The Katyn Massacre Was Committed By Nazis
Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2023 2:08 pm
GERMANS COMMITTED THE KATYN FOREST MASSACRE
All the evidence I secured showed that the Polish group in London was more interested in doing something against Russia than in doing anything for Poland. This made it easy to understand why they accepted and spread the Goebbels story about the murder of 10,000 Poles in Smolensk. Their unhesitating acceptance of this Nazi propaganda caused the Soviet government to sever relations with the Polish government-in-exile in 1943. It will be remembered that the Germans captured Smolensk on the night of July 15th 1941. Almost two years later Goebbels broadcast to the world that the Russians had killed 10,000 Polish prisoners there, and that their bodies had been found in the Katyn Forest. The Polish government-in-exile immediately gave credence to the Nazi allegation by asking the international Red Cross to investigate. It seemed a preposterous charge. If the Russians had really killed the Poles it would have been known by the people of Smolensk and the Germans would certainly have found out about it almost immediately. It was not the sort of thing that the Germans would have kept quiet about for two years. The Red Army retook Smolensk on September 25, 1943, and the Soviet government immediately instituted an investigation of a massacre.
I visited the Katyn Forest with American, British, Chinese, and French correspondents. Dr. Victor Prozorovsky, Director of the Moscow Institute of Criminal Medical Research, showed me about. The 10,000 bodies had been dug up, and the Russians were systematically examining everything found on them as well as performing autopsies. Eleven doctors were working continuously. I watched some of the autopsies, which were very thorough. The bodies, including the internal organs, were remarkably well preserved. The doctor said that this alone was sufficient to prove the falsity of the charge.
The Russians found letters on the bodies dated after the Germans occupied the city, thus proving that the victims could not had been killed at the time alleged. We talked with a Russian priest whose parish was in the Katyn Forest. He had been driven out of this church by the Germans, and then the building had been surrounded by barbed wire and SS men. The priest declared that the Germans had killed the Poles there. A Russian who had served under the Germans testified that the German authorities had ordered the death of the Polish prisoners. The diary of the Mayor who fled with the Germans contained clear evidence that the Germans had committed the murders. However, the fact which impressed me as much as any other, was that the corpses still had their fine leather boots. I had seen, traveling at the front, that it was general Russian practice to remove the boots of the dead. It seemed unlikely that they would have made an exception in this case, and left 10,000 pairs of good boots behind. Every correspondent who visited Katyn Forest came away convinced that it was another Nazi atrocity.
Davis, Jerome. Behind Soviet Power. New York, N. Y.: The Readers’ Press, Inc., c1946, p. 99
In 1943, near the railway station of Katyn, in the forest near the village of Kozy Gory, a vast burial ground of several thousand Polish officers was discovered. The Nazis at once declared that this was the work of Soviet hands’, while a special commission in Moscow stated that it was simply another example of Nazi brutality. A series of documents have been found in a special section of the Main Soviet Archives which make it plain that Katyn was in fact the work of Beria’a agency, though no single document has yet been found bearing his signature or that of any of his henchmen actually ordering the massacre. The order must either have been destroyed after the act or have been given orally.
Volkogonov, Dmitri. Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991, p. 360
Each one of them [Polish officers] had been shot in the back of the neck with a German bullet.
Nekrich and Heller. Utopia in Power. New York: Summit Books, c1986, p. 404
KATYN GRAVES STORY DECLARED GRIM FRAUD
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 28.
The story of the mass graves at Katyn, which caused a world sensation two years ago, was a propaganda stunt staged by Goebbels and Ribbentrop to cause a split between Russia and her western allies, says a report received here through special channels that is supported by a message from Oslo tonight. A Himmler close collaborator, SS Brigade Leader Schellenberg, is declared to have given this sensational information during an examination at Allied Headquarters in Germany last Tuesday. He is quoted as saying that 12,000 bodies were taken from German concentration camps and attired in old Polish uniforms to make them appear to be Polish officers.
Tonight a corroborative report was received from Oslo, where Erik Johansen–recently repatriated prisoner from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany–tells an interesting story about German production of false identification documents for bodies in Katyn mass graves.
Johansen says a special section of the concentration camp was completely isolated and strongly guarded by SS men, whereupon forty to sixty Jewish prisoners were picked out to forge the documents. They received the best optical instruments obtainable so the work could be done to perfection. They made passports, letters, etc. and even wallets, which were treated with a special chemical fluid to make them look worn.
Before the German capitulation all machines, instruments and material used were destroyed and the Jewish specialists were killed to prevent the secret from getting out, he said.
New York Times, June 29, 1945 p. 2
Katyn Forest Massacre
from Military-Historical Journal, 1991
by Romyald Sviatec
Who gained more from the murder of the Polish officers?
In order to answer this question, it is necessary to, at least sketchily, clarify the relations of the Germans and the Russians toward the Poles. It is known that the Germans started the war with Poland, as they required Polish lands and Polish workers. From the first days of the occupation, they began to destroy the Polish intellectual elite. The movement of the Russians into the eastern part of Poland had a different character, which was expressed in the note of the Soviet Government handed to the Polish ambassador in Moscow. The Polish-German war exposed the insolvency of the Polish state. In the course of ten days of military (German) operations, Poland lost all of its manufacturing and cultural centers. Warsaw, as a Capital of Poland, did not exist any more. The Polish government fell apart and did not show signs of life. This meant that the Polish state and its government factually ceased to exist.
With this, the agreements that had been concluded between the USSR and Poland were no longer valid–left to itself and abandoned without direction. Poland became a convenient field for all kinds of the accidental and unexpected, capable of threats to the Soviet Union. Because of this, being until then neutral, the Soviet government could not be in different to these facts any more, as also to the fact that the Ukrainians and the White Russians,–being of the same blood (as the Russians)–and living on the territory of Poland, and having been thrown to the mercy of such destiny, remained unprotected.
In view of such a situation, the Soviet government gave an order to the High Command of the Red Army that the army should cross the frontier and take under protection the life and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western White Russia. After this took place, the war between Poland and the Soviet Union was officially ended and Poland represented no more of a danger for the USSR….
The situation with the Germans was exactly the opposite. In spite of the fact that the German armies were occupying Poland, the war between the two states was continuing, as some of the Polish army were fighting against the Germans in France and England, and therefore, any Polish officer presented to the Germans a potential danger.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 197-198
Being in Varkut, Camp No. 10, [Romyald Sviatec] met a Major of the German Army who, from 1941, found himself in Smolensk. From him, I found out that it definitely was the Germans who operated several camps for Polish war prisoners. In one conversation, I got interested in his knowing about Katyn. He answered me directly that this was the work of the hands of Germans, as it was in the interests of Germany to commit this massacre.
He was sincerely surprised that the Polish officials were blaming the Russians. The Major stated that a good soldier, especially an officer, must die, if his Motherland is perishing. He stated that after he had fallen to the Russians as a prisoner, he understood very well that he might die, and if that would be his fate, he would accept that as a good German soldier. He also knew the attempt by General Sikorski in Moscow to free the Polish officers and soldiers, which he said would assist the Soviet-Polish agreement. This German major did not, in the slightest, consider his Polish officers’ massacre by Germany as a crime. To his way of thinking, these Polish officers represented a danger to the German Reich. This was also the opinion of most of the other German prisoners of war.
In Camp No. 11 in Varkut, I met Vlodzhimir Mandryk, who, before the war and during the period of occupation, worked in the main post office in Smolensk. He absolutely insisted that near Smolensk, from 1940 there were German camps for Polish prisoners of war. He was adamant that the Germans murdered the Poles.
By his account of the period between August and October of 1941, letters to Polish prisoners of war ceased to arrive and be processed by the post office. Any letters that kept on coming to the prisoners, the Germans gave the post office orders to destroy all these letters. Also, at this time, Mandryk recalls the Germans told everyone in Smolensk that the Polish officers were relocated back in Polish territory.
…Amongst the many recollections which I read about Katyn, there was a book by Stanislaw Svjanevich by the name of “In the Shadow of Katyn,” and also in the book by Joseph Chapskov, “Upon the Inhuman Earth.” I learned that Polish war prisoners were treated very well by the Russians. In 1940, there were three Polish generals in POW camps–Minkewich, Smorovinsly and Bakhaterebur. When these prisoners were departing the camps, the Soviet authorities gave them a farewell banquet, especially for the higher officer corps. The Russians wanted to show the Germans that they are civilized and knew how to treat prisoners. This might be looked upon as having little meaning, but if you lived with the Russians during those hard times of war, you would appreciate the real meaning of that gesture.
The Russians wanted to show the Polish officers that they, the Russians and Poles have one common enemy, therefore, uniting together would be in the interests of everyone. No one can convince me that it was the Russians who murdered these Polish officers. [This was also shown by] the Polish-Russian agreement of 1941 when thousands of Polish prisoners of war were freed from the camps, and the formation on Soviet territory of the Polish army took place.
In July 1952, together with a group of invalids, I was directed into the region of Irkutsk to camp No. 233. Here, I got acquainted with Father Kozera, who showed a great interest in the Katyn massacre. During the eight years we were together in many camps, he accumulated many interesting materials, which brought him to the final conclusion that the Katyn crime was perpetrated by the Germans.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 206-209
…Altogether, I spent nine years in the Soviet Union–two years in exile and seven years in camps. During that time, I went through much, met thousands of interesting people, but I also know that if the Soviets had wanted to get rid of the Polish officers, they would have sent them to the ” Novaya Zemlya” to work and thus, be productive.
I am far from praising the Soviet system…. I also do not pretend that I am not guilty of many things. There were people that got into the NKVD and the party who were real enemies of the system. They got rid of many dedicated people. But I cannot keep quiet on this Katyn event. I must defend the Russian people, if only to correct the existing lie that is being nurtured and promoted to this day about the Katyn massacre.
Even though I do not like the communist system, I must admit that this system has shown decency and follows the established law and order of the system….
With all the documentation that I have in my hands, I state categorically that the accusations by the Polish government in London, England were made solely for political reasons.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 206-211
Katyn Forest Massacre– Conclusion of Romyald Sviatec
In conclusion of this sad history, I would like to advise the Poles that they once-and-for-all discontinue and stop the insults regarding their Eastern neighbor, since the borders of Poland have been enlarged as the result of the Second World War, for the benefit of Poland.
Every true Pole must not only be satisfied with this, but also appreciate the country which was responsible for saving Poland from practical extinction. I returned from the Camp in 1956 and visited our Western territories. Only then did I realize the economical importance of the new Polish borders and in my heart I forgave the Soviets for their jailing me, because it was Stalin and the USSR which brought and formed these new important borders for Poland.
For all those who still stubbornly dream about Poland from the Baltic to the Black Sea, I suggest that they read the letter by Winston Churchill to the Poles. It calls for those Poles who are not aware of history or what it is they want, nor what they now possess, and do not wish to know or admit that it was the Soviet Union through its sacrifices of many millions of its people and soldiers, so the Poles could have their own independent state–which they were never able to gain by their own strength:
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 222
[In a November 7, 1944 letter Churchill stated:]
1. …
2. …
3. Moreover, without the Russian army, Poland would have been destroyed or brought into slavery and the Polish nation itself would have been wiped off the face of the earth. Without the valiant Red Army, no other power on earth would have been able to accomplish this. Poland now will be an independent, free country in the heart of Europe with wonderful and better territories than the one she had before. And if she will not accept this, Britain removes from itself all obligations and lets the Poles themselves work out their own agreement with the Soviets.
4. I don’t think that we can be asked to give any further assurances and promises to Poland regarding their borders or their attitude regarding the USSR. Poland fell in days to German Nazis, while the Polish government at that time refused to receive help from the Soviet Union.
Those Poles that are now vying for leadership in Poland must think that we, the British, are stupid that we would start a war against our USSR ally on behalf of the demands to restore the Polish eastern borders which had the majority of non-Poles living in those territories. A nation that proved to the world that it could not defend itself, must accept the guidance of those who saved them and who represent for them a perspective of genuine freedom and independence.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 224
POLAND ’S NOV 1939 ATTACK ON THE SU CHANGED THE STATUS OF POLISH PRISONERS
In the Soviet intervention into Poland, the USSR detained between 250-300 thousand Polish soldiers and officers. Most were released from detention centers. However, some 130,242 persons were maintained in detention camps of the NKVD, before their situation changed.
In November 1939, the Polish government in exile, as arrogant and bullish as ever, declared war on the USSR, supposedly in reply to the Soviet-Finnish War. The Poles went as far as creating a special brigade to be sent to fight the Red Army in Finland. By this act of war, the Polish government changed the status of the Polish soldiers still detained in the USSR. They now become automatically prisoners of war, and thus those still remaining in NKVD camps could not be released.
