Annual Commemoration of the Katyń Massacre

Auckland Cathedral, 43 Wyndham Street, Saturday 20 April, 2024, 12.30pm

Auckland Honorary Consul, Bogusław Nowak, is again extending an invitation to members of the Polish community who wish to remember the nearly 22,000 Polish prisoners of war who were murdered in western Russia in April and May 1940 by Stalin’s Secret Police, the NKVD.

The plaque commemorating the Polish victims in Katyń was first unveiled in 1990 at the Auckland Cathedral of Saints Patrick and Joseph, and Auckland Poles make the pilgrimage to lay flowers there every year during the week closest to Anzac Day.

This year, the ceremony will be more poignant after the theft of the small receptacle of soil from Katyń that was embedded in the plaque. The plaque has had to be renovated to replace the soil, and a pine cone from the Katyń forest. The consecration of the renovated plaque and prayers will be led by Fr. Chris Denham, Dean of the Cathedral.

Consul Nowak: “I am counting on your participation in this very important reminder for Poland and the Polish community in New Zealand about the crime against Polish officers and prisoners of war, committed on Stalin’s orders by the NKVD in Katyn and other places in Soviet Russia.”

Anyone wishing to donate towards the renovation of the plaque (including the production of a new casket-urn for the Katyn earth by a specialist company and its mounting on the plaque) can do so by paying into the account of the Association of Poles in Auckland (APA) with the reference: “Katyn plaque.” The APA account number at ASB Bank is: 12-3011-0758662-00. All donors will receive a receipt from the Association enabling them to deduct the amount paid from tax. The estimated cost of restoring the plaque is approximately $800.