HUDSON

Polish Katyn memorial statue in Jersey City won't be moved

Associated Press

Buildings in Lower Manhattan provide a backdrop to a statue dedicated to the victims of the Katyn massacre of 1940, in Jersey City, N.J.

JERSEY CITY — A Polish memorial statue that was the center of an international furor when a New Jersey mayor proposed moving it from its waterfront location will stay put.

Jersey City's council voted early Thursday to keep the Katyn memorial where it has stood for more than 25 years. The vote was reported by the Jersey Journal.

The vote ends a nine-month saga that featured protests, a federal lawsuit and heated words between Mayor Steven Fulop and Poland's Senate Speaker.

Polish President Andrzej Duda visited the memorial in May.

The statue shows a soldier blindfolded and stabbed in the back with a bayonet. It commemorates the estimated 22,000 Poles massacred by Soviet troops in 1940.

Officials had considered moving it to make way for a waterfront redevelopment project.