The film will be screened in Polish with English subtitles. Admission is free. This is a screening worth attending with children, friends, and American neighbors — because this story, though Polish, is universal.
Why “Katyń”
In the spring of 1940, the Soviet NKVD murdered over 22,000 Polish officers, policemen, teachers, doctors, engineers, and clergymen — the flower of Polish intelligentsia, taken captive after the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939. Their bodies were buried in mass graves in the Katyń Forest, Mednoye, Kharkiv, and other locations. For half a century, the Soviet Union lied, claiming the Germans committed the crime. The truth only came to light in 1990 when Mikhail Gorbachev officially admitted that Stalin had issued the order.
For Andrzej Wajda — the most distinguished Polish director, an Oscar laureate for lifetime achievement — Katyń was a personal matter. His father, Captain Jakub Wajda, died in Kharkiv as one of the victims of the crime. Wajda waited his entire life for the opportunity to make this film. He completed it in 2007 — when he was 81 years old. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
“Katyń” is not just a war film. It is a film about lies — about how a state can murder twenty-two thousand people and force their families into silence for fifty years. It is a film about mothers, wives, and daughters who knew the truth but could not speak it. And it is a film about how memory — even forbidden memory — outlives those who try to destroy it.
Pilecki Institute in Manhattan
The screening takes place at the New York branch of the Pilecki Institute — a Polish research institution founded in 2016, dedicated to the history of 20th-century totalitarianisms. The New York branch, opened in 2026 at 92 Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan — a few steps from the World Trade Center memorial and the Museum of Jewish Heritage — is an exhibition, research, and educational space. The Institute is named after Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki, who voluntarily allowed himself to be arrested and sent to Auschwitz to gather information about extermination camps for Allied governments.
The screening of “Katyń” aligns with the Institute’s mission — to remind the world of the crimes of totalitarian systems and the people who resisted them. For the Polish diaspora in America — it is an opportunity to see this film on the big screen, in an institution that exists so that a history like Katyń is never forgotten.
Event Details
What: Screening of the film “Katyń” (dir. Andrzej Wajda, 2007) — in Polish with English subtitles
When: Saturday, April 11, 2026, 5:00 PM
Where: Pilecki Institute USA, 92 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10006
Admission: Free
Film running time: 121 minutes
Directions: Rector Street subway station (lines 1, R, W) or Fulton Street (lines 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J, Z). The Institute is located near the 9/11 Memorial and Battery Park.
April — Katyń Month
The screening is not accidental. April is the month when Poland commemorates the victims of Katyń — April 13 marks the anniversary of the discovery of mass graves by the Germans in 1943. April 10 marks the anniversary of the Smoleńsk catastrophe in 2010, in which President Lech Kaczyński and 95 other people flying to Katyń commemorations in Russia died. These dates are permanently etched in Polish memory.
For the Polish diaspora in America — especially for the younger generation who know Katyń from textbooks but have never seen Wajda’s film — this is a chance for an experience that stays with you. “Katyń” is not an easy film. But it is a necessary one.
Editorial Team, Głos Polonii w USA (Voice of Polonia in USA)
Screening of the film “Katyń” | Saturday, April 11, 2026, 5:00 PM | Pilecki Institute USA, 92 Greenwich St, New York, NY 10006 | Free admission | Film in Polish with English subtitles
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