Mukhin, Y.I., Katyn Detective,1995
20,000 POLISH PRISONERS COULD NOT BE RELEASED UNTIL THEIR CASES WERE JUDGED
After the official inclusion of the territory captured by Poland in 1920 into the USSR, the Polish prisoners of war automatically became citizens of the USSR. By decision of court, it was named illegal for the NKVD to detain and force these soldiers to work. Therefore, most soldiers and petty officers were all released into civilian life as citizens of the USSR. However, there was a group of people that could not be released. These were those charged with crimes against the non-Polish and Polish population in the newly liberated areas as well as for war crimes against the USSR. This group comprised members of Poland’s military and governmental elite, gentry, landlord and manufacturers. There were plenty of war crimes committed by these people, such as the mass execution of Soviet prisoners of war in 1920 and active support for diversionary and terrorist groups against the USSR. It was decided to keep these individuals, numbering more than 20,000, in detention camps of the NKVD until a Special Commission of the NKVD examined their cases and decided upon a sentence for them.
Mukhin, Y.I., Katyn Detective,1995
POLISH CASES WERE JUDGED BY A SPECIAL COMMISSION AND THE RESULTS WERE AS FOLLOWS
The Decision of the Special Commission of the NKVD
The action of sentencing these foreign officers to war crimes was against international laws of the time. It was also not the time for the USSR to take such steps. War would soon come, and to publicly announce that some of the Polish officers were being considered as war criminals, could not help the USSR. Foreign imperialists, who were only looking for an opportunity to attack the USSR, would see this as an opportunity. Therefore, it was decided to keep this as secret as possible. A Special Commission of the NKVD was organized to individually investigate each case of the persons accused of crimes against the people or war crimes. Starting from December 1939, the administration of each camp in which the prisoners were being detained, started selecting those prisoners to be investigated by the Special Commission of the NKVD. On December 31, 1939 L. Beria sent the order for the camps to deliver the names of the suspected officers. By February 20, 1940 the order was issued to release from camps all those individuals who were sick, invalid or representatives of the working intelligentsia. After a lengthy review by the members of the Special Commission, a decision was reached. The first time the conclusion of the NKVD was made publicly available in its entirety was in September 1993 in the “Military-Historical Magazine.” This document was found in the Archives of the USSR. The decision of the Special Commission of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) was the following:
1. To give the status of war criminal to the persons considered socially dangerous; to exile for the period of up to 5 years under public supervision in the districts specified by the NKVD; to sentence them for the period of 5 years under public supervision with the prohibition of residing in the capitals, large cities and industrial centers of the USSR; to imprison in correctional-working camps and isolate in the camps for a period of up to 5 years, and to send outside the limits of the USSR foreign citizens considered socially dangerous.
2. To give the status of war criminal to the persons convicted of espionage, sabotage, diversion and terrorist activity and to imprison for the period from 5 to 8 years.
Starting from March 16 1940, individual cases were reviewed by the Special Commission of the NKVD and sentences were established for them. Some individuals were found not guilty of wrong doing and were returned to the prisoner of war status or were released. It was decided by the Special Commission that the privilege of correspondence be removed from the prisoners that were sentenced. The reason for this was that they were no longer prisoners of war, but war criminals, and thus the Soviet authorities were under no obligation to allow this privilege.
Furthermore, the fact that the Polish officer elite had been sentenced as war criminals could not be released publicly. Releasing such information to the world would have been damaging to the USSR, especially in this time when allies, even half-hearted ones, were necessary. However, not all the detained prisoners were sentenced. Those that were not, were placed in prisoners of war camps from where they could freely correspond. Furthermore, the Special Commission of the NKVD issued orders to the Starobelsk prisoners of war camp, where the Polish officers were previously held, to destroy the documentation regarding their prisoner of war status. An order was issued from L. Beria on September 10, 1940 to the commander of the camp to destroy the stock-taking documents of the prisoners of war. This order from Beria had no security clearance, and therefore could be viewed by anyone. The existence of this order has been seen by the western “historians” as evidence that the officers had been executed and that the Soviets were trying to cover their tracks. This is not the case. In the order of Beria and in following orders to the Starobelsk camp, the camp administration is asked to make copies of the prisoner’s photographs and some other additional files which were to be sent to the Kharakov UNKVD. The reality of this order is that the status of the officers had changed, from prisoners of war to war criminals. They had moved from the jurisdiction of the NKVD to that of the UNKVD, which dealt with such cases. Documents about their prisoner of war status could be destroyed, since they served no more purpose. But the pictures of the prisoners were sent to the UNKVD, where new criminal files were opened for the prisoners.
With this, the work and jurisdiction of the Special Commission of the NKVD was finished. The prisoners were moved from the Starobelsk camp to three separate camps near the Smolensk area. These camps were specially set up by the UNKVD for the Polish officers.
Since 1943, the USSR was forced to publicly admit that the Polish officers and other individuals were sentenced to imprisonment in correctional and working-camps for the period of 5 to 8 years without the right of correspondence. Since that time, the USSR has been accused of lying. Indeed, it was concluded by the Nazis and the western imperialists that the USSR had sentenced these individuals to death instead of imprisonment. However, the discovery of the actual decision of the Special Commission of the NKVD, has proved beyond a doubt that the USSR was not lying. The prisoners were indeed sentenced to terms of imprisonment, or as in the case of foreign nationals, to exile. The decision of the Special Commission of the NKVD should never have been doubted because in 1941 several individuals of foreign nationality were exiled outside the USSR. Among them was a Polish officer of German origins, R. Shtiller, who was deported to Germany and revealed information about the sentencing. Furthermore, those Polish officers found not guilty were returned to their prisoner of war camps, from where they could freely correspond. The entire investigation of the NKVD begs the question, that if the intention was to kill the prisoners, why carry out such a lengthy investigation of individual cases and release persons found not guilty? If the intention was to execute them, none of this would have been done. However, as with most truthful evidence on Katyn, this information is rejected and kept hidden as much as possible by the western and Russian revisionist historians. Instead, these “historians” and the Gorbachievite gang, resorted to forgeries and lies on the decision of the NKVD.
On June 22 1941, Germany launched its invasion of the USSR. At the time, Poland still held its declaration of war against the USSR. It wasn’t until after the war had started, that the Polish government in exile retreated its declaration. In July 30 1941, the government of Sikorsky entered into negotiation with the USSR about the release of the remaining Polish prisoners and about the organization of a Polish Army from these. By early August 1941, it was decided to create a Polish Army in the USSR under the command of Polish General Anders (who was one of the prisoners), called the Anders Army. Sikorsky promised Stalin that the Anders Army would remain in the USSR and fight against the Germans. All he wanted in return was that 25,000 Polish soldiers be sent to the Middle East to join the British Army. Stalin agreed, and in 1941 the Anders Army was created and armed. Sikorsky also asked Stalin about the fate of the missing Polish officers. Stalin avoided the question, giving the answer that he did not know (while the Soviet press made up imaginative theories of what happened). But the truth was that Stalin indeed did not know what had happened. By that time the Germans had taken Smolensk and the Polish camps and the Soviets did not know what happened to them. Also, this was not a priority for the Soviet Union. In any case, Stalin organized a committee to find out what happened to the Polish officers. They could not find out what happened to them, except that they had been captured by the Germans. On this, we shall talk about later.
Anders, being of the Polish military elite and as arrogant as usual, had a deep hatred for the USSR. The USSR was sacrificing much by arming these Polish soldiers. At a time when weapons had to be taken out of museums to arm the defenders of Moscow, the Anders Army was being armed with the best weapons. In an act of treachery, which was second nature for the elite Polish officers, Anders led his army of 114,000 into Iran. He abandoned the Red Army and abandoned the fight for his homeland to run away to Iran to join the British. This was indeed a great blow to Polish-Soviet relations. Never again would Stalin trust the Polish government in exile, and proved once more their treacherous and cowardly nature. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers and officers still remained in the USSR. these were organized into the Polish People’s Army, under the command of the PKKA. This was created in October 1941 and fought alongside the Red Army until the end of the war. By the Battle of Berlin, the Polish People’s Army numbered 400,000. They were the only Polish troops to participate in the liberation of their country from the Nazis.
First, lets begin with the “proofs” of the Nazis. Following the liberation of Smolensk from the Germans in September 1943, a Special Commission was established, headed by Academician N.N. Burdenko. Following a lengthy investigation of the area, questioning of witnesses and the excavation and study of 925 bodies, the Burdenko Commission wrote a 56 page report. This report was made public in 1944. Since then, the revisionist historians have accused the report of being simply a propaganda document with no truth in it. However, this assessment does not hold. In 1990, a “Top Secret” version of the Burdenko report was discovered. This “Top Secret” document was sent by Burdenko to the heads of the Soviet government.
The Burdenko Commission refuted all the points of the German and International investigation, except for the fact that there were 12,000 bodies. First to be examined was the location of the burial itself. The Germans claimed that the Katyn forest was an isolated area which had served as an execution ground for many years. In reality, Katyn was a popular area of vacationing. The NKVD vacation home was located only 700m away from the burial places. There resided the wives and children of the NKVD officers on vacation there. The city and surrounding population frequented the Katyn forest as a place of vacationing. Villagers came to the forest for picking mushrooms or for pasturing their animals. The area was not closed off the public in any way. Furthermore, the burial was only 200m from the Smolensk-Vitebsk highway. This was a heavily traveled road, with thousands of people crossing it every day. Could this be an area where executions were carried out for many years? Could this be the area where for months, 12,000 people were buried? It was not possible for the Soviets to carry out this act in such a place. Surely the NKVD could have found an area which was far more secure than this, an area where the only witnesses would have been bears. Most importantly, this revelation about Katyn proves the Germans were lying. According to the findings of the Burdenko Commission, it wasn’t until the Germans occupied the area that the woods were closed to the population. Signs were put up, warning anyone who entered that they would be shot. A German military unit was stationed on the grounds of the Katyn forest, closing off the area.
And about the cabin found by the Germans directly next to the graves (where the Germans said the executions had been carried out). It was in actuality a cabin for the Pioneers! It appears, that the exact area of the burials was a favorite ground for the Pioneers to set up their summer camp. Therefore, a permanent cabin was build on that area for housing materials for their use (while the Pioneers themselves slept in tents).
The Burbenko Commission also answered the question of what had happened to the Polish prisoners after their camps were overrun by the Germans. The directors of the prisoner camps were located and questioned. The director of camp 1ON, Major of Security V.M. Vetoschinikov, testified about what happened. According to him, he received orders about the evacuation of the prisoners from the camp. However, he had not received any instructions on how to carry this out, since phone connections had been cut off. He and some employees of the camp drove to Smolensk to clarify the situation. He met with Engineer S.V. Ivanov, head of transportation on the western stretch of the Smolensk railway. Vetoschinikov asked Ivanon for a few train cars to transport the prisoners. However, at the time the evacuation of the city population was being carried out. Therefore, Ivanon told him not to expect any train cars since none were available. Vetoschinikov tried to contact Moscow about permission to evacuate by foot, but could not contact them. By that time, the 1ON camp was cut off from Smolensk and the director had no idea what had happened to the prisoners or their guards.
Officer Ljubodzetsk witnessed what occurred in the 1ON camp after Vetoschinikov did not return. According to him, the evacuation of the camp started to be carried out by foot. However, the Polish officers rebelled. They said they wanted to wait for the Germans and surrender to them. At least the Germans, they thought, would treat them in accordance to international norms. The majority of the prisoners decided to remain in the camp and wait for the Germans. Only a few of the prisoners agreed to the evacuation – those of Jewish origin. Therefore, it has been proven that the Polish officers were alive and in the camps by the time the Germans captured them. The Burdenko Commission gathered testimonies from a number of other eyewitnesses from the neighboring villages. According to several of them, they had seen Polish prisoners in the area near Smolensk as late as September 1941.
