An Indescribable Tragedy

President and First Lady of the Republic of Poland - Lech and Maria Kaczynski

"Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy."

I never thought I would find myself quoting F. Scott Fitzgerald in Poland (can there be a more antithetical literary figure for this land?), but the tragedy the Polish nation suffered yesterday left me lacking in original words.

At 9:45 am I was driving to Łomianki, north of Warsaw with Barbara and Megan to pick up Ennis, our new Border Terrier puppy at the home of the breeder, Benita, from Dziekanowska Kennels. But that is another story, a happy one, that I will save for later.

A colleague called me to let me know that Reuters was reporting that the plane carrying President Kaczynski to Smolensk, Russia had crashed. I gave him the usual instructions "let the Embassy duty officer know", etc, then turned on the radio. While we drove, I reflected on the fact that a Polish delegation was heading to commemorate the horrible and historical events at Katyn that occured in 1940. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre

The execution of 22,000 Polish prisoners of war (officers, intellectuals, the flower of Poland) by the NKVD at the order of the psychopaths Stalin and Beria, was intended to quell Polish resistance to Soviet occupation by eliminating societies leaders. The Soviets hadn't learned anything from history.

They hadn't learned that you can't kill Poland by occupation, fire, killing its key figures, subjugating its government, or any other method. For 1000 years, the Polish people have resisted some of the most ambitious plans to subjugate and even erase them.

Now, the leaders of modern Poland, including key military and government figures, were on their way to join Russian President Medvedev in a breakthrough joint commeration of the attrocities at Katyn. This has historic as this has never been attended by Russian leaders in the past, a significant event in bilateral relations between historic enemies trying to reconcile.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/793567--analysis-once-again-katyn-claims-nation-s-best-and-brightest

Among this crash were heros of modern Poland. When a nation loses its President and First Lady it is like having its heart ripped out. Among the victims were also a former President in exile, solidarity heros, the National Security Advisor Aleksander Szczyglo, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Jerzy Szmajdzinski, and too many others who dedicated themselves to making Poland the free and democratic state that it has become...a true Third Polish Republic in every sense of the term.


It is terrible irony again that this plane, carrying some of the top figures in the modern Polish state would crash within 15 kilometers of the site where so many had lost their lives in 1940, for which the trip was scheduled. Shakespeare couldn't have written something so terrible and unimaginable. Professor Norman Davies, the great Poland and European scholar, went out to Katyn and was with Prime Minister Tusk, who arrived several days prior to speak to his counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Maybe he will find the words that I lack to describe this awful feeling of loss that even I, a stranger in a strange land can't capture.

I met several Poles on Saturday. Some had been crying for their loss. Others were picking yogurt products off the shelves of the store where I went in a hurry to avoid the closure of stores for today. Life went on. As one inebriated reminded me..."Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła"... Poland has not yet perished...the first words of their national anthem. Before he kissed me three times then ripped me to shreds about our visa policy. Indeed the spirit that makes the Poles who they are will live and thrive.