Kościuszko Foundation Northeast Ohio Chapter announces Historical Essay Contest

"KATYŃ"

On September 17, 1939, when the Polish Army was locked in the mortal battle with the German forces, the Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east, and took hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers as prisoners of war. On March 5, 1940, Stalin signed an order pursuant to which twenty-two thousand Polish officers and government officials detained by the Soviets Union were summarily sentenced to death and secretly executed in the spring of 1940. Two years later, the German army on its way to Moscow stumbled upon mass graves of Polish officers in the Katyń forest. In the spring of 1943, the Germans announced to the world that the Soviets had murdered thousands of Polish officers. Stalin denied this charge and called for his own investigation. In 1944, the Soviet Union issued its own report that blamed the Germans for the Katyń crime. For the next 47 years, the Soviet Union had been effectively suppressing any evidence of the Soviet involvement in the Katyń crime.

In no more than 2,000 words (or 10 pages), please discuss either topic 1 or topic 2 listed below:

1. The Fate of the Katyń Families. For purposes of this essay, “Katyń Families” are defined as all relatives and personal friends of the Polish detainees executed pursuant to Stalin’s order of March 5, 1940. Stories from direct relatives or close friends of those executed or lost in the Soviet Union are highly encouraged. Also essays written by a third person who is familiar with a story of the Katyń Family are welcomed. Illustrations are recommended.
2. Multiple Dimensions of the Katyń Crime. Please consider the following issues: i) execution of the elite group of twenty-two thousand Polish detainees, ii) deportations of their families to the Soviet Far East, iii) persecutions of their families after the war in Poland and abroad, iv) the overall Soviet policy towards the Polish population during the war, v) attitudes of the governments of the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States towards the Katyń crime, and vi) the overall political dimension of the Katyń crime. In the conclusion of the essay, please evaluate the significance of the Katyń crime for us today.

Eligibility: The Historical Essay Contest is open to all residents of Ohio who are 15 years old or older. The essay may be written either in Polish or in English.

Deadline: March 17, 2008

Awards: Various prizes will be awarded, including a scholarship of the Kościuszko Foundation for Polish Study in Poland or Italy, and a monetary award. Fragments of the winning essays will be published in selected Polish, Polish-American, and American papers.

Please mail the essay with your name, address, telephone number and age by March 1, 2008 to:

Kościuszko Foundation—Ohio, 669 Heatherleigh Drive, Akron, Ohio 44333.