Speaking at the opening of the Dom Pamięci Obławy Augustowskiej (Augustów Roundup Memorial House), Culture Minister Hanna Wróblewska called the 1945 crackdown a "planned extermination" of Polish resistance fighters.
"What began here around July 12 was no coincidence. It was the largest mass crime against civilians in Europe after World War Two," Wróblewska said.
The minister stressed the importance of cultural institutions in preserving history.
"Culture and memory are inseparable. Through places like this, we pass on the legacy of the past and shape awareness and sensitivity" she added.
"This House of Remembrance will be a guardian of truth – often painful – and a symbol of remembrance," Wróblewska said.
President Andrzej Duda, in a statement on social media, noted that the victims were abducted, murdered by Soviet counterintelligence agency SMERSH, and remain missing to this day.
"Six hundred people disappeared without a trace. Abducted. Deported. Murdered. For 80 years, families have waited to know where to light a candle," Duda wrote.
"Their only 'crime' was loyalty to a free Poland, independent from Moscow," he added.
"For decades, commemoration was forbidden, their names erased. But memory survived – in homes, hearts, prayers and stories."
The Augustów Roundup, known in Poland as Obława Augustowska, was carried out by the Red Army with support from Polish communist forces in July 1945.
Often referred to as a "little Katyń," the operation targeted anti-Soviet partisans in northeastern Poland.
Saturday’s commemoration was organised by the Pilecki Institute and attended by state and local officials, historians, and families of the victims.
(ał)
Source: PAP, IAR