Katyn museum

Katyn Museum & Citadel ( if you speak Polish) - darkometer rating : 6 - A fairly new museum in Warsaw about the Katyn massacres of a large part of the Polish military's officer class and intelligentsia by the Soviet Union in the spring of 1940, following the USSR 's invasion of eastern Poland in the early stages of WWII . This is located in the Warsaw Citadel, which will also become of interest in itself especially when the new Museum of Polish History opens that is currently under construction there. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: The Katyn massacre is, from a Polish perspective, one of the greatest traumas of the nation in the 20th century and had long been a black spot on Polish-Russian relations. What happened? When Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, thus kicking off WWII , the Soviet Union went in from the east to occupy the Baltic states and parts of eastern Poland (which ended up as parts of present-day Ukraine and Lithuania ) – all this was previously agreed between Hitler and Stalin as part of the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact . In this early phase of the war, the two countries even exchanged Polish POW s. Those captured by or handed over to the Soviets were often sent to labour camps in the east of Russia (and many perished in the harsh conditions there) or held prisoner in specially set up camps in the west of the USSR .