The Polish presidential plane, carrying the president, his wife and some of the country's highest military and civilian leaders, was traveling to Russia on April 10 to recognize the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Forest Massacre when it crashed not far from the same storied ground.
St. Mary's Cathedral of the Assumption, located at Geary Boulevard and Gough Streets in San Francisco, will hold a solemn mass for the victims at 5:30 p.m.
A number of Bay Area Polish organizations are participating in the mass, including the Polish American Congress, the Polish Arts and Culture Foundation and the East Bay Polish American Association of Martinez.
During the 1940 Katyn massacre, Soviet agents, on the orders of Joseph Stalin, executed 22,000 Polish officers, clergy and intelligentsia in an attempt to extinguish Poland's elite.
