Knowing (or Not) about Katyń: The Silencing and Surfacing of Public Memory

Abstract

For Poles, the Katyń Forest, in Russia, is a place immediately associated with national suffering. Katyń is one of three sites where approximately 20 000 Poles were executed during World War II, by the Soviet secret service. To shore up wartime political dependencies, knowledge of Katyń was silenced by the dominant hegemony. The public absence of Katyń narratives compelled their safeguarding and presence (where possible) in private spheres of the home. In 2010, the death of 96 people at Katyń—en route to commemorate the massacre—etched a new scar on an existing wound. The shifting of Katyń narratives between public absence and private presence exemplifies the importance of power in silencing public memory narratives.

Notes

For a detailed description and analysis of the massacre see Sanford, 2005, 2006; Zaslavsky, 2009; IPN, 2004.

Lauck (1988) and Sanford (2005) have commented that fir trees were also planted over the burial sites; these were younger in age and differ in coverage to adjoining forested areas.

Khatyn was one of 136 Belarusian villages where all inhabitants were killed by the Nazis during WWII (Sanford, 2005).

The majority were born in Australia, with a few migrating as children under five years of age.

These research interviews were conducted in 2006 prior to the recent plane crash in 2010. It is probable that, were the interviews conducted in the present-day, this cohort would now be aware of Katyń, because the recent plane crash has reasserted the importance of the Katyń narrative internationally.

Kaczyński's twin Jarosław headed Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS, Law and Justice Party), while Tusk is chairman of Platforma Obywatelska (PO, Civic Platform).