The Katyn Memorial - Jersey City

The Katyn Memorial, inaugurated in 1991 along the Hudson River, captivates any visitor who sees it. Erected initially to represent the trauma endured by local Polish veterans, the struggle over its development and placement has resulted in a collective narrative that has created a visually stunning and emotional monument.

The Katyn Memorial commemorates the roughly 22,000 Polish officers murdered by the Soviet secret police in 1940 near Smolensk, Russia. Still, other identities arise, including Polish, Polish-American, and local Jersey City residents, when examined more closely. Historian Keith Lowe explains, "International history, national history, local history, personal history - each of these layers is represented in this one memorial." By looking at the history and politics of what this memorial commemorates and the more recent debates surrounding it, it shows that although a monument may seem to be "…eternal and unchanging, its meaning always evolves as its viewers bring new concerns and understandings to it" as described by author Kirk Savage.

The sculptor, Andrzej Pitynski, was born in Poland and came to the US in the 1970s. He experienced life under Communist rule in his hometown and spent his career expressing Poland's fight for freedom through his art, as noted in his obituary in Sculpture Review. Lowe describes the bronze statue at thirty-four feet high and depicts a bound and gagged soldier being stabbed in the back by a bayonet; "His body is arched in pain, and his face is titled up towards heaven." It stands atop a base of granite containing soil from the Katyn Forest where the atrocity ordered by Stalin took place, with one side of the reading "KATYN 1940" while the other reads "1939 SIBERIA." It commemorates the 22,000 Polish officers killed by The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) and other Poles deported by the Soviets to Siberia and faced death and starvation. The inspiration for the memorial, the Katyn Massacre, has been mired in controversy from the beginning, marked by Soviet denials and attempted propaganda by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Empire. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics finally announced the responsibility of the Soviet secret police in 1990. The bound and gagged Polish officer in the Katyn Memorial symbolizes the debilitating lie, the history, that had been accepted and covered up for too long.

There was a thriving Polish presence in New Jersey before the war, including Passaic County, where 1,314 Polish Americans served in the Armed Forces during World War II, as per Sister M. Gaudentia. Lowe documents that out of the 200,000 political refugees who ended up in the US after the war, 10,000 settled in New Jersey. The Poles who resided in Jersey City formed cultural groups and became involved in city affairs while seeking ways to commemorate the past and future. The Katyn Memorial was the product of a group of Polish veterans getting together in the 1980s to discuss how they could commemorate all the national suffering they had to endure. They formed a non-profit foundation and raised the money to hire Andrzej Pitynski and obtain a spot in Exchange Place. Per Lowe, when the memorial was presented to the public in 1991, Jersey City was mainly a working-class city "…whose residents worked in many local factories, freight terminals, and warehouses that lined the Hudson." However, as new residents began entering the city, the resultant new opinions meant a shift in the Katyn Memorial's meaning, turning toward local identity.

The memorial became sealed in local roots after the addition of the September 11th plaque, represented by an outlining of smoke emerging from the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. The memorial's location in Exchange Place gives visitors a clear view of Manhattan, making the spot significant to local history. In 2018, a debate over the relocation of the Katyn Memorial erupted when Mayor Fulop of Jersey City put forth redevelopment plans for Exchange Place. The Polish community felt they should have been consulted on the matter and filed a lawsuit against the city to keep the memorial where it has been for over twenty-five years. Additionally, locals, especially the older generation who had lived there the longest, were growing tired of the gentrification pushing out original residents to make way for a younger crowd looking to live the city lifestyle without paying the price of Manhattan expenses. Protests became heated, and many petitions circulated to stop the memorial's relocation. Eventually, the city council's decision to keep the monument in Exchange Plaza ended a "nine-month saga that featured protests, a federal lawsuit, and heated words between Fulop and Poland's Senate Speaker," as covered by the Polish America Journal.

This local victory found permanence in the story of the memorial as a triumph rather than a betrayal. The combination of World War II Polish history and the narratives that have since emerged make this Katyn memorial unique. Understanding the monument's international and local history helps commemorate themes of betrayal and trauma the Polish endured during and after the war.

(edited by Brad Poss & Laura Bailey)

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