The Burdenko Commission went on to investigate if anyone had actually seen the process of execution of the Polish officers by the Germans. They found three women, the cooks of the NKVD vacation house, A.M. Aleksejava, O.A. Michailova, and S.P. Konachovskaja. At the time, the house was the base for a German military unit. According to the women, this was the Staff building for a Construction Battalion No.537-1. There were 30 persons stationed at this place, according to the cooks. They could not remember the names of all of them, except for a few. The commander of the battalion was Lt. Colonel Arnes. Others were Lt. Colonel Rekst, Lt. Hott, Sgt. Luemert and few others whom the women could remember. They witnessed the entire procedures of the Germans. Though they never witnessed an execution, they were aware of what was going on. According to all three women, several trucks regularly arrived at the residence starting from September 1941. They would not come directly to the residence at first. Coming off the main highway, the trucks would stop somewhere between the highway and the residence. The officers of the 537th would go into the woods. About half an hour later, individual shots in succession begun to be heard. About 1 hour after the trucks had stopped, they reached the building and all would disembark. They would go into the house and wash themselves in the bathroom. They would then proceed to drink heavily. The women were not allowed out of the kitchen when the drivers and the other members of the convoy arrived. They were kept in the kitchen, cooking meals for them. On several occasions, the women noticed fresh blood stains on the uniforms of at least two officers. The cooks usually left their work in the evening. According to them, the officers had the unusual habit of sleeping until 12 o’clock. They suspected that they conducted the same business during the night. They also saw Polish officers on at least two occasions. On one occasion, one of the women was allowed to go home after her usual hours, in the evening. Walking on the road, she noticed a group of 30 prisoners. She recognized them as Polish because she had seen their uniforms before, while they were conducting construction work for the Soviets. On another occasion, two of the women accidentally saw two Polish officers inside the residence, surrounded by German officers. The women were chased back into the kitchen and there was a large fuss around the officers. A few minutes later, the women heard two shots. They had been warned several times to be careful about what they saw and not to tell anyone. As punishment for their intrusion, one of the women was locked in the basement of the building for 8 days while the other two for 3 days. After they realized what was going on, they quit their jobs on various excuses.
The conclusion that can be drawn from the testimonies of these three women is that the Polish officers were being executed by the Germans in the autumn of 1941. Apparently, several trucks were carrying groups of 30 or so prisoners to the Katyn woods. Stopping “between the highway and the residence”, or approximately 200m from the highway, the prisoners were unloaded. There awaited them the 30 members of the 537th in addition to the drivers and escorting soldiers. The prisoners were individually executed directly above their burial grounds and were thrown into their graves. This is a scene which can be seen many times in German footage of executions, where a German officer stands behind a kneeling prisoner, shoots him in the back of the head and throws him into an open grave. Following their work, all the German officers, soldiers and drivers went into the residence to clean off the blood or dirt and to celebrate with drinks. Now it was finally proven what had happened to the Polish officers.
The Burdenko Commission started excavation of the burial grounds in Katyn on January 16, 1944. The Commission dug up 925 bodies from those which had not already been examined by the Germans. There was a multitude of physical evidence on the bodies themselves. An obvious feature of the bodies was the heavy gray overcoat of the Polish officers. The question must then be asked, if the Polish officers were shot in the spring of 1940, as the Germans claim, why were they wearing coats? The only explanation for this is that they were not killed in the spring, but in a cold season, perhaps in autumn.
The hands of some Polish officers had been tied using a white braided cord. At the time, the USSR was the largest producer of hemp rope. In fact, the only kind of rope produced in the USSR in the pre-war years was hemp rope. Smolensk was one of the main centers of production. Therefore, the conclusion can be drawn that this was not rope produced in the USSR, but in some other foreign country.
The most obvious forensic evidence to look for in a murder case is the bullet and the bullet case. It was determined by the investigation on the 925 bodies, that most bullets had made an exit whole in the front of the head or in the face. In 27 cases, the bullet had remained inside the head. It was determined, the kills were made with low-velocity pistols. Many bullet cases were found in the graves. These were primarily of a 7.65mm caliber, but there were also a few 6.35mm caliber and even fewer 9mm bullets. The inscription on the 7.65mm bullets were “Genshov and K”, a German producer of cartridges known also as “Geko”. So the bullets were produced in Germany! The question must then be asked, did the USSR make use of such weapons? Perhaps there was some export of 7.65mm cartridges to the USSR from Germany? The truth is the USSR made no use of any kind of gun with a 7.65mm caliber. The standard bullet size for Soviet pistols, including the TT, was 7.62mm. The USSR did make use of several types of guns with a 6.35mm caliber, but Germany also produced 59 types of pistols with a 6.35mm caliber. Also, USSR did not have a 9mm pistol until after the war, the Makarov pistol. Therefore, it is proven beyond a doubt that the executions were carried out with bullets produced in Germany and with guns which the Soviet Union did not possess. The only explanation is of course that these were carried out by the Germans. As for the German claim of having found bullet cases with Soviet inscriptions on them, this can only be propaganda since no producer, caliber or type of case was mentioned (on all Soviet cartridges the name of the factory of production is mentioned).
The bodies were searched for documentation of any sort. Many documents and papers were recovered. Among them, were at least 9 documents with dates from 12 November 1940 to 20 June 1941. These included 2 letters, one received and another not sent out, one icon and a number of camp receipts. The existence of these papers is proof that the prisoners were still alive until at least the German invasion started.
And what about those leaves the Germans supposedly found in the graves? If these leaves had fallen into the graves, and 3 years later (the Germans claimed the Poles were killed in 1940) they were still distinguishable to be birch leaves, then they must have been dry at the time of their fall. A fresh leaf would decompose very quickly and there would be nothing left of it. A dry leaf, especially birch leaves, can maintain their form for a long time if buried. But even they, cannot maintain their shape after 3 years. So there must be a different explanation. If the murders happened in the spring of 1940, then there would have been no dry leaves. And as is known leaves fall from the trees in the fall. Perhaps in the fall of 1941, or one and a half years before they were exhumed.
Investigation of the PKK and International Commission
Even more physical evidence about the bodies in Katyn comes from the investigators of the International Commission itself, who examined the bodies in 1943 under German supervision. Two members of the forensic team of the International Commission, Czechoslovakian Professor of forensic medicine F.Gaek and Bulgarian forensic scientist Marko Marks, were questioned on the matter. Marks was arrested in 1944 by the Bulgarian People’s Government and accused of lying on his Katyn investigation. Instead, Marks told them he did not lie, but that his real report was never made public by the Germans (thus Marks was freed). According to his experience, on May 1 1943, the team was flown from Katyn to Berlin. On the way to Berlin, their plane landed in an isolated military airfield. There, the members of the commission ate dinner. They were then given a prepared report on what they saw, which they had to sign. According to Marks, the report the Germans made public was only signed by the members of the commission, but not written by them. Instead, as Marks accounts, the members wrote individual reports which the Germans did not make public. In these reports, the conclusion of the commission was that the bodies in Katyn were too well preserved to have been buried 3 years earlier. Instead the commission concluded the bodies had been killed one to one and a half year earlier, in late 1941 or early 1942.
The findings of the Polish Red Cross (PKK) were also the same. On the death certificates they made for the victims at Katyn, they specified no date of death. According to its members, who testified after the war, they could not agree on a conclusion. Most thought the killings had been carried out one to one and a half years earlier and not 3 years as the Germans claimed. However, they could not write such a thing. Therefore it was decided to leave the time of death simply blank.
The PKK and the International Commission, as well as experts invited from other countries, examined in detail the bodies the Germans had laid out for them. The way in which these examinations were carried out was bizarre. The PKK members were present in the exhuming of the 4143 bodies they examined. The Germans had rounded up people from the neighboring villages to dig out the bodies. Once the bodies were out, the peasants were forced to search their uniforms for documents and papers of any kind. Once these were found, they were placed in individual folders with a number. The same number was placed on the body with a metal tag. The documents found in the bodies were not given to the PKK. By order from Berlin, all diaries, letters, receipts and orders were to be sent to Germany immediately for translation into German. The PKK members were given only the passports and other identification papers of the prisoners. Now it becomes obvious why the investigators found no documents with dates after the spring of 1940. Any document which would have contained a date was taken to Germany for “translation”, and only then made public. The PKK and other commissions were given only documents which did not contain any dates or hints of when they were killed.
The examination of the bodies themselves was even more revealing as to their time of death. According to the pathologist and forensic experts, the bodies were in a good condition. The tissue on the bodies was still attached. The skin on the hands, face and neck had turned gray, and in some cases greenish brown. There was no complete decomposition of the bodies and no putrefaction. In the bodies, muscles and tendons were still visible. Limbs were also still attached. When the bodies were carried out by the peasants, no parts of the bodies came apart. The uniforms of the bodies was still in good condition and held together well. The metallic parts of their uniforms, such as belts, buttons and nails, was still metallic and shiny in some areas. They were not rusted completely.
Bodies decompose faster in the warm seasons of the year, spring and summer. In winter bodies decompose very little and are as if in refrigeration. If the German version of the story were true, and the officers were killed in the spring of 1940, then there would have been 3 summer seasons between that time and April 1943. However, if the bodies had been killed in the autumn and winter of 1941, as the Soviet version of events goes, then there would have been only 1 summer season between that time and April 1943. In 3 summer seasons, the bodies would have been in a far more advanced stage of decomposition than the commissions found. For this reason the conclusion of both PKK and International forensic experts was that the bodies were killed one to one and a half years earlier, during the German occupation of the area. However, such a conclusion could not be made public by Germany.
The decomposition of the bodies was also the reason for the German delay in excavating the area. According to them, the location of the graves was discovered in March 1942. Excavation of the bodies started more than 1 year later. The Germans knew that since the bodies had been buried in the autumn and winter of 1941, they were still not decomposing by March 1942. Therefore, it was necessary to wait at least one summer for the bodies to decompose, and then excavate them in the spring of 1943.
Revisionist Evidence Refuted
The two eyewitnesses presented by the Gorbachevites are indeed lying about what really occurred. But it is not them who are to be blamed. They had no other choice. Soprunenko refused to admit that he received such an order for several months. The daughter, fearing for her and her fathers safety, said it was true that her father had seen an order from Stalin to kill the prisoners. The old man denied it, until after months of intimidation and threats was forced to tell them what they wanted to hear. But the Gorbechevite inspectors had not taken into consideration one detail. Soprunenko had already been asked the question of what happened to the Polish officers. He was asked this by the Committee that Stalin organized in the fall of 1941 to find out what happened to the Polish officers (on behalf of Sikorsky). The documentation the general-major received and sent on this matter was found in the Archives of the USSR as “Top Secret” documents. The truth, that Soprunenko had said in the fall of 1941, was finally found out and shattered the lies of the revisionists. One of the first persons questioned in 1941 on what happened to the Polish officers was precisely General-Major Soprunenko. Soprunenko wrote several documents under the title “Top Secret”. In these documents Soprunenko says the UNKVD “is at a loss” about what happened to the Polish officers. It did not know! He also wrote a document about the release of prisoners of German origin to Germany in a prisoner exchange program. But his reply to the Commission was that the UNKVD did not know. If the general-major had indeed been ordered by Beria to execute the Polish officers, he would have replied “on the indication of Comrade Beria, the Polish officers were shot.” Remember that the documents were “Top Secret”. No one would have seen them, except for people who would have sent such on order themselves! Why hide an order of Stalin and Beria…from Stalin and Beria? Yet Soprunenko made no such comment. He never received or saw such an order. He placed the responsibility for the disappearance of the prisoners on himself and on the UNKVD. So the truth of what the old man knew became known in the “Top Secret” documents, and the testimony he was forced to give to the Gorbachevite inspectors was proven to be false.
The testimony of Tokarev was false as well. He knew the Gorbachev inspectors would not quit until they heard what they wanted to hear. So Tokarev, being smarter than these revisionists, told them exactly what they wanted to hear, and at the same time hinted in his testimony he was only pulling their tail. The whole story of how the executions were carried out makes absolutely no sense. Even according to the German investigation, the pistols used in executing the Poles were low-velocity pistols. Tokarev says the executioners used TT pistols. TT pistols are very high-velocity guns, with a muzzle velocity of 420m/s. It is very powerful, and at a point blank range, it would not have produced a simple entry and exit wound. At that range, it would have carried away with it half the head! To give an impression of its power, even today the only hand guns that compare to its power are magnum revolvers. Furthermore, when shooting indoors against brick or cement walls, it ricochets off the walls and hits the executioners themselves! Therefore, TT pistols are never used for executions at close range and inside buildings. TT pistols also have a caliber of 7.62mm. No such bullets were found in the Katyn graves. Of course, Tokarev was aware of this, but his questioners were not.
