the victims executed on Stalin's orders by the NKVD in 1940.
Andrzej (Artur Zmijewski), a young Polish captain in an Uhlan (light cavalry) regiment who keeps a detailed diary. IN 1939, he is taken prisoner by the Soviet Army, which separates the officers from the enlisted men, who are allowed to return home, while the officers are held. His wife Anna (Maja Ostaszewska) and daughter Weronika, nicknamed Nika (Wiktoria Gąsiewska) find him shortly before he is deported to the USSR. Presented with an opportunity to escape, he refuses on the basis of his oath of loyalty to the Polish military.
The Nazi operation codenamed Sonderaktion Krakau, which involved shutdown of Jagiellonian University in Crakow and the deportation of professors to concentration camps is depicted in the movie. Father of Andrzej is one of the professors deported; later, his wife gets a message that he died in a camp in 1941.
In a prisoner of war camp, Andrzej is detained for a while and continues to keep a diary. He carefully records the names of all his fellow officers who are removed from the camp, and the dates on which they are taken. During the winter, Andrzej is clearly suffering in the low temperature, and his colleague Jerzy (Andrzej Chyra) lends him an extra sweater. As it happens, the sweater has Jerzy's name written on it. Finally, it is Andrzej's turn to be taken from the camp, but Jerzy is left behind.
The film jumps to the post-WWII period back in Poland, when and where Andrzej's wife and daughter are still awaiting word about him. News of the Katyn massacre is reported, including the names of the victims, but Andrzej's name is not included in the list of victims, leading his wife and daughter hope that he was not among them. Jerzy, who has survived the war, has enlisted in the Peoples Army of Poland (LWP), which is now under control of the post-WWII communist government, but still feels personal loyalty to his friends, and like all Poles he loves his country and has sympathy for those who have suffered. He visits Anna and her daughter to tell them the news. Apparently, when the list of the names of the victims was compiled, Andrzej was misidentified as Jerzy on the basis of the name in the sweater that Jerzy had lent to Andrzej: it was Andrzej who was killed, not Jerzy.
The film presents the plight of Polish citizens in the aftermath of the War, who were faced with the choice, in the words of one of the characters, between the world of the living, trying to preserve as much of their Polishness as they can, even if it involves compromise and rejection by those who cannot accept the new order, and the world of the dead, the world of those who are principled and refusing to compromise.
Evidence of Soviet responsibility for the Katyn massacre is carefully concealed by the authorities, but a few daring people working with the effects of the victims finally deliver Andrzej's diary to his widow Anna. The diary clearly shows the date in 1940 when he must have been killed from the absence of entries on subsequent days. The date when the massacre happened is crucial in assigning the responsibility for it: if it happened in 1940, the USSR had military control of the territory where it happened, while by 1941 the Germans had control of it.
Source:
Katyn Museum 30 04 2017
Warsaw’s Katyń Museum is one of the five finalists of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2017.
The museum constitutes an outstanding example of how pre-existing architecture can be employed to serve the designed purpose. The faraway forests which had witnessed the horrible Katyń massacres were somehow made present in a military fortification in the centre of the city. The exhibits tell the story of Katyń in a manner one could find in a book or a documentary.
“Our instincts could be summed up by the words of Peter Smithson: ‘things need to be ordinary and heroic at the same time. We were looking for an ordinariness whose understated lyricism is full of potential.'”
—Stephen Bates, Jury Chairman
The Katyń Museum was designed by Jan Belina Brzozowski and Konrad Grabowiecki with the team BBGK Architects, Jerzy Kalina (installations, site-specific) with the team Plasma Project, Justyna Derwisz, Adam Kozak and Krzysztof Lang with the team Maksa. It presents the tragic events of the Katyń massacre that took place during World War II and commemorates 22,000 Polish Prisoners of War murdered by Red Army.
I am impressed by the simplicity and strength of the design. The use of brick, plaster, and stained concrete, rather than the more monumental materials that are usual for such memorials, gives the place a humble and contemplative atmosphere. The deep cut with its view of the sky is truly dramatic, and stands in stark contrast to the delicacy of the imprints left by the personal effects and the ephemeral quality of the names incised in the wall.
—Aaron Betsky, Architect Magazine
The museum is located in the southern part of a 19th-century fortress—the Warsaw Citadel—and includes three historical buildings. The whole complex was designed as a park, with a symbolic Katyń forest in the centre of the main square. The 100 trees planted there refer to the truth about the dreadful war crime, which used to be concealed in the woods for more than 50 years. The main exposition is arranged on two levels of the Caponier—a historic fortification structure. The first level contains information about the Katyń massacre, where the visitors can learn about historical facts and see exhibits found in the mass graves in Katyń forest. The second level of the exhibition is devoted to personal tragedies of the victims’ families, constituting a place for contemplation.
The exit of the museum turns into the Death Tunnel—a 20-metre-long passage constructed from black concrete, designed by Jerzy Kalina. This dark corridor opens towards the Alley of the Missing Ones. “Missing” because the alley is filled with empty pedestals, on which only the professions of the deceased are engraved: “police officer, doctor, lawyer, architect…” The path leads further to the third building—the arcaded cannon stand with glazed arcades, displaying 15 plaques with the names of the 21,768 murdered officers.
