Polish veterinarians - victims of the Katyn Massacre. Martyrology of the Polish War Cemetery in Kharkov

The purpose of this study is to present the profiles of fifty-seven Polish veterinary surgeons, prisoners of the Starobielsk camp, murdered at the headquarters of the Kharkov NKVD Board in late April and early May 1940 and buried at the Polish War Cemetery, Cemetery of Victims of Totalitarianism in Kharkov. In the article, the authors provide a brief historical outline of the Red Army’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the motives leading to the Katyn Massacre. The main part of the article contains a list of names of Polish veterinary surgeons, victims of the Katyn Massacre, together with biographical notes. It highlights the fact that during the ongoing war in Ukraine, the cemetery, as a place of Polish memory, was bombed by the Russians with cluster bombs. It is also important to assume that after the end of the current war, the Polish War Cemetery in Kharkov will probably become the only memorial of the Katyn Massacre on the territory of the former USSR.