Members of Madison's Polish community held a vigil at the Capitol on Saturday afternoon in memory of the 96 people, including the Polish president, killed in a plane crash earlier in the day.
The plane's passengers, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski and other national military, church and government officials, were headed to Katyn to commemorate the 70th anniversary of a Soviet massacre in the same location when their plane crashed, according to the Associated Press.
Former student Patrick Peczerski organized the memorial with UW's Polish Student Association and Madison Polish Heritage Club, and said most of his Polish friends were ""just in complete shock.""
""Everyone just poured out into the streets [in Poland]. Even though it was raining they went to light candles at the Presidential building. Most of my friends are liberals and even though Kaczynski … was a conservative, everyone just sort of forgot about politics.""
Peczerski the event he helped organized will hopefully help others in his community cope with such a major loss.
Former UW student Marek Rogal described the vigil's atmosphere as ""surreal.""
""With the kind of high-profile people on the plane, it's like a tragedy in a small town, so everybody to some extend knew them.""
Rogal said he was shocked to see that one of the victims was someone he had grown up with in Poland, Sebastian Karpiniuk. Rogal said their parents knew each other and Karpiniuk had once rented a room in his grandmother's house before moving on to his deputy position in the Polish Parliament.
UW-Madison Junior and President of the Polish Students Association Magdalena Bojda could not attend Saturday's vigil, but said she was glad others had a chance to ""show a collective expression of sorrow and solidarity.""
""A lot of people here right now have a lot of family in Poland and everyone is kind of feeling it altogether,"" Bojda said.