The most obvious aspect of Tokarev’s false testimonial is his description of the execution process. Tokarev says the executions were carried out in the UNKVD buidling in the middle of Smolensk. How can executions of 300 prisoners per day be kept secret in a large prison in the middle of a city? It cannot. The executions, if they were 6000 per month, went on for 2 months. If the executions were to be carried out in absolute secrecy, the building had to be emptied of personnel for 2 months. All the other prisoners, the guards, the office personnel, the telephone operators, the janitors, the cooks and storekeepers of the complex had to be sent home for 2 months and operations of the UNKVD had to be shut down for that period. Guards would have to be placed outside the building, indeed a long way out of the building, to keep people from coming near enough to hear the shooting. Could all this have been carried out in secret in the middle of a city? Of course not. It makes no sense, and Tokarev knew this. Furthermore, is it possible for 10 guards to execute 300-200 prisoners every day? According to Tokarev, they were executed in groups of 10-40 people. The entire process, according to Tokarev, was to take them out of their cells, take them to an office room to be identified and to complete necessary documentation, take them to special room to be executed. Afterwards, they were loaded into trucks from the back door of the building and taken to their burial sites. This entire process would have taken a very long time, especially for a small group of 10 guards. The prisoners would have been less than cooperative. It is hard to drag 10-40 men who know that they are going to be executed. So the time elapsed in this process is even longer. If there are 10 hours of daylight in April, and Tokarev said the executions were carried out during the daylight hours, then there was a 2 minute time period for the execution of every person in order to kill 300 persons per day. This is the time if the guards take no breaks and eat nothing during this process. Furthermore, if the prisoners were killed in the UNKVD building in the middle of the city, why were there bullet cases in the graves of the Polish officers? It is simply impossible. The Burdenko Commission already showed how the Germans, who were master executioners, carried out their actions.
Forged Documents
As a final chapter to the Katyn drama, the Gorbachevite “historians” announced in 1992 the discovery of three documents, undeniably proving Soviet guilt in Katyn. The first document was a request by Beria to the Political Bureau, to give the order to execute the Polish officers. The second document, is the protocol of the Political Bureau for its Session No.13, where the request of Beria is noted. The third document is a letter from Shepelin to Khrushchev dated March 3 1959, informing him that all documentation on Katyn would be destroyed.
All three of these documents are false, and this article shall prove so. The letter of Beria to the Politburo is of most importance. It is also the most obvious fake. In the letter dated March 5 1940, Beria says he thinks it necessary that “the NKVD” propose to “the NKVD” to transfer the cases for 14,700 prisoners of war and 11,000 arrested people. It asks the Politburo in request I, to order “the application to them of the highest measure of punishment – execution”. In request II, it asks that the sentences for the persons be carried out without their presence and without representation for them. In request III, it asks the Politburo to appoint this matter to a “troika” made up of Kabulov, Merkulov and Bashtakov. This letter is under the title “Top Secret”. On the first page of the document, it is signed by Stalin, Molotov, Mikoyan, Voroshilov. The names of Kaganovich and Kalinin are added under these, where they express “after”.
The mistakes and inconsistencies in this letter are many. To start, the letter is “Top Secret”. Standard procedure for a “Top Secret” letter were to write on the letter the name of the person who typed it, the names of all the persons who have seen the document, the names of all persons to whom this letter is to be sent, the number of copies made of this letter, the carbon paper used to make a copy of it and finally the tape of the typewriter used to make this paper. For the “Beria document”, none of these exist. Without these precautions, it is not a “Top Secret” letter. The forger of this document either was not aware of the requirements of a “Top Secret” paper, or such requirements could not be forged by them. Either way, this paper immediately looses its value, and furthermore shows it is a forgery.
But the mistakes do not stop here. The signatures of the members of the Politburo go against the form. In this letter, 4 members of the Politburo have simply signed their names. By this act, they have rejected the request of Beria. You see, if the members of the Politburo agreed to send out an order or to carry out a request, it was necessary for them to sign the document, and to write next to their signatures “agreed” or “after”. In order for the request to be agreed and the order to be sent out, the members had to express their agreement to the request or their agreement to an order being sent. If they simply signed the paper, it meant that the members had read the document, but had not agreed to it and had not sent out any orders. The forger was obviously not aware of this and has made the mistake. Even if this request is authentic, which it is not, it was not accepted by the Politburo.
On the first page of the document, along with the four signatures of Stalin, Molotov, Mikoyan and Voroshilov, the forger added the names of Kaganovich and Kalinin underneath these. What the forger was not aware of, is that both Kaganovich and Kalinin were absent from the 13th Session of the Politburo in March 1940. They could not have placed their signatures on this document.
Beria’s requests contain even more proof that it is a forgery. Beria’s requests that he finds it necessary for the NKVD to propose to the NKVD, makes no sense. Why would Beria find it necessary to propose to Beria? This is a mistake which the forger accidentally made. Why he made this mistake shall be discussed below.
In Beria’s third request, he asks for the creation of a “troika” of three individuals mentioned by name. This entire request makes no sense. When a troika is created, its members are never mentioned by name. They are mentioned by their post. What was to happen if one of the members died or was removed from his post? Was the troika destroyed or was this person, who was no longer in position, still in the troika? It could not have been done in this way. For an example, the reader should refer to the above decision of the Special Commission of the NKVD, where its members are identified only by their post. It is not important who the individuals are. The individuals in the posts may change, but the troika still stands.
Furthermore, this document gives no indication as to who should receive or should be informed of the decision of the Politburo. The only person mentioned is L. Beria. But in a document such as this, the names of the persons to receive it are also included. Otherwise, how is Kabulov to know he is a member of the “troika”? This document is “Top Secret”. It is given to him only by the Politburo. Furthermore, the persons in charge of carrying out the orders of the Politburo, in this case the people or organs to carry out the executions, must also be named. Otherwise, if it is simply announced to them by a second or third party, it is no longer a “Top Secret” decision, but something for the whole world to know. This document contains no such names.
The request for execution to the Politburo is a further mistake of the forger. Such a request would never have been made. The Politburo did not have the authority to make such an order. The only body capable of issuing an order for execution was the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, specifically the Supreme Court of the USSR. Only by decision of the Supreme Court could an execution be carried out. The Court also established special “troikas”, which by authority of the Court had the power to sentence to execution. In this document, Beria is asking the Politburo to create a “troika” to sentence people to death. It was impossible! Only a decision of the Supreme Court could have created such a “troika”. An example of how such a process was carried out, happened in 1941. The German advance was threatening to capture the prison at Orel, where important members of anti-Soviet groups were being held. It could not be allowed for them to fall into the hands of the Germans, who would use them against the USSR. Therefore, a meeting of the Supreme Court was called where it issued an order for execution, and only then were the prisoners executed. Even in the most pressing of times, 1941, the rule of Soviet law was not broken. So why was Beria asking the Politburo for such a decision?
The question must be asked, why did the forger make such mistakes? The reason for them is that the forger used an original document from Beria to the Politburo. The forger needed an original document to have a document number and to keep the same characteristic style of Beria. He did not change the first page, except for adding the names of Kaganovich and Kalinin (which the forger thought should have been there). However, the forger changed the second page, Beria’s requests. So in the original document of Beria it read “…the NKVD finds it necessary to propose to the Special Commission of the NKVD…” Then it would make sense. The forger however, removed the Special Commission, since its decision was to sentence the officers to a maximum of 5 years of imprisonment. Therefore, in the original document, Beria’s request was not to execute the prisoners, and thus disagree with the conclusion of the Special Commission. It was in agreement with the Special Commission. Instead of ordering an execution, the original document should have read ” with the application to them of the sentence of 5-8 years of imprisonment as specified by the Special Commission of the NKVD”. Also, in the original there was no request for the creation of a troika. Only then would this document make sense. It was only asking the members of the Politburo to agree to allow the NKVD to propose to the Special Commission of the NKVD the transfer of files to them and to allow the NKVD to propose to the Special Commission to carry out its investigation of individuals without their presence and without the presence of their representation. This original request of the document is supported in the fact that on March 16, 1940, the Special Commission started receiving personal information on the prisoners and began its individual sentencing. This is the exact request of Beria’s original letter to the Politburo.
If the original document had read as such, then the signatures on the first page are transformed into an agreement. This is not bizarre, but if the Politburo was not asked to carry out an order or to take any action, but only to agree, then a simple signature would have sufficed. If there were no orders or actions to be carried out, then none had to be specified next to the names. So by changing the requests of Beria, the forger also changed the decision of the Politburo. Nevertheless, this document so proudly displayed by the revisionists is no doubt a fake.
The second document is the protocol of the Politburo on the request of Beria. It confirms all the requests of Beria, the execution of the prisoners and the creation of the “troika” with the members Beria mentioned. This is the letter that is taken from the logs of the Politburo and sent to the persons specified in Beria’s request are to receive it. However, since no such persons were indicated on the letter of Beria, to whom was this protocol sent to? Furthermore, since by their simple signatures, the members of the Politburo did not agree to Beria’s request, why was a protocol of the Politburo made for it? Also, it does not contain the signature of the Secretary of the Politburo. Without the signature, it means nothing. This second document is simply a continuation of the first one, an attempt of the forgers to show the Politburo agreed and sent out an order. Just as the Korger changed the original Beria document to suggest execution, so was changed the original protocol of the Politburo.
The third document is very poorly made and seems to have the purpose of telling all other historians not to search documents on Katyn any more, Khrushchev has destroyed them all! On this letter of Shepelin to Khrushchev, there is no number at all and there is no signature. It follows no form. Nevertheless, in this letter Shepelin tells Khrushchev that all documents on Katyn will be destroyed since they have no “historical value” to anyone. How did Shepelin think that documents on executions of thousands of foreign nationals, had no value to anyone? Among the documents Shepelin mentions, are the stock-taking documents of the prisoners of war from their camps, mentioned among them is Starobelsk camp. As we have already seen, an order was sent from Beria to the commander of Starobelsk in September 1940, to destroy the stock-taking documents of the prisoners of war since criminal cases for them would be opened. How did these stock-taking documents reappear in 1959 for Shepelin to destroy? For the prisoners of war sentenced to prison by the Special Commission of the NKVD, criminal cases were opened and there existed no more documents of their prisoner of war status. Also, in this document, the protocol to execute the Poles is said to have come from the Politburo of the CPSU. Shepelin simply refers “to the protocol of the Politburo of the CPSU to execute…” The problem with this is that the CPSU did not exist until 1952. In 1940, there was no such government body! In 1940, it was called the Politburo of the AUCP(B) (All Union Communist Party – Bolshevik). Also, Shepelin cannot simply refer to such a “Top Secret” document without quoting it or without including a copy of it for Khrushchev. Otherwise, how would Khrushchev know what Shepelin was talking about. Yet all these simple mistakes are made by the forger.
All three documents are forgeries. There are only a few authentic documents recovered on Katyn (the resolution of the Special Commission, the orders to Starobelsk ext.) Any additional documents on Katyn, such as the criminal cases of the prisoners, were located in the Smolensk Archives. Unfortunately, the Smolensk Archives were captured by the Germans during WW2 and later by the Americans. If these documents exist anymore, they are in the hands of the Americans, and will thus never be revealed. Nevertheless, it is important to show that the revisionists have no documents implicating the USSR, but instead resort to forgeries and lies.
Conclusion
What conclusion can be drawn from the evidence, counter-evidence, documents, forgeries and heaps of propaganda on Katyn? For 60 years the anti-communist forces of the world have told us Katyn was a Soviet responsibility. The Nazis proclaimed this as a crime of the Jewish communists. They used it as one of the many pretexts for placing into concentration camps and slaughtering tens of millions of Soviet citizens and Jews. The western imperialists used the Nazi pretext in the 1950s, to place on trial communists. They used it to launch a crusade against communism, to protect their empires and colonies, slaughtering more millions. The anti-communists and scoundrels ruling the USSR in the 80s and 90s used Katyn as a pretext for destroying the USSR and throwing the Soviet people into the brutal exploitation of capitalist and Mafiosi gangsters. Millions more died. Today, the modern revisionist “historians” would like to exonerate the Nazis of any responsibility. Today they use Katyn as yet another pretext to show how the Soviets “fabricated” the Holocaust and how they “fabricated” Auschwitz and all the other unimaginable crimes of the Nazis. Katyn has always been used as a weapon of the fascists and imperialists for justifying their murderous campaigns. The truth on Katyn however is far from what these Nazi sympathizers and scoundrels would like us to believe. Katyn was the work of the Nazis. It is they who killed the Polish officers after capturing them from Soviet camps. The conclusion one should draw simply from the heaps of lies, propaganda and forgeries the imperialists and Nazi-sympathizers, is that Katyn is their responsibility. Otherwise, there would have been no reason for the Nazis to conduct their “international” investigation as they did and for the Gorbachevite revisionists to create fake documents. But beyond their lies and forgeries, one should look at the truth on Katyn. The truth stands that the Polish officers were sentenced to terms of prison for their various war crimes. To tell the truth, no one should feel sorry for these Polish officers. They were traitors and cowards in the face of their country and people. However, they did not deserve a German bullet in the back of their head. Only a Polish bullet would have sufficed for their crimes against the Polish people.
