On Monday, 25 May 2026, a delegation of the Centre for the Renewal of Culture (COK) participated in the international conference of the Platform for European Memory and Conscience (PEMC), held at the Silesian Centre for Freedom and Solidarity in Katowice, Poland. The conference was entitled “From Heroes to Remembrance: How Do We Build Memory Today?”.
Conference Proceedings: “From Heroes to Remembrance: How Do We Build Memory Today?”
The conference, organised as part of the PEMC annual meeting, focussed on how contemporary remembrance institutions translate heroism, sacrifice, and the legacy of totalitarian crimes into meaningful public memory — through methodology, programme design, and the creation of spaces that connect personal biographies with the architecture of remembrance and civic education.
The keynote address, entitled “Heroes, Victims and Memory: Creating Spaces of Remembrance and Experience”, was delivered by Mr Łukasz Kamiński, Director of the National Ossoliński Institute. This was followed by two panel discussions featuring international representatives from Poland, the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, France, Lithuania, and Italy.
The first panel examined how memory sites can avoid becoming static exhibitions by linking personal biographies with the physical architecture of remembrance. The second panel explored how remembrance initiatives emerge and endure, examining whether places of memory require a distinct genus loci to maintain authenticity, or whether foundational values can be institutionalised through symbolic action, political will, and the role of various stakeholders and civic authorities.
The Centre for the Renewal of Culture (COK) was represented at the conference by COK President, Dr Robin Harris, and the General Secretary, Mr Mate Ćurić.
Commemoration of the Wujek Tragedy
The following day, 26 May, our delegation joined other member organizations of the PEMC to attend a commemoration ceremony for the tragedy that occurred in 1981 at the nearby KWK Wujek coal mine in Katowice — an event that marks one of the darkest chapters of communist-era Polish history.
Following the declaration of martial law by General Wojciech Jaruzelski on 13 December 1981, workers across Poland rose in protest. Miners at the KWK Wujek mine launched a strike in solidarity with the banned Solidarity (Solidarność) movement. Three days later, heavily armed ZOMO riot police units, supported by armoured vehicles, stormed the mine to crush the strike. Officers opened fire on the unarmed miners, killing nine men and wounding dozens of others.
The nine victims — Józef Czekalski, Józef Giza, Ryszard Gzik, Bogusław Kopczak, Andrzej Pełka, Zbigniew Wilk, Joachim Gnida, Kornel Płatek, and Jan Stawisiński — have become enduring symbols of resistance against totalitarian oppression. A monument at the site of the mine stands today in their honour.
The COK delegation lit candles at the monument to pay tribute to the innocent victims of totalitarian oppression.
Further photographs from both events can be found below.
