The previously undisturbed Katyn Memorial has been a popular international attraction at Exhibition Place since 1991. Mayor Fulop plans to expel Pitynski’s sculpture to some as yet unknown location. This decision was made unilaterally without any community consultation whatsoever. I believe this to be a contemptible decision by the Mayor, who it seems has let the power of his office go to his head. Personal tastes, even if held by a Mayor or government officials clinging to ephemeral power should not prevail over the human need to eternally honour Liberty, Truth and Virtue.

Possessing the gift of free will, individuals through time must choose between good and evil. In essence this inner conflict is embodied in the struggle between liberty and tyranny. In the triumph of liberty over tyranny through the ages there have been heroic individuals who to this day serve as role models for humanity. There have also been countless innocent victims of rampant tyranny. People have an inherent need to commemorate the innocents and to express their sense of thanksgiving for the blessings bestowed on them by people who have gone before, especially blessings bestowed by people who have willingly put themselves in harm‘s way so that others can live free.

Pitynski’s Jersey City Monument is not just about Katyn, it commemorates the innocent victims of tyranny and the heroic martyrs who died fighting for liberty, truth and virtue as symbolised here in three ways: by "Katyn"; by those who perished when forcibly ‘resettled’ into remote penal servituded in Siberia; and the innocent people who died in the 9/11 Terrorist attack on America.

Katyn.The gagged and bound lone Polish soldier being bayoneted in the back on the monument pedestal honours the nearly 22 000 Polish reservist officers who were held in captivity by Soviet socialist thought police at the beginning of WW2. These officers refused to save their own lives by betraying their Faith, their Honour and their Nation to become informants for the opressors of Poland. In late September, 1939, daily in the early hours of the morning, for nearly six months, the Russian ‘Thought Police’ repeatedly interrogated the reservist officers in harsh conditions at POW camps at Kozielsk, Starobielsk and Ostaszkow in what at the time was the Soviet Union.

In a cross checking process, the Officers were repeatedly asked about their backgrounds and political opinions. The teachers, priests, professors, engineers, journalists, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, managers, accountants and community leaders were pressured to become informers and communist activists. All but about a dozen or so remained ‘True’.Those whom the ‘Thought Police’ had determined could not be ‘turned’ were, over a period of several weeks, taken deep into the forests around Katyn, Charkow, Miednoje and elsewhere in groups of two to three hundred. There they were shot in the back of the head and buried in mass graves. Some were bayoneted before or after being shot. Although the executions took place in several locations they are nowadays generically referred to as the ‘Katyn’ massacres.

Siberia.The bas-relief on the proper right hand side of the pedestal shows a manacled mother holding a dead infant in her arms moving forward bearing a look of injustice, but with her spirit unconquered. At either side there is a child, the eldest, a boy, upright and determined, supports his mother while the daughter, tired and forlorn, clings to her. All are shoeless with only improvised bindings protecting their feet. In the upper background a Cross bears the inscription ‘Siberia 1939’ and at the base a crush of the mother’s fellow ‘deportees’ are shown plodding together.

The bas-relief commemorates the 2 million innocent women, children and elderly persons who perished during the course of WWII after they were uprooted in the early hours of the morning from their homes and farms in Soviet controlled Poland. They were given about 2 hours to pack and they were then freighted to Siberia and Kazakhstan in cattle cars on journeys that lasted about six weeks in freezing conditions. Many died in transit, most of the others were worked to death in the labour camps. The bas-relief also commemorates thousands of Polish patriots of the underground who were murdered by the Soviet secret police from 1944 to 1956. In summary, the bas-relief inscription states that “this monument is dedicated to the millions of Polish citizens and heroes who offered their lives in the fight against communism for our and your freedom. Let them have honour and glory for all time”.