Mukhin, Y.I., Katyn Detective,1995
STALIN SEVERS TIES WITH POLISH GOVT BECAUSE IT SUPPORTS WITH HITLER ON KATYN
[Personal and secret message from Josef Stalin to Winston Churchill on April 21, 1943]
The behavior of the Polish government towards the USSR of late is, in the view of the Soviet Government, completely abnormal and contrary to all the rules and standards governing relations between two allied states.
The anti-Soviet slander campaign launched by the German fascists in connection with the Polish officers whom they themselves murdered in the Smolensk area, in German-occupied territory, was immediately seized upon by the Sikorski Government and is being fanned in every way by the Polish official press. Far from countering the infamous fascist slander against the USSR, the Sikorski Government has not found it necessary even to address questions to the Soviet Government or to request information on the matter.
The Hitler authorities, having perpetrated a monstrous crime against the Polish officers, are now staging a farcical investigation, using for the purpose certain pro-fascist Polish elements picked by themselves in occupied Poland, where everything is under Hitler’s heel and where no honest Pole can open his mouth.
Both the Sikorski and Hitler governments have enlisted for the “investigation” the head of the International Red Cross, which, under a terror regime of gallows and wholesale extermination of the civil population, is forced to take part in the investigation farce directed by Hitler. It is obvious that this “investigation,” which, moreover, is being carried out behind the Soviet Government’s back, cannot enjoy the confidence of anyone with a semblance of honesty.
The fact that the anti-Soviet campaign has been started simultaneously in the German and Polish press and follows identical lines is indubitable evidence of contact and collusion between Hitler,the Allies’ enemy,and the Sikorski Government in this hostile campaign.
At a time when the peoples of the Soviet Union are shedding their blood in a grim struggle against Hitler Germany and bending their energies to defeat the common foe of the freedom-loving democratic countries, the Sikorski Government is striking a treacherous blow at the Soviet Union to help Hitler tyranny.
These circumstances compel the Soviet Government to consider that the present Polish government, having descended to collusion with the Hitler Government, has, in practice, severed its relations of alliance with the USSR and adopted a hostile attitude to the Soviet Union.
For these reasons, the Soviet Government has decided to interrupt relations with that Government.
I think it necessary to inform you of the foregoing, and I trust that the British Government will appreciate the motives that necessitated this forced step on the part of the Soviet Government.
Richardson, S, Ed. The Secret History of World War II. NY: Richardson & Steirman, 1986, p. 91-93
Katyn
GERMANS COMMITTED THE KATYN FOREST MASSACRE
All the evidence I secured showed that the Polish group in London was more interested in doing something against Russia than in doing anything for Poland. This made it easy to understand why they accepted and spread the Goebbels story about the murder of 10,000 Poles in Smolensk. Their unhesitating acceptance of this Nazi propaganda caused the Soviet government to sever relations with the Polish government-in-exile in 1943. It will be remembered that the Germans captured Smolensk on the night of July 15th 1941. Almost two years later Goebbels broadcast to the world that the Russians had killed 10,000 Polish prisoners there, and that their bodies had been found in the Katyn Forest. The Polish government-in-exile immediately gave credence to the Nazi allegation by asking the international Red Cross to investigate. It seemed a preposterous charge. If the Russians had really killed the Poles it would have been known by the people of Smolensk and the Germans would certainly have found out about it almost immediately. It was not the sort of thing that the Germans would have kept quiet about for two years. The Red Army retook Smolensk on September 25, 1943, and the Soviet government immediately instituted an investigation of a massacre.
I visited the Katyn Forest with American, British, Chinese, and French correspondents. Dr. Victor Prozorovsky, Director of the Moscow Institute of Criminal Medical Research, showed me about. The 10,000 bodies had been dug up, and the Russians were systematically examining everything found on them as well as performing autopsies. Eleven doctors were working continuously. I watched some of the autopsies, which were very thorough. The bodies, including the internal organs, were remarkably well preserved. The doctor said that this alone was sufficient to prove the falsity of the charge.
The Russians found letters on the bodies dated after the Germans occupied the city, thus proving that the victims could not had been killed at the time alleged. We talked with a Russian priest whose parish was in the Katyn Forest. He had been driven out of this church by the Germans, and then the building had been surrounded by barbed wire and SS men. The priest declared that the Germans had killed the Poles there. A Russian who had served under the Germans testified that the German authorities had ordered the death of the Polish prisoners. The diary of the Mayor who fled with the Germans contained clear evidence that the Germans had committed the murders. However, the fact which impressed me as much as any other, was that the corpses still had their fine leather boots. I had seen, traveling at the front, that it was general Russian practice to remove the boots of the dead. It seemed unlikely that they would have made an exception in this case, and left 10,000 pairs of good boots behind. Every correspondent who visited Katyn Forest came away convinced that it was another Nazi atrocity.
Davis, Jerome. Behind Soviet Power. New York, N. Y.: The Readers’ Press, Inc., c1946, p. 99
In 1943, near the railway station of Katyn, in the forest near the village of Kozy Gory, a vast burial ground of several thousand Polish officers was discovered. The Nazis at once declared that this was the work of Soviet hands’, while a special commission in Moscow stated that it was simply another example of Nazi brutality. A series of documents have been found in a special section of the Main Soviet Archives which make it plain that Katyn was in fact the work of Beria’a agency, though no single document has yet been found bearing his signature or that of any of his henchmen actually ordering the massacre. The order must either have been destroyed after the act or have been given orally.
Volkogonov, Dmitri. Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991, p. 360
Each one of them [Polish officers] had been shot in the back of the neck with a German bullet.
Nekrich and Heller. Utopia in Power. New York: Summit Books, c1986, p. 404
KATYN GRAVES STORY DECLARED GRIM FRAUD
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 28.
The story of the mass graves at Katyn, which caused a world sensation two years ago, was a propaganda stunt staged by Goebbels and Ribbentrop to cause a split between Russia and her western allies, says a report received here through special channels that is supported by a message from Oslo tonight. A Himmler close collaborator, SS Brigade Leader Schellenberg, is declared to have given this sensational information during an examination at Allied Headquarters in Germany last Tuesday. He is quoted as saying that 12,000 bodies were taken from German concentration camps and attired in old Polish uniforms to make them appear to be Polish officers.
Tonight a corroborative report was received from Oslo, where Erik Johansen–recently repatriated prisoner from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany–tells an interesting story about German production of false identification documents for bodies in Katyn mass graves.
Johansen says a special section of the concentration camp was completely isolated and strongly guarded by SS men, whereupon forty to sixty Jewish prisoners were picked out to forge the documents. They received the best optical instruments obtainable so the work could be done to perfection. They made passports, letters, etc. and even wallets, which were treated with a special chemical fluid to make them look worn.
Before the German capitulation all machines, instruments and material used were destroyed and the Jewish specialists were killed to prevent the secret from getting out, he said.
New York Times, June 29, 1945 p. 2
Katyn Forest Massacre
from Military-Historical Journal, 1991
by Romyald Sviatec
Who gained more from the murder of the Polish officers?
In order to answer this question, it is necessary to, at least sketchily, clarify the relations of the Germans and the Russians toward the Poles. It is known that the Germans started the war with Poland, as they required Polish lands and Polish workers. From the first days of the occupation, they began to destroy the Polish intellectual elite. The movement of the Russians into the eastern part of Poland had a different character, which was expressed in the note of the Soviet Government handed to the Polish ambassador in Moscow. The Polish-German war exposed the insolvency of the Polish state. In the course of ten days of military (German) operations, Poland lost all of its manufacturing and cultural centers. Warsaw, as a Capital of Poland, did not exist any more. The Polish government fell apart and did not show signs of life. This meant that the Polish state and its government factually ceased to exist.
With this, the agreements that had been concluded between the USSR and Poland were no longer valid–left to itself and abandoned without direction. Poland became a convenient field for all kinds of the accidental and unexpected, capable of threats to the Soviet Union. Because of this, being until then neutral, the Soviet government could not be in different to these facts any more, as also to the fact that the Ukrainians and the White Russians,–being of the same blood (as the Russians)–and living on the territory of Poland, and having been thrown to the mercy of such destiny, remained unprotected.
In view of such a situation, the Soviet government gave an order to the High Command of the Red Army that the army should cross the frontier and take under protection the life and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western White Russia. After this took place, the war between Poland and the Soviet Union was officially ended and Poland represented no more of a danger for the USSR….
The situation with the Germans was exactly the opposite. In spite of the fact that the German armies were occupying Poland, the war between the two states was continuing, as some of the Polish army were fighting against the Germans in France and England, and therefore, any Polish officer presented to the Germans a potential danger.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 197-198
Being in Varkut, Camp No. 10, [Romyald Sviatec] met a Major of the German Army who, from 1941, found himself in Smolensk. From him, I found out that it definitely was the Germans who operated several camps for Polish war prisoners. In one conversation, I got interested in his knowing about Katyn. He answered me directly that this was the work of the hands of Germans, as it was in the interests of Germany to commit this massacre.
He was sincerely surprised that the Polish officials were blaming the Russians. The Major stated that a good soldier, especially an officer, must die, if his Motherland is perishing. He stated that after he had fallen to the Russians as a prisoner, he understood very well that he might die, and if that would be his fate, he would accept that as a good German soldier. He also knew the attempt by General Sikorski in Moscow to free the Polish officers and soldiers, which he said would assist the Soviet-Polish agreement. This German major did not, in the slightest, consider his Polish officers’ massacre by Germany as a crime. To his way of thinking, these Polish officers represented a danger to the German Reich. This was also the opinion of most of the other German prisoners of war.
In Camp No. 11 in Varkut, I met Vlodzhimir Mandryk, who, before the war and during the period of occupation, worked in the main post office in Smolensk. He absolutely insisted that near Smolensk, from 1940 there were German camps for Polish prisoners of war. He was adamant that the Germans murdered the Poles.
By his account of the period between August and October of 1941, letters to Polish prisoners of war ceased to arrive and be processed by the post office. Any letters that kept on coming to the prisoners, the Germans gave the post office orders to destroy all these letters. Also, at this time, Mandryk recalls the Germans told everyone in Smolensk that the Polish officers were relocated back in Polish territory.
…Amongst the many recollections which I read about Katyn, there was a book by Stanislaw Svjanevich by the name of “In the Shadow of Katyn,” and also in the book by Joseph Chapskov, “Upon the Inhuman Earth.” I learned that Polish war prisoners were treated very well by the Russians. In 1940, there were three Polish generals in POW camps–Minkewich, Smorovinsly and Bakhaterebur. When these prisoners were departing the camps, the Soviet authorities gave them a farewell banquet, especially for the higher officer corps. The Russians wanted to show the Germans that they are civilized and knew how to treat prisoners. This might be looked upon as having little meaning, but if you lived with the Russians during those hard times of war, you would appreciate the real meaning of that gesture.
The Russians wanted to show the Polish officers that they, the Russians and Poles have one common enemy, therefore, uniting together would be in the interests of everyone. No one can convince me that it was the Russians who murdered these Polish officers. [This was also shown by] the Polish-Russian agreement of 1941 when thousands of Polish prisoners of war were freed from the camps, and the formation on Soviet territory of the Polish army took place.
In July 1952, together with a group of invalids, I was directed into the region of Irkutsk to camp No. 233. Here, I got acquainted with Father Kozera, who showed a great interest in the Katyn massacre. During the eight years we were together in many camps, he accumulated many interesting materials, which brought him to the final conclusion that the Katyn crime was perpetrated by the Germans.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 206-209
…Altogether, I spent nine years in the Soviet Union–two years in exile and seven years in camps. During that time, I went through much, met thousands of interesting people, but I also know that if the Soviets had wanted to get rid of the Polish officers, they would have sent them to the ” Novaya Zemlya” to work and thus, be productive.
I am far from praising the Soviet system…. I also do not pretend that I am not guilty of many things. There were people that got into the NKVD and the party who were real enemies of the system. They got rid of many dedicated people. But I cannot keep quiet on this Katyn event. I must defend the Russian people, if only to correct the existing lie that is being nurtured and promoted to this day about the Katyn massacre.
Even though I do not like the communist system, I must admit that this system has shown decency and follows the established law and order of the system….
With all the documentation that I have in my hands, I state categorically that the accusations by the Polish government in London, England were made solely for political reasons.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 206-211
Katyn Forest Massacre– Conclusion of Romyald Sviatec
In conclusion of this sad history, I would like to advise the Poles that they once-and-for-all discontinue and stop the insults regarding their Eastern neighbor, since the borders of Poland have been enlarged as the result of the Second World War, for the benefit of Poland.
