Summary of the Congress of National Remembrance in Warsaw

History as the teacher of life and death

WARSAW, Poland, April 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- "History is a teacher of life and, for Poles, also a teacher of death" - this is how the President of the Institute of National Remembrance, Dr Karol Nawrocki, paraphrased the ancient proverb at one of the panels of the Congress of National Remembrance held in Warsaw on 13-15 April 2023. It attracted 13 thousand participants, including 7 thousand young people.

As a result of the Second World War, Poland lost approximately 12 million citizens. Of this number, nearly 6 million Polish nationals were murdered, especially by the Germans, but we also remember the victims of Soviet crimes, for example, those at Katyn. Co-author of the "Black Book of Communism", Professor Stéphan Courtois told at the Congress that "Poles experienced a double occupation during the Second World War, but the Soviet-German pact that led to it is a real gap in history and in European memory. This is the main cause of today's European problems, as revealed especially by the war in Ukraine."

Another 6 million Poles found themselves outside the country as a result of deportation to Germany and the Soviet Union, forced emigration or border changes.

Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk recalled that Poland is demanding reparations from Germany for the extermination of Polish nationals and other crimes and destruction. He recalled, for example, that "the Germans stole 200,000 Polish children, which was of no interest to the Nuremberg Tribunal after the war". 

Among other events, the Congress included the "Echoes of Katyn" International Film Festival on Totalitarianism The main prizes went to Latvian director Viesturs Kairiss for his film "January", and Polish director Miłosz Kozioł for his film "Captain Pilecki", about a Pole who volunteered to be imprisoned in the German concentration camp Auschwitz in order to send information about this tragic place.

The Institute of National Remembrance inaugurated at the Congress a new multimedia exhibition "Trails of Hope. The Odyssey of Freedom". It shows the struggle of Poles on many fronts of World War II and the fate of the civilian population evacuated from the USSR with General Anders's army and later scattered around the world. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin agreed to organise among Polish exiles an army of almost 100,000 soldiers who were evacuated through Iran. The exhibition will be shown in around 50 countries.