National Mourning: Memorial March & Service

Last night, the citizens of Toruń came together to pay their respects to both the Katyn masacre and the Smolensk air crash disaster. Thousands of Torunians marched in a procession through the streets of the old town. This culminated in a moving ceremony in the old market square. TDP was there to capture the moment and bring our readers right here into the midst of it all.

Incidentally, it's been confirmed that the funeral of President Lech Kaczyński and his wife Maria Kaczyńska will take place on Sunday in Kraków, where their bodies will be buried at the Wawel. This is a very special honour as the Wawel is usually reserved as the burial site for Poland's Kings and Queens. Many world leaders, including Barack Obama will be attending the funeral.

National Mourning: Remembering Katyn

A sombre scene in the old market square of Toruń: pictures are on display of some of the 20,000 Polish soldiers murdered by the Russians during WWII at Katyn. The exhibition marks the 70th anniversary of the masacre and was originally situated in the court yard of the Town Hall. However, due to Saturday's devastating tragedy in Smolensk the exhibition was moved to a more central location in the square.

Ironically, the Presidential plane which crashed in Smolensk was on it's way to a memorial service to mark Katyn.

Katyn will now go down in Polish history as a terrible double tragedy for the nation.

National Mourning: Toruń at Night

(above photo courtesy of Mark Hoogslag who kindly sent it in)

These images were taken last night, as the sea of candles increases in the main square. The railway carriage is actually a temporary memorial for the Katyn WWII massacre, in which thousands of Polish soldiers were sent to the forests of Katyn and murdered by the Russians. Ironically, it was to the 70th anniversary of Katyn that the Polish Presidential delegation was flying to.