Katyn Memorial (Baltimore, MD)
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Location
Roundabout at Aliceanna Street and S President Street (Street View)
GPS: 39° 16′ 59.37″ N 76° 36′ 6.05″ W
History
One of two Holocaust memorials in Baltimore, this one was dedicated on November 19, 2000. It commemorates the 22,000 estimated Polish military officers, police, intellectuals and civilian prisoners of war executed by the NKVD, Stalin’s secret police at the Katyn forest and other Soviet detainment camps in 1940. The Soviet government officially denied the massacre ever took place until 1990. The monument also depicts significant figures from other points in Polish history, re-conceptualizing the destructive flame as the transformation and renewal of a people. Artist: Andrzei Pitynski.
Notes
This monument stands a majestic fourty-four feet tall at a geographic hub connecting the Inner Harbor, the commercial and residential revitalization projects at Harbor East and Fells Point. Construction is on-going in the area. The old President Street Station was once nearby (later turned into the Civil War Museum – now run by the Maryland Historical Society), connecting passengers on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) to the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad (PW&B).
Nearby
Links
As a committee member of the National Katyn Memorial Foundation ( http://www.katynbaltimore.com ), I must object to your description of the National Katyn Memorial as “one of two Holocaust memorials in Baltimore” as inaccurate. The ‘Holocaust’ is a word used to describe specifically and exclusively the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II.
The Katyn Massacre, although there were some Jewish victims, was perpetrated by the Soviet NKVD specifically on Poles of all backgrounds and religions, and as such, cannot be labeled a ‘Holocaust’ memorial. This is an extrememly important distinction and should be corrected.
Carla Tomaszewski
26 Apr 10 at 6:45 am