We mourn for the victims of the Polish air tragedy

The remains of some 22,000 Polish officers murdered by the Soviet secret service in 1940 lie in the Katyn woodlands, where the Polish delegation's aeroplane was shattered. Polish representatives were intending to commemorate this massacre, which to this day remains a burden on Polish-Russian relations, together with Russian state officials. The taboos and myths surrounding the 1940 massacre within school textbooks have often been subject to analysis and discussion at the Georg Eckert Institute. Current progress within Polish-Russian dialogue in overcoming this past is now overshadowed by this tragic event at the same symbolic location.

Not only numerous leading politicians and the entire high command level of the army; also prestigious representatives of the historical society, including the director of the National Remembrance Institute, Janusz Kurtyka, and his colleagues Andrzej Przewoznik and Tomasz Merta, lost their lives in the tragedy.

We particularly grieve for Vice Foreign Minister Dr. Andrzej Kremer, who paid several visits to Braunschweig and the GEI during his time als Consul of the Polish Republic in Hamburg. At the end of his last visit he noted his personal direct dial number on his visiting card - just in case, he said, we ever needed his support for our work.

The Georg Eckert Institute staff would like to express their deepest sympathy to his family and to all families affected by this tragedy.