Join University of St. Thomas for a compelling historical journey and discussion on the 1939 Katyn Massacre, the hidden extermination of more than 20,000 Polish citizens by a totalitarian regime, and a symbol of the struggle for universal values such as memory, truth and justice.

What was the Katyn Massacre

The Katyn Massacre was a mass execution of Polish military officers and citizens by the Soviet Union during World War II. The discovery of the massacre, or the killing field located 12 miles west of Smolensk, Russia, precipitated the severance of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the Polish government in-exile in London.

About the Speaker

Tadeusz Wolsa, author of Encounter with Katyn: The Wartime and Postwar Story of Pols Who Saw the Katyn Site in 1943, gives the talk as part of the University’s Presidential Speaker Series titled Community Encounters. Wolsa is a Polish historian and social scientists and Professor at the Instiute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences. he is also a board member of the Warsaw Institute of National Remembrance since 2011.

Event Information

The talk is held at 7 p.m., Wed., Nov. 13, on campus in Scanlan Room, Jerabeck Center, 4000 Mt. Vernon, and is free. RSVP required to ustevents@stthom.edu.

The event sponsor is the University of St. Thomas St. John Paul II Institute.

Dr. John P. Hittinger, director of the St. John Paul II Institute, will moderate the discussion with Professor Tadeusz Wolza about topics still relevant today, demonstrated by the Katyn Massacre: totalitarian ideologies, consequences of imperialism, racially motivated hatred, the national memory and experience of genocide and present-day implications of appeasement policies.

Encounter with Katyn: A Disturbing Freedom is a series of lectures, discussions and presentations on the Katyn Massacre, held in the United States, presented by the Janusz Kurtyka Foundation.