Whenever there’s a tragedy that gains worldwide attention, there’s usually synchronicity related to it. That is certainly the case of the crash of a Polish jet in Russia last Saturday. As you’ve probably heard, Poland lost its president, top military brass, and other elite members of Polish society in the crash that killed 96.
Here’s the sad synchronicity. The plane crashed in Russia’s Katyn forest where thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals were slain by Soviet forces in World War II in an attempt to eliminate some the country’s leaders. That, in itself, is a startling synchronicity. But now add this to the scenario: The Polish leaders on the flight were on a trip to Russia to honor those who died in Katyn forest 70 years ago.
Former President Lech Walesa, who was wasn’t on the plane, said: “This is so much like Katyn, where our head was cut off.”
Among those killed with President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, his closest aides, lawmakers, army commanders, church figures, were relatives of the victims of the 1940 massacre of Polish officers in Katyn forest. Also, among the dead was Ryszard Kaczorowski, 90, the last leader of the Poland’s exiled resistance government, based in London.
Also killed was, Anna Walentynowicz, 80, an icon of Poland’s Solidarity freedom movement. Workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk went on strike when Walentynowicz was fired from her job as a crane operator in August 1980 for her opposition activity. That action sparked strikes that spread quickly to other plants across the country, giving rise to Solidarity, the movement that helped bring down Soviet rule in Poland nine years later.
One further bittersweet synchronicity involving this tragedy. Polish sculptor Wojciech Seweryn, who lived in the Chicago area, died in the crash. Seweryn, 70, designed a memorial to the victims of Katyn that stands in a cemetery in Niles, Illinois. He had made the trip to honor his father, who perished at Katyn in 1940.
A sad story, filled with irony. It’s almost as if the horror of what happened in that forest 70 years ago, was so powerful that it brought down the plane carrying those who were honoring the dead. In spite of the sadness for all of those who died in the plane crash, there’s also a larger picture, an action of the mass consciousness of a people. In a sense, it was a fitting closure for the many older Polish people on board. At some level in their individual consciousness, they had all agreed to be on this airplane and depart in this manner.


