Every true Pole must not only be satisfied with this, but also appreciate the country which was responsible for saving Poland from practical extinction. I returned from the Camp in 1956 and visited our Western territories. Only then did I realize the economical importance of the new Polish borders and in my heart I forgave the Soviets for their jailing me, because it was Stalin and the USSR which brought and formed these new important borders for Poland.
For all those who still stubbornly dream about Poland from the Baltic to the Black Sea, I suggest that they read the letter by Winston Churchill to the Poles. It calls for those Poles who are not aware of history or what it is they want, nor what they now possess, and do not wish to know or admit that it was the Soviet Union through its sacrifices of many millions of its people and soldiers, so the Poles could have their own independent state–which they were never able to gain by their own strength:
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 222
[In a November 7, 1944 letter Churchill stated:]
1. …
2. …
3. Moreover, without the Russian army, Poland would have been destroyed or brought into slavery and the Polish nation itself would have been wiped off the face of the earth. Without the valiant Red Army, no other power on earth would have been able to accomplish this. Poland now will be an independent, free country in the heart of Europe with wonderful and better territories than the one she had before. And if she will not accept this, Britain removes from itself all obligations and lets the Poles themselves work out their own agreement with the Soviets.
4. I don’t think that we can be asked to give any further assurances and promises to Poland regarding their borders or their attitude regarding the USSR. Poland fell in days to German Nazis, while the Polish government at that time refused to receive help from the Soviet Union.
Those Poles that are now vying for leadership in Poland must think that we, the British, are stupid that we would start a war against our USSR ally on behalf of the demands to restore the Polish eastern borders which had the majority of non-Poles living in those territories. A nation that proved to the world that it could not defend itself, must accept the guidance of those who saved them and who represent for them a perspective of genuine freedom and independence.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 224
POLAND ’S NOV 1939 ATTACK ON THE SU CHANGED THE STATUS OF POLISH PRISONERS
In the Soviet intervention into Poland, the USSR detained between 250-300 thousand Polish soldiers and officers. Most were released from detention centers. However, some 130,242 persons were maintained in detention camps of the NKVD, before their situation changed.
In November 1939, the Polish government in exile, as arrogant and bullish as ever, declared war on the USSR, supposedly in reply to the Soviet-Finnish War. The Poles went as far as creating a special brigade to be sent to fight the Red Army in Finland. By this act of war, the Polish government changed the status of the Polish soldiers still detained in the USSR. They now become automatically prisoners of war, and thus those still remaining in NKVD camps could not be released.
Mukhin, Y.I., Katyn Detective,1995
20,000 POLISH PRISONERS COULD NOT BE RELEASED UNTIL THEIR CASES WERE JUDGED
After the official inclusion of the territory captured by Poland in 1920 into the USSR, the Polish prisoners of war automatically became citizens of the USSR. By decision of court, it was named illegal for the NKVD to detain and force these soldiers to work. Therefore, most soldiers and petty officers were all released into civilian life as citizens of the USSR. However, there was a group of people that could not be released. These were those charged with crimes against the non-Polish and Polish population in the newly liberated areas as well as for war crimes against the USSR. This group comprised members of Poland’s military and governmental elite, gentry, landlord and manufacturers. There were plenty of war crimes committed by these people, such as the mass execution of Soviet prisoners of war in 1920 and active support for diversionary and terrorist groups against the USSR. It was decided to keep these individuals, numbering more than 20,000, in detention camps of the NKVD until a Special Commission of the NKVD examined their cases and decided upon a sentence for them.
Mukhin, Y.I., Katyn Detective,1995
All the evidence I secured showed that the Polish group in London was more interested in doing something against Russia than in doing anything for Poland. This made it easy to understand why they accepted and spread the Goebbels story about the murder of 10,000 Poles in Smolensk. Their unhesitating acceptance of this Nazi propaganda caused the Soviet government to sever relations with the Polish government-in-exile in 1943. It will be remembered that the Germans captured Smolensk on the night of July 15th 1941. Almost two years later Goebbels broadcast to the world that the Russians had killed 10,000 Polish prisoners there, and that their bodies had been found in the Katyn Forest. The Polish government-in-exile immediately gave credence to the Nazi allegation by asking the international Red Cross to investigate. It seemed a preposterous charge. If the Russians had really killed the Poles it would have been known by the people of Smolensk and the Germans would certainly have found out about it almost immediately. It was not the sort of thing that the Germans would have kept quiet about for two years. The Red Army retook Smolensk on September 25, 1943, and the Soviet government immediately instituted an investigation of a massacre.
I visited the Katyn Forest with American, British, Chinese, and French correspondents. Dr. Victor Prozorovsky, Director of the Moscow Institute of Criminal Medical Research, showed me about. The 10,000 bodies had been dug up, and the Russians were systematically examining everything found on them as well as performing autopsies. Eleven doctors were working continuously. I watched some of the autopsies, which were very thorough. The bodies, including the internal organs, were remarkably well preserved. The doctor said that this alone was sufficient to prove the falsity of the charge.
The Russians found letters on the bodies dated after the Germans occupied the city, thus proving that the victims could not had been killed at the time alleged. We talked with a Russian priest whose parish was in the Katyn Forest. He had been driven out of this church by the Germans, and then the building had been surrounded by barbed wire and SS men. The priest declared that the Germans had killed the Poles there. A Russian who had served under the Germans testified that the German authorities had ordered the death of the Polish prisoners. The diary of the Mayor who fled with the Germans contained clear evidence that the Germans had committed the murders. However, the fact which impressed me as much as any other, was that the corpses still had their fine leather boots. I had seen, traveling at the front, that it was general Russian practice to remove the boots of the dead. It seemed unlikely that they would have made an exception in this case, and left 10,000 pairs of good boots behind. Every correspondent who visited Katyn Forest came away convinced that it was another Nazi atrocity.
Davis, Jerome. Behind Soviet Power. New York, N. Y.: The Readers’ Press, Inc., c1946, p. 99
In 1943, near the railway station of Katyn, in the forest near the village of Kozy Gory, a vast burial ground of several thousand Polish officers was discovered. The Nazis at once declared that this was the work of Soviet hands’, while a special commission in Moscow stated that it was simply another example of Nazi brutality. A series of documents have been found in a special section of the Main Soviet Archives which make it plain that Katyn was in fact the work of Beria’a agency, though no single document has yet been found bearing his signature or that of any of his henchmen actually ordering the massacre. The order must either have been destroyed after the act or have been given orally.
Volkogonov, Dmitri. Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991, p. 360
Each one of them [Polish officers] had been shot in the back of the neck with a German bullet.
Nekrich and Heller. Utopia in Power. New York: Summit Books, c1986, p. 404
KATYN GRAVES STORY DECLARED GRIM FRAUD
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 28.
The story of the mass graves at Katyn, which caused a world sensation two years ago, was a propaganda stunt staged by Goebbels and Ribbentrop to cause a split between Russia and her western allies, says a report received here through special channels that is supported by a message from Oslo tonight. A Himmler close collaborator, SS Brigade Leader Schellenberg, is declared to have given this sensational information during an examination at Allied Headquarters in Germany last Tuesday. He is quoted as saying that 12,000 bodies were taken from German concentration camps and attired in old Polish uniforms to make them appear to be Polish officers.
Tonight a corroborative report was received from Oslo, where Erik Johansen–recently repatriated prisoner from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany–tells an interesting story about German production of false identification documents for bodies in Katyn mass graves.
Johansen says a special section of the concentration camp was completely isolated and strongly guarded by SS men, whereupon forty to sixty Jewish prisoners were picked out to forge the documents. They received the best optical instruments obtainable so the work could be done to perfection. They made passports, letters, etc. and even wallets, which were treated with a special chemical fluid to make them look worn.
Before the German capitulation all machines, instruments and material used were destroyed and the Jewish specialists were killed to prevent the secret from getting out, he said.
New York Times, June 29, 1945 p. 2
Katyn Forest Massacre
from Military-Historical Journal, 1991
by Romyald Sviatec
Who gained more from the murder of the Polish officers?
In order to answer this question, it is necessary to, at least sketchily, clarify the relations of the Germans and the Russians toward the Poles. It is known that the Germans started the war with Poland, as they required Polish lands and Polish workers. From the first days of the occupation, they began to destroy the Polish intellectual elite. The movement of the Russians into the eastern part of Poland had a different character, which was expressed in the note of the Soviet Government handed to the Polish ambassador in Moscow. The Polish-German war exposed the insolvency of the Polish state. In the course of ten days of military (German) operations, Poland lost all of its manufacturing and cultural centers. Warsaw, as a Capital of Poland, did not exist any more. The Polish government fell apart and did not show signs of life. This meant that the Polish state and its government factually ceased to exist.
With this, the agreements that had been concluded between the USSR and Poland were no longer valid–left to itself and abandoned without direction. Poland became a convenient field for all kinds of the accidental and unexpected, capable of threats to the Soviet Union. Because of this, being until then neutral, the Soviet government could not be in different to these facts any more, as also to the fact that the Ukrainians and the White Russians,–being of the same blood (as the Russians)–and living on the territory of Poland, and having been thrown to the mercy of such destiny, remained unprotected.
In view of such a situation, the Soviet government gave an order to the High Command of the Red Army that the army should cross the frontier and take under protection the life and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western White Russia. After this took place, the war between Poland and the Soviet Union was officially ended and Poland represented no more of a danger for the USSR….
The situation with the Germans was exactly the opposite. In spite of the fact that the German armies were occupying Poland, the war between the two states was continuing, as some of the Polish army were fighting against the Germans in France and England, and therefore, any Polish officer presented to the Germans a potential danger.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 197-198
Being in Varkut, Camp No. 10, [Romyald Sviatec] met a Major of the German Army who, from 1941, found himself in Smolensk. From him, I found out that it definitely was the Germans who operated several camps for Polish war prisoners. In one conversation, I got interested in his knowing about Katyn. He answered me directly that this was the work of the hands of Germans, as it was in the interests of Germany to commit this massacre.
He was sincerely surprised that the Polish officials were blaming the Russians. The Major stated that a good soldier, especially an officer, must die, if his Motherland is perishing. He stated that after he had fallen to the Russians as a prisoner, he understood very well that he might die, and if that would be his fate, he would accept that as a good German soldier. He also knew the attempt by General Sikorski in Moscow to free the Polish officers and soldiers, which he said would assist the Soviet-Polish agreement. This German major did not, in the slightest, consider his Polish officers’ massacre by Germany as a crime. To his way of thinking, these Polish officers represented a danger to the German Reich. This was also the opinion of most of the other German prisoners of war.
In Camp No. 11 in Varkut, I met Vlodzhimir Mandryk, who, before the war and during the period of occupation, worked in the main post office in Smolensk. He absolutely insisted that near Smolensk, from 1940 there were German camps for Polish prisoners of war. He was adamant that the Germans murdered the Poles.
By his account of the period between August and October of 1941, letters to Polish prisoners of war ceased to arrive and be processed by the post office. Any letters that kept on coming to the prisoners, the Germans gave the post office orders to destroy all these letters. Also, at this time, Mandryk recalls the Germans told everyone in Smolensk that the Polish officers were relocated back in Polish territory.
…Amongst the many recollections which I read about Katyn, there was a book by Stanislaw Svjanevich by the name of “In the Shadow of Katyn,” and also in the book by Joseph Chapskov, “Upon the Inhuman Earth.” I learned that Polish war prisoners were treated very well by the Russians. In 1940, there were three Polish generals in POW camps–Minkewich, Smorovinsly and Bakhaterebur. When these prisoners were departing the camps, the Soviet authorities gave them a farewell banquet, especially for the higher officer corps. The Russians wanted to show the Germans that they are civilized and knew how to treat prisoners. This might be looked upon as having little meaning, but if you lived with the Russians during those hard times of war, you would appreciate the real meaning of that gesture.
The Russians wanted to show the Polish officers that they, the Russians and Poles have one common enemy, therefore, uniting together would be in the interests of everyone. No one can convince me that it was the Russians who murdered these Polish officers. [This was also shown by] the Polish-Russian agreement of 1941 when thousands of Polish prisoners of war were freed from the camps, and the formation on Soviet territory of the Polish army took place.
