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10.11.2010

Katyń Memorial Oak in Budapest - Budapest, 21 November 2010

On 21 November 2010 in Budapest at the initiative of local Poles a Memorial Oak was planted in honor of the lieutenant Bogumił Sutarski, who was murdered in 1940 in Kharkov. The event was a part of the educational program "Katyń... rescue from oblivion". The following persons are expected to take part in the ceremony: the Polish Ambassador in Budapest, the Polish Consul General in Budapest, Mayor of the 4th District of Budapest, pupils from Polish schools. The oak was planted by Konrad Sutarski, the son of the murdered director of Archives and Museum of Hungarian Polonia in Budapest.

Bogumił Sutarski was born on 14 April 1903 in Widawa (Łaski region). He was the son of Józef and Konstancja Dobrowolski. In 1925 he graduated from the Cavalry Reserve and in 1930 was appointed a second lieutenant. He was assigned to the 7th regiment of mounted riflemen. After completing his military service he worked as a clerk. In 1939 he was captured by the Soviets and imprisoned in Starobielsk. In the spring of 1940, following the decision of the highest Soviet authorities of 5 March 1940, he was murdered in Kharkov, and his body along with the other then killed was buried in Piatichatki. In 2007 he was posthumously promoted to the rank of lieutenant.

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The educational program "Katyń ... rescue from oblivion", prepared by the “Parafiada” Association, was built around the initiative to commemorate the victims of the Katyń Massacre by planting more than twenty thousand Memorial Oaks. Each oak will commemorate one of the murdered persons in 1940. Simple and very accessible rules of the program generated great interest in the initiative. For the most part it is schools and local governments that got engaged in the program. Owing to the Polonia Program of the IPN’s Public Education Office, the idea of planting the Memorial Oaks has been also spread among Poles abroad. Thus, the victims of the Katyń Massacre are commemorated in Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, USA and other countries.

More information about "Katyń ... rescue from oblivion" can be found on the website of the organizer – St. Józef Kalasancjusz’s “Parafiada” Association www.katyn-pamietam.pl.

On the part of the Institute of National Remembrance Andrzej Zawistowski, the head of the Historic Education Department of BEP IPN, is responsible for the program.
 


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