Jersey City Mayor Fulop announces new location of Polish WWII statue

<p>Mayor Steve Fulop has announced a decision on the future of a Polish World War II statue in Jersey City.</p>

News 12 Staff

May 14, 2018, 3:13 PM

Updated 2,167 days ago

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Jersey City Mayor Fulop announces new location of Polish WWII statue
Mayor Steve Fulop has announced a decision on the future of a Polish World War II statue in Jersey City.
The Katyn Memorial, a statue dedicated to Polish prisoners of war killed in Russia, will be moved from its current home in Exchange Place up the Hudson waterfront to the end of York Street on land leased for free to the Polish government for 99 years.
The monument has been in its current location since 1986, and was planned to be moved for development.
About 50 people opposing the move heckled the officials during the news conference.
At one point, Slawek Platta, an attorney who is leading the move to keep the statue where it is, approached the podium and tried to speak. 
A police officer kept Platta from going up and speaking, blocking Platta for the rest of the news conference.
The group swore to fight on, and Platta took the podium after the news conference concluded. He said the new spot was not fit for a monument because the monument has the ashes of those massacred inside it.
Fulop says the statue was already moved once in the past.
The controversy may end up being decided in court, as Platta told News 12 that a lawsuit is moving forward.
The Katyn massacre happened in April and May 1940, when Soviet troops on the orders of Joseph Stalin executed 22,000 polish soldiers, police officers and civilians.
The Katyn Forest is the area where the mass graves of those killed were discovered.


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