In July 1952, together with a group of invalids, I was directed into the region of Irkutsk to camp No. 233. Here, I got acquainted with Father Kozera, who showed a great interest in the Katyn massacre. During the eight years we were together in many camps, he accumulated many interesting materials, which brought him to the final conclusion that the Katyn crime was perpetrated by the Germans.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 206-209
…Altogether, I spent nine years in the Soviet Union–two years in exile and seven years in camps. During that time, I went through much, met thousands of interesting people, but I also know that if the Soviets had wanted to get rid of the Polish officers, they would have sent them to the ” Novaya Zemlya” to work and thus, be productive.
I am far from praising the Soviet system…. I also do not pretend that I am not guilty of many things. There were people that got into the NKVD and the party who were real enemies of the system. They got rid of many dedicated people. But I cannot keep quiet on this Katyn event. I must defend the Russian people, if only to correct the existing lie that is being nurtured and promoted to this day about the Katyn massacre.
Even though I do not like the communist system, I must admit that this system has shown decency and follows the established law and order of the system….
With all the documentation that I have in my hands, I state categorically that the accusations by the Polish government in London, England were made solely for political reasons.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 206-211
Katyn Forest Massacre– Conclusion of Romyald Sviatec
In conclusion of this sad history, I would like to advise the Poles that they once-and-for-all discontinue and stop the insults regarding their Eastern neighbor, since the borders of Poland have been enlarged as the result of the Second World War, for the benefit of Poland.
Every true Pole must not only be satisfied with this, but also appreciate the country which was responsible for saving Poland from practical extinction. I returned from the Camp in 1956 and visited our Western territories. Only then did I realize the economical importance of the new Polish borders and in my heart I forgave the Soviets for their jailing me, because it was Stalin and the USSR which brought and formed these new important borders for Poland.
For all those who still stubbornly dream about Poland from the Baltic to the Black Sea, I suggest that they read the letter by Winston Churchill to the Poles. It calls for those Poles who are not aware of history or what it is they want, nor what they now possess, and do not wish to know or admit that it was the Soviet Union through its sacrifices of many millions of its people and soldiers, so the Poles could have their own independent state–which they were never able to gain by their own strength:
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 222
[In a November 7, 1944 letter Churchill stated:]
1. …
2. …
3. Moreover, without the Russian army, Poland would have been destroyed or brought into slavery and the Polish nation itself would have been wiped off the face of the earth. Without the valiant Red Army, no other power on earth would have been able to accomplish this. Poland now will be an independent, free country in the heart of Europe with wonderful and better territories than the one she had before. And if she will not accept this, Britain removes from itself all obligations and lets the Poles themselves work out their own agreement with the Soviets.
4. I don’t think that we can be asked to give any further assurances and promises to Poland regarding their borders or their attitude regarding the USSR. Poland fell in days to German Nazis, while the Polish government at that time refused to receive help from the Soviet Union.
Those Poles that are now vying for leadership in Poland must think that we, the British, are stupid that we would start a war against our USSR ally on behalf of the demands to restore the Polish eastern borders which had the majority of non-Poles living in those territories. A nation that proved to the world that it could not defend itself, must accept the guidance of those who saved them and who represent for them a perspective of genuine freedom and independence.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 224
POLAND ’S NOV 1939 ATTACK ON THE SU CHANGED THE STATUS OF POLISH PRISONERS
In the Soviet intervention into Poland, the USSR detained between 250-300 thousand Polish soldiers and officers. Most were released from detention centers. However, some 130,242 persons were maintained in detention camps of the NKVD, before their situation changed.
In November 1939, the Polish government in exile, as arrogant and bullish as ever, declared war on the USSR, supposedly in reply to the Soviet-Finnish War. The Poles went as far as creating a special brigade to be sent to fight the Red Army in Finland. By this act of war, the Polish government changed the status of the Polish soldiers still detained in the USSR. They now become automatically prisoners of war, and thus those still remaining in NKVD camps could not be released.
Mukhin, Y.I., Katyn Detective,1995
20,000 POLISH PRISONERS COULD NOT BE RELEASED UNTIL THEIR CASES WERE JUDGED
After the official inclusion of the territory captured by Poland in 1920 into the USSR, the Polish prisoners of war automatically became citizens of the USSR. By decision of court, it was named illegal for the NKVD to detain and force these soldiers to work. Therefore, most soldiers and petty officers were all released into civilian life as citizens of the USSR. However, there was a group of people that could not be released. These were those charged with crimes against the non-Polish and Polish population in the newly liberated areas as well as for war crimes against the USSR. This group comprised members of Poland’s military and governmental elite, gentry, landlord and manufacturers. There were plenty of war crimes committed by these people, such as the mass execution of Soviet prisoners of war in 1920 and active support for diversionary and terrorist groups against the USSR. It was decided to keep these individuals, numbering more than 20,000, in detention camps of the NKVD until a Special Commission of the NKVD examined their cases and decided upon a sentence for them.
Mukhin, Y.I., Katyn Detective,1995
POLISH CASES WERE JUDGED BY A SPECIAL COMMISSION AND THE RESULTS WERE AS FOLLOWS
The Decision of the Special Commission of the NKVD
The action of sentencing these foreign officers to war crimes was against international laws of the time. It was also not the time for the USSR to take such steps. War would soon come, and to publicly announce that some of the Polish officers were being considered as war criminals, could not help the USSR. Foreign imperialists, who were only looking for an opportunity to attack the USSR, would see this as an opportunity. Therefore, it was decided to keep this as secret as possible. A Special Commission of the NKVD was organized to individually investigate each case of the persons accused of crimes against the people or war crimes. Starting from December 1939, the administration of each camp in which the prisoners were being detained, started selecting those prisoners to be investigated by the Special Commission of the NKVD. On December 31, 1939 L. Beria sent the order for the camps to deliver the names of the suspected officers. By February 20, 1940 the order was issued to release from camps all those individuals who were sick, invalid or representatives of the working intelligentsia. After a lengthy review by the members of the Special Commission, a decision was reached. The first time the conclusion of the NKVD was made publicly available in its entirety was in September 1993 in the “Military-Historical Magazine.” This document was found in the Archives of the USSR. The decision of the Special Commission of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) was the following:
1. To give the status of war criminal to the persons considered socially dangerous; to exile for the period of up to 5 years under public supervision in the districts specified by the NKVD; to sentence them for the period of 5 years under public supervision with the prohibition of residing in the capitals, large cities and industrial centers of the USSR; to imprison in correctional-working camps and isolate in the camps for a period of up to 5 years, and to send outside the limits of the USSR foreign citizens considered socially dangerous.
2. To give the status of war criminal to the persons convicted of espionage, sabotage, diversion and terrorist activity and to imprison for the period from 5 to 8 years.
Starting from March 16 1940, individual cases were reviewed by the Special Commission of the NKVD and sentences were established for them. Some individuals were found not guilty of wrong doing and were returned to the prisoner of war status or were released. It was decided by the Special Commission that the privilege of correspondence be removed from the prisoners that were sentenced. The reason for this was that they were no longer prisoners of war, but war criminals, and thus the Soviet authorities were under no obligation to allow this privilege.
Furthermore, the fact that the Polish officer elite had been sentenced as war criminals could not be released publicly. Releasing such information to the world would have been damaging to the USSR, especially in this time when allies, even half-hearted ones, were necessary. However, not all the detained prisoners were sentenced. Those that were not, were placed in prisoners of war camps from where they could freely correspond. Furthermore, the Special Commission of the NKVD issued orders to the Starobelsk prisoners of war camp, where the Polish officers were previously held, to destroy the documentation regarding their prisoner of war status. An order was issued from L. Beria on September 10, 1940 to the commander of the camp to destroy the stock-taking documents of the prisoners of war. This order from Beria had no security clearance, and therefore could be viewed by anyone. The existence of this order has been seen by the western “historians” as evidence that the officers had been executed and that the Soviets were trying to cover their tracks. This is not the case. In the order of Beria and in following orders to the Starobelsk camp, the camp administration is asked to make copies of the prisoner’s photographs and some other additional files which were to be sent to the Kharakov UNKVD. The reality of this order is that the status of the officers had changed, from prisoners of war to war criminals. They had moved from the jurisdiction of the NKVD to that of the UNKVD, which dealt with such cases. Documents about their prisoner of war status could be destroyed, since they served no more purpose. But the pictures of the prisoners were sent to the UNKVD, where new criminal files were opened for the prisoners.
With this, the work and jurisdiction of the Special Commission of the NKVD was finished. The prisoners were moved from the Starobelsk camp to three separate camps near the Smolensk area. These camps were specially set up by the UNKVD for the Polish officers.
Since 1943, the USSR was forced to publicly admit that the Polish officers and other individuals were sentenced to imprisonment in correctional and working-camps for the period of 5 to 8 years without the right of correspondence. Since that time, the USSR has been accused of lying. Indeed, it was concluded by the Nazis and the western imperialists that the USSR had sentenced these individuals to death instead of imprisonment. However, the discovery of the actual decision of the Special Commission of the NKVD, has proved beyond a doubt that the USSR was not lying. The prisoners were indeed sentenced to terms of imprisonment, or as in the case of foreign nationals, to exile. The decision of the Special Commission of the NKVD should never have been doubted because in 1941 several individuals of foreign nationality were exiled outside the USSR. Among them was a Polish officer of German origins, R. Shtiller, who was deported to Germany and revealed information about the sentencing. Furthermore, those Polish officers found not guilty were returned to their prisoner of war camps, from where they could freely correspond. The entire investigation of the NKVD begs the question, that if the intention was to kill the prisoners, why carry out such a lengthy investigation of individual cases and release persons found not guilty? If the intention was to execute them, none of this would have been done. However, as with most truthful evidence on Katyn, this information is rejected and kept hidden as much as possible by the western and Russian revisionist historians. Instead, these “historians” and the Gorbachievite gang, resorted to forgeries and lies on the decision of the NKVD.
On June 22 1941, Germany launched its invasion of the USSR. At the time, Poland still held its declaration of war against the USSR. It wasn’t until after the war had started, that the Polish government in exile retreated its declaration. In July 30 1941, the government of Sikorsky entered into negotiation with the USSR about the release of the remaining Polish prisoners and about the organization of a Polish Army from these. By early August 1941, it was decided to create a Polish Army in the USSR under the command of Polish General Anders (who was one of the prisoners), called the Anders Army. Sikorsky promised Stalin that the Anders Army would remain in the USSR and fight against the Germans. All he wanted in return was that 25,000 Polish soldiers be sent to the Middle East to join the British Army. Stalin agreed, and in 1941 the Anders Army was created and armed. Sikorsky also asked Stalin about the fate of the missing Polish officers. Stalin avoided the question, giving the answer that he did not know (while the Soviet press made up imaginative theories of what happened). But the truth was that Stalin indeed did not know what had happened. By that time the Germans had taken Smolensk and the Polish camps and the Soviets did not know what happened to them. Also, this was not a priority for the Soviet Union. In any case, Stalin organized a committee to find out what happened to the Polish officers. They could not find out what happened to them, except that they had been captured by the Germans. On this, we shall talk about later.
Anders, being of the Polish military elite and as arrogant as usual, had a deep hatred for the USSR. The USSR was sacrificing much by arming these Polish soldiers. At a time when weapons had to be taken out of museums to arm the defenders of Moscow, the Anders Army was being armed with the best weapons. In an act of treachery, which was second nature for the elite Polish officers, Anders led his army of 114,000 into Iran. He abandoned the Red Army and abandoned the fight for his homeland to run away to Iran to join the British. This was indeed a great blow to Polish-Soviet relations. Never again would Stalin trust the Polish government in exile, and proved once more their treacherous and cowardly nature. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers and officers still remained in the USSR. these were organized into the Polish People’s Army, under the command of the PKKA. This was created in October 1941 and fought alongside the Red Army until the end of the war. By the Battle of Berlin, the Polish People’s Army numbered 400,000. They were the only Polish troops to participate in the liberation of their country from the Nazis.
First, lets begin with the “proofs” of the Nazis. Following the liberation of Smolensk from the Germans in September 1943, a Special Commission was established, headed by Academician N.N. Burdenko. Following a lengthy investigation of the area, questioning of witnesses and the excavation and study of 925 bodies, the Burdenko Commission wrote a 56 page report. This report was made public in 1944. Since then, the revisionist historians have accused the report of being simply a propaganda document with no truth in it. However, this assessment does not hold. In 1990, a “Top Secret” version of the Burdenko report was discovered. This “Top Secret” document was sent by Burdenko to the heads of the Soviet government.
