Katyn

Standing beneath Baltimore's newest and tallest sculpture, the Rev. Zdzislaw J. Peszkowski yesterday remembered the martyrs - the Polish soldiers who were marched into the Katyn forest and shot dead in the back of the head. He recalled a detail: The Soviets stuffed some of the victims' mouths with sawdust to muffle their cries. "And now," he said, "Baltimore is shouting to everybody, `Never again!'" Peszkowski, who survived the massacre that killed thousands of his compatriots, was part of an international cast that helped to formally unveil the National Katyn Memorial yesterday a couple of blocks east of the Inner Harbor.

The long-delayed Charm City Circulator Bus made a cameo appearance Friday in Harbor East, as city and business leaders kicked off a campaign aimed at encouraging workers and residents to ease the bustling neighborhood's traffic by taking transit or a water taxi, biking or walking. People who turned out for the event at the Katyn Memorial got a chance to hop aboard the new hybrid bus, but they still can't ride it anywhere. Production problems and a slumping economy continue to hold up delivery of the 21 buses it is acquiring, city officials said.

Alfred B. Wisniewski, a retired bar owner who led the effort to build a Polish World War II memorial in Baltimore, died of cancer Thursday at the Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation and Extended Care Center in Baltimore. The Fells Point resident was 80. Born in Baltimore and raised on Chester Street, he graduated from Holy Rosary Parochial School before attending Polytechnic Institute. He worked briefly at the Glenn L. Martin aircraft plant in Middle River before enlisting in the Navy and serving in North Africa during World War II. Returning to Baltimore, he purchased Eddie's Cafe, a once-popular waterfront tavern at Pratt and South streets.

THE PROBLEM -- Two explanatory panels at the National Katyn Memorial have been damaged for months. THE BACKSTORY -- Vicky Schetelich and her husband, who have lived in Harbor East for nearly three years, take daily strolls along Aliceanna and President streets. They walk past the National Katyn Memorial, a soaring golden statue and fountain that commemorates the 1940 massacre of Polish soldiers by Soviet troops during World War II. Schetelich called the memorial "a little oasis in the middle" of construction that's taken place over the past several years.

Baltimore's lame-duck Art Commission didn't like it, but Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke did. And that's what counted.The Polish-American sponsors of the proposed Katyn Memorial near the Inner Harbor have received a long-delayed go-ahead for their sculptor's design, apparently breaking an impasse.Soaring as high as 46 feet above a traffic circle in a waterfront development tract south of Little Italy, the abstract bronze memorial by sculptor Andrzej Pitynski would honor the memory of 15,000 Polish army officers slain by the Soviet secret police in 1940.

A group of local community activists and Polish-Americans is asking state officials to help fund the creation of a bronze sculpture, to be placed in Inner Harbor East in memory of 15,400 military officers and Polish intellectuals killed by Russian soldiers during World War II.Those who were slain by the Soviet NKVD -- the predecessor to the KGB -- in the Katyn Forest in western Russia in May 1940 were some of Poland's most educated doctors, lawyers, soldiers...

Builders of what will be the tallest sculpture in Baltimore -- a bronze memorial more than five stories tall to honor thousands of Polish Army officers and intellectuals murdered during World War II -- will break ground for the project today near the Inner Harbor. The National Katyn Memorial Committee, a nonprofit organization led by Polish-American residents of the city, plans to start construction on the abstract sculpture in a circle next to President and Aliceanna streets. The statue will be devoted to the Polish officers who were massacred in Poland's Katyn forest and buried there and in mass graves near Kiev, Ukraine.

THIS IS NOT about the 25-story statue of Columbus, or whomever its Russian sculptor meant to portray, that some would like to see in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.This is about another statue, three stories tall, with a darker Russian connection and a much better chance of being erected, if not in the harbor, a block east of it.Dozens of people have been working for a decade to build the National Katyn Memorial in Baltimore. (If Washington gets to share the Orioles, Baltimore attractions get to claim they are ''national.

THE PROBLEM -- Two explanatory panels at the National Katyn Memorial have been damaged for months. THE BACKSTORY -- Vicky Schetelich and her husband, who have lived in Harbor East for nearly three years, take daily strolls along Aliceanna and President streets. They walk past the National Katyn Memorial, a soaring golden statue and fountain that commemorates the 1940 massacre of Polish soldiers by Soviet troops during World War II. Schetelich called the memorial "a little oasis in the middle" of construction that's taken place over the past several years.

Backers of the National Katyn Memorial project could be forgiven for thinking the fates were against them. They had spent more than a decade raising $1.4 million for a statue commemorating the thousands of Polish officers massacred by Soviet troops during World War II, and last weekend was to be an extended celebration of the monument's arrival from Europe. But storms and labor trouble delayed the statue's voyage and forced the cancellation of the parades, banquets and diplomatic receptions that were to have welcomed the sculpture to Baltimore.