Sorrowful Liberty and the Innocent Victims of 9/11. At the base of the proper left hand side of the pedestal is a bas relief that commemorates the innocent people who died as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attack on America. Pitynski biographer, Don Reynolds states that it was “Unveiled on September 12, 2004, Sorrowful Liberty is a bust-length Madonna-like figure hovering over a cityscape of lower Manhattan that Includes the World Financial Center, the Municipal Building, and the Twin Towers set before her like an architect's model. Katyn- 1940 is silhouetted against the Twin Towers, placing the spectator in Exchange Place, site of the Katyn monument, looking eastward toward Manhattan, as the twin towers were under attack, smoke billowing from their upper stories. The inscription beneath reads “Never forget ! Pray for all the innocent victims and heroes who died in the terrorist attack on America, September 11, 2001” 1)

Sculptore Andrzej Pitynski, now living in the USA, a land of liberty, was born on 15th March, 1947, in Poland, a nation opressed at the time by Soviet socialist puppets. Throughout childhood, Andrzej witnessed his family being subjected to frequent and brutal searches and the constant ransacking of their home, including the tearing up of floorboards. As the son of Polish freedom fighters, Pitynski’s educational opportunities were severely restricted by the State.

Having experienced life both in tyranny and in liberty, when he witnessed the terrorist attack of 9/11, with the World Trade Center literally in flames and collapsing in the background of his Jersey City ‘Katyn’ monument, Pitynski was inspired to honour the innocent victims. Reynolds describes the bas-relief thus: “As Pitynski envisions her: Sorrowful Liberty holds in her arms the burning towers of the World Trade Center. Her face expresses sorrow and pain. On her right cheek are three wounds representing the three attacks on America on Septermber 11, 2001; New York City, Washington DC and Shankesville, Pennsylvania. Behind her head are thirteen rays representing the thirteen original American colonies, on her gown are 50 stars, one for each state of the Union, and on her breast is the official seal of the Unites States. Viewers, looking on the relief, then looking across the Hudson River at the cityscaper of lower Manhattan, can locate where the towers onces stood.” 2)

A replica of ‘Sorrowful Liberty was unveiled on the facade of St Stanislaus Church in Manhattan. The Madonna of Sorrowful Liberty is now identified as “Our Lady of New York” by people of Polish heritage.

We Must Fight to Keep Jersey City’s ‘Katyn’ Monument Where It Is.

All people who appreciate liberty, no matter what their heritage, must fight to keep the ‘Katyn’ monument in its present location at Exchange Place. The personal tastes of Jersey City’s Mayor must not be allowed to prevail.

The ambitious Fulop seems to have a personal hatred of Poles. When the Speaker of the Polish Senate, Stanislaw Karczewski, legitamately expressed his concerns and his disgust that the decision to remove and relocate the Katyn monument had been reached unilaterally without any community consultation whatsoever, rather than addressing the Speakers concerns with reasoned arguments civilly expressed he instead reflexively and vitriolically attacked the speaker personally.

After Karczewski described the unilateral decision as ‘scandalous’ and ‘unpleasant’, Fulop replied ”All I can say is this guy is a joke. The fact is that a known anti-Semite, white nationalist holocaust denier like him has zero credibility. The only unpleasant thing is Senator Stanislaw. Period. I’ve always wanted to tell him that”. Fulop went on to say: "The fact that a known anti-Semite, a known white nationalist, and a known Holocaust denier thinks that he will be able to influence Jersey City parks or policies is laughable."

I reiterate, the personal tastes of Jersey City’s Mayor should not be allowed to prevail over the monument’s capability of honouring, for eternity, the innocent victims of tyranny and the heroic martyrs who died fighting for liberty, truth and virtue. The very fact that there was no community consultation seems to indicate that the Mayor knows that he would not get his own way because the community would prefer that the monument be kept at its present location. Although the Mayor and city officials are the decision makers, their strong desire to remain in office and stay in the limelight to further their career path make them vulnerable to the force of numbers. Fulop has previously run for the office of State Governor and his failed campaign was substantially funded by Mack Cali to the tune of $250,000.

Kielce Monument. Internet.

To build the force of numbers the broader community must be made aware that the ‘Katyn’ monument, ‘Siberia’ and ‘Sorrowful Liberty’ commemorate not just people of Polish heritage, but all of humanity. And all humanity benefits when Liberty, Truth and Virtue prevails. The broader community must also be made aware of the fact that those who died in the 9/11 attacks on America are commemorated by many monuments built around the world. One such monument is located in Kielce, Poland. Kielce local government officials duly respect what the monument commemorates and they have no plans to expel it from its current location.

Felix Molski

Notes 1. Reynolds, Donald M. Pitynski. Perennial Wisdom Press, Limited, 2015, pp 184-185
2. Ibid p 185

SOME LINKS

Child of the "Damned" by F. Molski

Relocation? Article in Polish

Prezydent Duda o sytuacji

Burza wokó³ pomnika