Hundreds of Jews serving in the Polish Army during World War II were taken captive in the Soviet Union, where they were held in detention camps and eventually murdered in a series of mass executions in Katyn Forest in the spring of 1940. To honor their memory, KKL-JNF established the Katyn Forest Grove in
Martyrs’ Forest, located in the Judean Hills. The dedication ceremony took place this week at the forest grove, in the presence of the Polish ambassador to Israel and families of the victims.
“It is important that we know history, and you preserve the memory for us all,” said Polish Ambassador to Israel
Marek Magierowski to the Katyn orphans present at the ceremony. In his remarks, which he delivered in fluent Hebrew, the ambassador noted that not many people know about the many Jews serving in the Polish military that were killed before and during the war.
In the Katyn Forest massacre, 22,000 Polish soldiers and citizens were murdered during April and May 1940 by order of the government of the Soviet Union. It is estimated that 500 to 800 of the victims were Jewish.
Janina Goldhar lost her father, who was a doctor in the Polish army, in Katyn. “Eighty years have passed since I last saw my father, so of course I am very emotional about coming here today and visiting a place that commemorates him,” she said. She survived the Holocaust in Warsaw thanks to forged documents that concealed her Jewish identity. After the war, she immigrated to Israel. Today she is 90 years old and lives in Ganei Tikva.
“It is very important for us that people should know our story,” said
Giora Bar Nir, Israel Katyn Orphans coordinator. “The young generation should know history as it really was.” Bar Nir’s father was murdered in Katyn, and his mother was murdered in the Warsaw ghetto. When he was only six years old, he escaped from the Warsaw ghetto and wandered between different Christian families. After the war, he immigrated to Israel and served in the Israeli Air Force, where he reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Elisha Mizrahi, head of the Friends of Israel Desk in KKL-JNF’s Resource Development Division, welcomed the guests and explained the history of this special place situated in the Judean Hills. KKL-JNF and World B'nai Brith planted Martyrs Forest at the beginning of the 1950s. It was one of the first memorial sites in Israel to commemorate victims of the Holocaust. Six million trees have been planted here, one for each the six million Jews that were murdered. Many of the people who took part in planting the forest were Holocaust survivors themselves, who had arrived from Europe and wanted to commemorate the memory of their loved ones.
“It was difficult for our parents to speak about what happened to them during the Holocaust,” Mizrahi said. “Today, our job is to tell the stories and preserve the memories.”
Participants at the ceremony included
Zvi Ravner, who served as the Israeli ambassador to Poland from 2009 to 2014. “Jews and Christians were murdered in Katyn side by side,” he said. “Today, Poland is on good terms with Israel, and we should aspire to increase collaborations between the two countries, without forgetting our terrible past.”
“The ties between Israel and Poland are complex, mainly because of politicians and history,” said Israel-Poland Friendship Society Director
Zvi Kelner. “Our aspiration is to look forward, and to deepen our cultural, economic and tourism ties. All this can be accomplished, but obviously we can never forget the terrible past.”
Now, almost 80 years after the terrible massacre and thousands of kilometers away from Katyn Forest, trees are taking root and spreading their green branches high into the sky right here, in the Judean Hills. Like the tree that is rooted in the ground yet faces the sky, Israelis do not forget the past, but they also never lose hope for a brighter future.