Wearing the medals she earned fighting in the Polish Underground during World War II, Alfreda Jamrosz struggled to keep warm yesterday as she waited to read a poem. She was among about 100 or so who had gathered at the National Katyn Memorial in Inner Harbor East to mark the 65th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish military officers by Soviet troops. "We have to remember these people who were killed not for any other reason but they were Polish," she said, warming up over a cup of coffee at the Polish National Alliance building on Eastern Avenue afterward.

Alfred B. Wisniewski, a retired bar owner who led the effort to build a Polish World War II memorial in Baltimore, died of cancer Thursday at the Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation and Extended Care Center in Baltimore. The Fells Point resident was 80. Born in Baltimore and raised on Chester Street, he graduated from Holy Rosary Parochial School before attending Polytechnic Institute. He worked briefly at the Glenn L. Martin aircraft plant in Middle River before enlisting in the Navy and serving in North Africa during World War II. Returning to Baltimore, he purchased Eddie's Cafe, a once-popular waterfront tavern at Pratt and South streets.

In Baltimore City School counselor in jail after arrest on drug charges A counselor at a private Randallstown school for emotionally disturbed children was arrested yesterday on drug charges. Laval Lee Madden Jr., 29, of the 6600 block of Birchwood Road in Baltimore was indicted Wednesday on charges of possession with intent to distribute heroin, possession of heroin and intent to distribute "28 grams or more of morphine or opium or any derivative," according to the Baltimore District Office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

In Baltimore City Three-alarm blaze damages rowhouses, displaces 3 families A three-alarm fire that started in a vacant dwelling in Southwest Baltimore early yesterday damaged five rowhouses and temporarily displaced three families, fire officials said. Battalion Chief Hector L. Torres said the fire, reported at 12:50 a.m. in the 1900 block of Christian St., is being investigated as a possible arson. He said flames spread along a common attic to rowhouses on either side -- three of them occupied.

Standing beneath Baltimore's newest and tallest sculpture, the Rev. Zdzislaw J. Peszkowski yesterday remembered the martyrs - the Polish soldiers who were marched into the Katyn forest and shot dead in the back of the head. He recalled a detail: The Soviets stuffed some of the victims' mouths with sawdust to muffle their cries. "And now," he said, "Baltimore is shouting to everybody, `Never again!'" Peszkowski, who survived the massacre that killed thousands of his compatriots, was part of an international cast that helped to formally unveil the National Katyn Memorial yesterday a couple of blocks east of the Inner Harbor.

In Baltimore City Katyn memorial to be dedicated next month at harbor Dedication ceremonies for the National Katyn Memorial in Baltimore's Inner Harbor have been rescheduled for 1 p.m. Nov. 19 at President and Aliceanna streets near Little Italy. Delays in delivering the five-story bronze monument from Poland forced planners to reschedule the dedication of the memorial to more than 15,000 Polish military officers killed by the Soviet Union and buried in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk, Russia.

In Baltimore City Katyn memorial to be dedicated next month at harbor Dedication ceremonies for the National Katyn Memorial in Baltimore's Inner Harbor have been rescheduled for 1 p.m. Nov. 19 at President and Aliceanna streets near Little Italy. Delays in delivering the five-story bronze monument from Poland forced planners to reschedule the dedication of the memorial to more than 15,000 Polish military officers killed by the Soviet Union and buried in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk, Russia.

More than 400 politicians, community activists and Polish Americans dedicated a round plot of grass yesterday in Inner Harbor east to the memory of 15,400 Polish soldiers and intellectuals killed by Russian soldiers during World War II.At a roundabout at Aliceanna and Felicia streets, under a sunny afternoon sky, the crowd heard descriptions of the killings from Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Paul S. Sarbanes, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and about a dozen other dignitaries.Those who were killed in April and May of 1940 in the Katyn Forest of western Russia, were some of Poland's most educated and talented doctors, lawyers, soldiers and clergy.

Backers of the National Katyn Memorial project could be forgiven for thinking the fates were against them. They had spent more than a decade raising $1.4 million for a statue commemorating the thousands of Polish officers massacred by Soviet troops during World War II, and last weekend was to be an extended celebration of the monument's arrival from Europe. But storms and labor trouble delayed the statue's voyage and forced the cancellation of the parades, banquets and diplomatic receptions that were to have welcomed the sculpture to Baltimore.

The tallest sculpture in Baltimore was to be dedicated Sept. 10 - but it was unable to make its own coming-out party. For more than a decade, a group of local Polish-Americans has scrimped and sweated to fund the construction of a 44-foot-high bronze statue commemorating a massacre of thousands of Polish officers in World War II. But the 12-ton work is on the other side of the Atlantic, its ocean journey from Poland delayed by bad weather and labor troubles....