Minister of Education and Science Przemyslaw Czarnek took part in the “Katyn Chaplains” conference organised by the Chancellery of the Polish Sejm and the Institute of National Remembrance. Participants in the event discussed the role of chaplains in prisoner of war camps.

The role of chaplains in POW camps was unique. They shared their fate with their fellow prisoners, but they also carried hope to the very end,” said Sejm Speaker Elżbieta Witek, opening the nationwide academic conference ‘Katyn Chaplains’.

“The truth about Katyn was born in pain. The word ‘Katyn’ in Polish consciousness, Polish heart and mind and memory gives rise to the most tragic emotions and memories”, said the President of the Institute of National Remembrance, Dr Karol Nawrocki. “It is first and foremost the death as a result of the genocide of the Soviet Union of nearly 22,000 Polish officers, as well as military personnel of various formations. It is also a remembrance of the loneliness of the weary Republic of Poland in the orchestra of World War II powers and states”, he added. As he reminded, the Katyn lie was the foundation of communist Poland after 1945.