101399 | POLAND & SOVIET UNION. Katyn Massacre silvered bronze Medal.

101399  |  POLAND & SOVIET UNION. Katyn Massacre silvered bronze Medal. Issued circa 1985 (69mm, 143.70 g, 12h).

 

Polish figures standing right, in a line that extends into obscurity; all behind barbed wire fencing, with the names of POW camps mentioned: Starobielsk, Ostaszkow, and Kosielski / Numerous Polish eagles behind long cross and KATYŃ; PAMIECI POLSKICH OFICEROW / ZAMORDOWANYCH in two lines. Edge: Some scattered marks, otherwise plain.

 

Choice Mint State. Bright gray surfaces, with some antiquing for highlighting. A moving and solemn piece.

 

Kosielski was a Soviet prisoner of war camp used primarily for Polish military officers and policemen, along with other civilians. In 1940, these prisoners were slaughtered in the Katyn forest—just west of Smolensk—as they were viewed as highly unlikely to accept communism and Soviet interests in Poland following the war. In an extremely coincidental twist in 2010, Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, among others, were tragically killed in an airline crash not far from Smolensk—all while en route to attend a remembrance ceremony for the Katyn massacre. This later tragedy has since become known as "Katyn II."

 

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