Wherever the narration of the exhibition required it, the architects used stained concrete, turning it into a means of architectural expression. Parts of letters and other personal belongings of the victims are imprinted on the concrete, continuing the exhibition outside the buildings. The architectural expression here is especially strong. The gap between 12-meter-high walls dividing the Citadel leads in two directions: down—towards the plaques with the victims’ names, and up—towards the sky and light. An oaken cross placed among the trees concludes the dramatic story of Katyń.
The origins of architecture lie as much in tombs and memorials as they do in shelter, and the Katyn Museum takes us back to that sense of the fixing in one place of lives that were lived, but are now gone. As a grave marker you come across in the forest, which was Adolf Loos’ definition of pure architecture, it is effective and clear, despite its remove from the actual location. It reminded me exactly of the alienating, removing, and making present that are at the core of monumental architecture.
—Aaron Betsky, Architect Magazine
Muzeum Katyńskie w Warszawie
Muzeum Katyńskie w Warszawie, zrealizowane według projektu BBGK Architekci we współpracy z artystą Jerzym Kaliną i zespołem Maksa pod kierownictwem Krzysztofa Langa, należy do najczęściej nagradzanych obiektów stolicy. Było finalistą EU Mies van der Rohe Award 2017, w tym samym roku zdobyło też Grand Prix Brick Award i Nagrodę Architektoniczną Prezydenta m.st. Warszawy, a ostatnio tytuł najlepszego budynku publicznego w Europie Środkowej i Wschodniej podczas triennale architektury w Bukareszcie. Więcej o realizacji przeczytasz w „A-m” 01/2016:
11 PostCard Katyn Massacre
Katyn Massacre
Video Postcard Series from the 21 Convention Warsaw Poland 2019
National Museum dedicated to the series of mass executions of Polish military & police officers and intelligentsia carried out by the Soviets following the invasion of Poland in 1939.
The killings were approved of by the Politburo of the Communist Party and Stalin himself.
The intent was to deprive a potential future Poland a large portion of its military, police and intelligentsia talent. As such they were considered “avowed enemies of Soviet authority”.
This amounted to almost half of the Polish officer corps.
It is estimated that some 22,000 people were murdered.
The Nazis discovered several of the mass graves in 1943 and reported it to the International Red Cross. When the IRC asked for an investigation, Stalin immediately denied it and severed diplomatic ties with the Red Cross.
Successive Soviet governments would go on to perpetrate sustained denial until a Soviet investigation in 1990 and confirmation in 2004 by the Russian Federation.
Those killings in NKVD prisons were methodical. Individuals personal information was checked and approved, they were led into a cell and shot in the back of the head.
The killings went on from dusk to dawn. The process continued every night, except for the public May Day holiday until they finished, which took weeks.
The weapon of choice was a small caliber .25 ACP due to its low recoil to aid the executioner in prolonged utilization.
Katyn was a forbidden topic in postwar Poland and censorship of it was specifically mentioned in the “Black Book of Censorship”. Not only did the government suppress all references to it, but mentioning the atrocity was a dangerous act to commit facing beatings, detentions and ostracism.
In the late 1950’s Soviets took active steps to destroy documents related to Katyn massacre, but a memo from the head of the KGB to Nikita Khrushchev outlining this survived and was later made public.
The park and entry to the Museum lies in the center of the Warsaw Citadel and recreates a symbolic Katyn Forest and mass graves at the heart of it.
A part of the Citadel is an active duty military post and a Polish Officer training barracks that directly overlooks this symbolic park and the entry to the Museum. There is no margin of error in this spatial and visual relationship.
Inside the museum due to it being in former fortification, feels subterranean and vault like and showcases some 5,500 individual artifacts. Each taken off corpses removed from the mass graves. Each cubical a personal belonging tied to a singular individual.
The intimacy of the personal effect coupled with the sheer scale of them is simply overwhelming and deeply disturbing.
Poland isn’t forgetting.
Her Officer Corps is being forged in front of it.
Wish you were here!
Episode 71: The Katyn Massacre
Help us make more podcasts:
During the Spring of 1943, tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies were easening. However, recent news about the disappearance of Polish soldiers in the USSR did not work to smooth this alliance. In what came to be known as the Katyn Massacre, the bodies of thousands of Polish soldiers who had been shot in the head were found in eight communal graves in the Katyn Forest. Medical evidence proved that the Poles had been killed in 1940 by the Soviets. However, the truth was not revealed for almost fifty years.
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Поездка в Варшаву.Что посмотреть.Катынский музей.Muzeum Katyńskie.Warszawa.Часть1
Часть вторая -
Część druga-
????Переведено с английского языка.-Muzeum Katyńskie w Warszawie - это музей в Варшаве, Польша. Музей был основан в 1993 году. Он находится в Музее польской армии. Предметы, документы и личные вещи с места Катынской резни можно увидеть в музее.
????Muzeum Katyńskie w Warszawie is a museum in Warsaw, Poland. The museum was established in 1993. It is located in the Polish Army Museum. Objects, documents and personal effects from the site of the Katyn massacre can be seen in the museum.
????Адрес: Jana Jeziorańskiego 4, 01-521 Warszawa
????Открытие: 1993 г.
#КатынскийМузей #Варшава #MuzeumKatyńskie
Katyn Memorial
Katyn Memorial at the Field Cathedral of the Polish Army in Warsaw
Katyn: How One Soviet Soldier Learned The Truth
On 21 September Blinibioscoop and Foundation Max van der Stoel are organising a screening of documentary film Age of Delirium.
Ildar Isangulov was a Soviet soldier who had a drink with a Polish citizen. Somebody proposed a toast for all Slavs but the Pole refused the toast. Ildar was shocked that his Slavic brother refused to drink with him....
The SU-76 (Samokhodnaya Ustanovka 76) Soviet self-propelled gun, Polish Army Museum, Warsaw, Poland
The SU-76 (Samokhodnaya Ustanovka 76) Soviet self-propelled gun, Polish Army Museum, Warsaw, Poland
The SU-76 (Samokhodnaya Ustanovka 76) was a Soviet self-propelled gun used during and after World War II. The SU-76 was based on a lengthened and widened version of the T-70 light tank chassis. Its simple construction made it the second most produced Soviet armoured vehicle of World War II, after the T-34 tank.
Crews liked the vehicle for its simplicity, reliability, and ease of use. However, the steering was also sometimes regarded as cumbersome, leading crews to also refer to the vehicle as suka (Russian: сука; bitch) or suchka (Russian: сучка; little bitch). It was also nicknamed Golozhopiy Ferdinand (Russian: Голожопый Фердинанд; bare-arsed Ferdinand) due to its very light armor and somewhat similar silhouette, when compared to the Germans' heavy Ferdinand/Elefant casemate tank destroyer of some 65 tonnes in weight.
Specifications:
Weight: 10,600 kg (23,320 lb)
Length: 4.88 m (16 ft)
Width: 2.73 m (8 ft 11 in)
Height: 2.17 m (7 ft 1 in)
Crew: 4
Armor:
Front: 35 mm (1.4 in)
Side: 16 mm (0.63 in)
Main armament: 76 mm (2.99 in) ZIS-3Sh gun
Engine: 2×GAZ-203 engines 85 + 85 hp (63 + 63 kW)
Power/weight: 17 hp/tonne
Suspension: torsion bar
Operational range: 320 km (200 miles)
Speed: 45 km/h (28 mph)
Today in History: Nazis reveal Katyn Massacre (1943)
John Robson explains how the April 13, 1943 announcement by Nazi Germany of a mass grave of Polish POW's found in the Katyn Forest murdered by Stalin’s KGB, raised the tough question of what to do when you know you're dealing with an evil regime. MORE:
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PLUS ***
To see more from John Robson, visit his website at
Katyn Ceremony
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk marked the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre in a historic ceremony marking efforts to warm up relations between the Kremlin and Warsaw....
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75th anniversary of Katyń Massacre - 12.04.15 - Warsaw 1080p HD
March through the Warsaw streets which commemorate victims of Katyn Massacre which was made by Soviets the spring of 1940. The Victims were polish officers and polish intellectual elite.
I forgive but I never forget!
Marsz ulicami Warszawy, upamiętniający ofiary Zbrodni Katyńskiej dokonanej przez Sowietów wiosną 1940 roku na polskich oficerach oraz przedstawicielach polskiej elity intelektualnej.
Wybaczam, ale nigdy nie zapominam!
Katyn, families site visit
A documentary for the families visiting Katyn where the victims murdered by the Russians are buried.
Escorted by the Polish Army by train from Poland to Ukraine.
This is the most infamous site, but their were many others.
Made by Our Correspondent
Ukraine to the world - Exposed at National Museum of Warsaw
UKRAINA ŚWIATU. SKARBY UKRAINY Z KOLEKCJI PLATAR. Wystawa obejmuje blisko 500 dzieł pochodzących z okresu między VI tysiącleciem przed Chrystusem po XII wiek po Chrystusie, i dokumentujących wszystkie najważniejsze okresy historii Ukrainy - od kultury trypolskiej poprzez dzieła Kimmerów, Scytów, Sarmatów, Greków, Rzymian, Bizancjum i kijowskiej Rusi.
***
Youth in an Oriental Scythian suite, fragment of a Roman table from the 2nd century BC. Exposed at National Museum of Warsaw from April 15th to June 29th 2008 on a temporary exhibition titled Ukraine to the world. Treasures of Ukraine from the Platar collection.
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Національний Києво-Печерський історико-культурний заповідник, Музей національного культурного надбання ПлаТар за підтримки Фонду міжнародних мистецтв та освіти (the Foundation for International Arts and Education), корпорації Індустріальний Союз Донбасу, Посольства США в Україні, Посольства України у США проведуть серію виставок в США протягом 2009-2011 рр. До співпраці можливе залучення інших музеїв.