The Burdenko Commission refuted all the points of the German and International investigation, except for the fact that there were 12,000 bodies. First to be examined was the location of the burial itself. The Germans claimed that the Katyn forest was an isolated area which had served as an execution ground for many years. In reality, Katyn was a popular area of vacationing. The NKVD vacation home was located only 700m away from the burial places. There resided the wives and children of the NKVD officers on vacation there. The city and surrounding population frequented the Katyn forest as a place of vacationing. Villagers came to the forest for picking mushrooms or for pasturing their animals. The area was not closed off the public in any way. Furthermore, the burial was only 200m from the Smolensk-Vitebsk highway. This was a heavily traveled road, with thousands of people crossing it every day. Could this be an area where executions were carried out for many years? Could this be the area where for months, 12,000 people were buried? It was not possible for the Soviets to carry out this act in such a place. Surely the NKVD could have found an area which was far more secure than this, an area where the only witnesses would have been bears. Most importantly, this revelation about Katyn proves the Germans were lying. According to the findings of the Burdenko Commission, it wasn’t until the Germans occupied the area that the woods were closed to the population. Signs were put up, warning anyone who entered that they would be shot. A German military unit was stationed on the grounds of the Katyn forest, closing off the area.
And about the cabin found by the Germans directly next to the graves (where the Germans said the executions had been carried out). It was in actuality a cabin for the Pioneers! It appears, that the exact area of the burials was a favorite ground for the Pioneers to set up their summer camp. Therefore, a permanent cabin was build on that area for housing materials for their use (while the Pioneers themselves slept in tents).
The Burbenko Commission also answered the question of what had happened to the Polish prisoners after their camps were overrun by the Germans. The directors of the prisoner camps were located and questioned. The director of camp 1ON, Major of Security V.M. Vetoschinikov, testified about what happened. According to him, he received orders about the evacuation of the prisoners from the camp. However, he had not received any instructions on how to carry this out, since phone connections had been cut off. He and some employees of the camp drove to Smolensk to clarify the situation. He met with Engineer S.V. Ivanov, head of transportation on the western stretch of the Smolensk railway. Vetoschinikov asked Ivanon for a few train cars to transport the prisoners. However, at the time the evacuation of the city population was being carried out. Therefore, Ivanon told him not to expect any train cars since none were available. Vetoschinikov tried to contact Moscow about permission to evacuate by foot, but could not contact them. By that time, the 1ON camp was cut off from Smolensk and the director had no idea what had happened to the prisoners or their guards.
Officer Ljubodzetsk witnessed what occurred in the 1ON camp after Vetoschinikov did not return. According to him, the evacuation of the camp started to be carried out by foot. However, the Polish officers rebelled. They said they wanted to wait for the Germans and surrender to them. At least the Germans, they thought, would treat them in accordance to international norms. The majority of the prisoners decided to remain in the camp and wait for the Germans. Only a few of the prisoners agreed to the evacuation – those of Jewish origin. Therefore, it has been proven that the Polish officers were alive and in the camps by the time the Germans captured them. The Burdenko Commission gathered testimonies from a number of other eyewitnesses from the neighboring villages. According to several of them, they had seen Polish prisoners in the area near Smolensk as late as September 1941.
The Burdenko Commission went on to investigate if anyone had actually seen the process of execution of the Polish officers by the Germans. They found three women, the cooks of the NKVD vacation house, A.M. Aleksejava, O.A. Michailova, and S.P. Konachovskaja. At the time, the house was the base for a German military unit. According to the women, this was the Staff building for a Construction Battalion No.537-1. There were 30 persons stationed at this place, according to the cooks. They could not remember the names of all of them, except for a few. The commander of the battalion was Lt. Colonel Arnes. Others were Lt. Colonel Rekst, Lt. Hott, Sgt. Luemert and few others whom the women could remember. They witnessed the entire procedures of the Germans. Though they never witnessed an execution, they were aware of what was going on. According to all three women, several trucks regularly arrived at the residence starting from September 1941. They would not come directly to the residence at first. Coming off the main highway, the trucks would stop somewhere between the highway and the residence. The officers of the 537th would go into the woods. About half an hour later, individual shots in succession begun to be heard. About 1 hour after the trucks had stopped, they reached the building and all would disembark. They would go into the house and wash themselves in the bathroom. They would then proceed to drink heavily. The women were not allowed out of the kitchen when the drivers and the other members of the convoy arrived. They were kept in the kitchen, cooking meals for them. On several occasions, the women noticed fresh blood stains on the uniforms of at least two officers. The cooks usually left their work in the evening. According to them, the officers had the unusual habit of sleeping until 12 o’clock. They suspected that they conducted the same business during the night. They also saw Polish officers on at least two occasions. On one occasion, one of the women was allowed to go home after her usual hours, in the evening. Walking on the road, she noticed a group of 30 prisoners. She recognized them as Polish because she had seen their uniforms before, while they were conducting construction work for the Soviets. On another occasion, two of the women accidentally saw two Polish officers inside the residence, surrounded by German officers. The women were chased back into the kitchen and there was a large fuss around the officers. A few minutes later, the women heard two shots. They had been warned several times to be careful about what they saw and not to tell anyone. As punishment for their intrusion, one of the women was locked in the basement of the building for 8 days while the other two for 3 days. After they realized what was going on, they quit their jobs on various excuses.
The conclusion that can be drawn from the testimonies of these three women is that the Polish officers were being executed by the Germans in the autumn of 1941. Apparently, several trucks were carrying groups of 30 or so prisoners to the Katyn woods. Stopping “between the highway and the residence”, or approximately 200m from the highway, the prisoners were unloaded. There awaited them the 30 members of the 537th in addition to the drivers and escorting soldiers. The prisoners were individually executed directly above their burial grounds and were thrown into their graves. This is a scene which can be seen many times in German footage of executions, where a German officer stands behind a kneeling prisoner, shoots him in the back of the head and throws him into an open grave. Following their work, all the German officers, soldiers and drivers went into the residence to clean off the blood or dirt and to celebrate with drinks. Now it was finally proven what had happened to the Polish officers.
The Burdenko Commission started excavation of the burial grounds in Katyn on January 16, 1944. The Commission dug up 925 bodies from those which had not already been examined by the Germans. There was a multitude of physical evidence on the bodies themselves. An obvious feature of the bodies was the heavy gray overcoat of the Polish officers. The question must then be asked, if the Polish officers were shot in the spring of 1940, as the Germans claim, why were they wearing coats? The only explanation for this is that they were not killed in the spring, but in a cold season, perhaps in autumn.
The hands of some Polish officers had been tied using a white braided cord. At the time, the USSR was the largest producer of hemp rope. In fact, the only kind of rope produced in the USSR in the pre-war years was hemp rope. Smolensk was one of the main centers of production. Therefore, the conclusion can be drawn that this was not rope produced in the USSR, but in some other foreign country.
The most obvious forensic evidence to look for in a murder case is the bullet and the bullet case. It was determined by the investigation on the 925 bodies, that most bullets had made an exit whole in the front of the head or in the face. In 27 cases, the bullet had remained inside the head. It was determined, the kills were made with low-velocity pistols. Many bullet cases were found in the graves. These were primarily of a 7.65mm caliber, but there were also a few 6.35mm caliber and even fewer 9mm bullets. The inscription on the 7.65mm bullets were “Genshov and K”, a German producer of cartridges known also as “Geko”. So the bullets were produced in Germany! The question must then be asked, did the USSR make use of such weapons? Perhaps there was some export of 7.65mm cartridges to the USSR from Germany? The truth is the USSR made no use of any kind of gun with a 7.65mm caliber. The standard bullet size for Soviet pistols, including the TT, was 7.62mm. The USSR did make use of several types of guns with a 6.35mm caliber, but Germany also produced 59 types of pistols with a 6.35mm caliber. Also, USSR did not have a 9mm pistol until after the war, the Makarov pistol. Therefore, it is proven beyond a doubt that the executions were carried out with bullets produced in Germany and with guns which the Soviet Union did not possess. The only explanation is of course that these were carried out by the Germans. As for the German claim of having found bullet cases with Soviet inscriptions on them, this can only be propaganda since no producer, caliber or type of case was mentioned (on all Soviet cartridges the name of the factory of production is mentioned).
The bodies were searched for documentation of any sort. Many documents and papers were recovered. Among them, were at least 9 documents with dates from 12 November 1940 to 20 June 1941. These included 2 letters, one received and another not sent out, one icon and a number of camp receipts. The existence of these papers is proof that the prisoners were still alive until at least the German invasion started.
And what about those leaves the Germans supposedly found in the graves? If these leaves had fallen into the graves, and 3 years later (the Germans claimed the Poles were killed in 1940) they were still distinguishable to be birch leaves, then they must have been dry at the time of their fall. A fresh leaf would decompose very quickly and there would be nothing left of it. A dry leaf, especially birch leaves, can maintain their form for a long time if buried. But even they, cannot maintain their shape after 3 years. So there must be a different explanation. If the murders happened in the spring of 1940, then there would have been no dry leaves. And as is known leaves fall from the trees in the fall. Perhaps in the fall of 1941, or one and a half years before they were exhumed.
Investigation of the PKK and International Commission
Even more physical evidence about the bodies in Katyn comes from the investigators of the International Commission itself, who examined the bodies in 1943 under German supervision. Two members of the forensic team of the International Commission, Czechoslovakian Professor of forensic medicine F.Gaek and Bulgarian forensic scientist Marko Marks, were questioned on the matter. Marks was arrested in 1944 by the Bulgarian People’s Government and accused of lying on his Katyn investigation. Instead, Marks told them he did not lie, but that his real report was never made public by the Germans (thus Marks was freed). According to his experience, on May 1 1943, the team was flown from Katyn to Berlin. On the way to Berlin, their plane landed in an isolated military airfield. There, the members of the commission ate dinner. They were then given a prepared report on what they saw, which they had to sign. According to Marks, the report the Germans made public was only signed by the members of the commission, but not written by them. Instead, as Marks accounts, the members wrote individual reports which the Germans did not make public. In these reports, the conclusion of the commission was that the bodies in Katyn were too well preserved to have been buried 3 years earlier. Instead the commission concluded the bodies had been killed one to one and a half year earlier, in late 1941 or early 1942.
The findings of the Polish Red Cross (PKK) were also the same. On the death certificates they made for the victims at Katyn, they specified no date of death. According to its members, who testified after the war, they could not agree on a conclusion. Most thought the killings had been carried out one to one and a half years earlier and not 3 years as the Germans claimed. However, they could not write such a thing. Therefore it was decided to leave the time of death simply blank.
The PKK and the International Commission, as well as experts invited from other countries, examined in detail the bodies the Germans had laid out for them. The way in which these examinations were carried out was bizarre. The PKK members were present in the exhuming of the 4143 bodies they examined. The Germans had rounded up people from the neighboring villages to dig out the bodies. Once the bodies were out, the peasants were forced to search their uniforms for documents and papers of any kind. Once these were found, they were placed in individual folders with a number. The same number was placed on the body with a metal tag. The documents found in the bodies were not given to the PKK. By order from Berlin, all diaries, letters, receipts and orders were to be sent to Germany immediately for translation into German. The PKK members were given only the passports and other identification papers of the prisoners. Now it becomes obvious why the investigators found no documents with dates after the spring of 1940. Any document which would have contained a date was taken to Germany for “translation”, and only then made public. The PKK and other commissions were given only documents which did not contain any dates or hints of when they were killed.
The examination of the bodies themselves was even more revealing as to their time of death. According to the pathologist and forensic experts, the bodies were in a good condition. The tissue on the bodies was still attached. The skin on the hands, face and neck had turned gray, and in some cases greenish brown. There was no complete decomposition of the bodies and no putrefaction. In the bodies, muscles and tendons were still visible. Limbs were also still attached. When the bodies were carried out by the peasants, no parts of the bodies came apart. The uniforms of the bodies was still in good condition and held together well. The metallic parts of their uniforms, such as belts, buttons and nails, was still metallic and shiny in some areas. They were not rusted completely.
Bodies decompose faster in the warm seasons of the year, spring and summer. In winter bodies decompose very little and are as if in refrigeration. If the German version of the story were true, and the officers were killed in the spring of 1940, then there would have been 3 summer seasons between that time and April 1943. However, if the bodies had been killed in the autumn and winter of 1941, as the Soviet version of events goes, then there would have been only 1 summer season between that time and April 1943. In 3 summer seasons, the bodies would have been in a far more advanced stage of decomposition than the commissions found. For this reason the conclusion of both PKK and International forensic experts was that the bodies were killed one to one and a half years earlier, during the German occupation of the area. However, such a conclusion could not be made public by Germany.
The decomposition of the bodies was also the reason for the German delay in excavating the area. According to them, the location of the graves was discovered in March 1942. Excavation of the bodies started more than 1 year later. The Germans knew that since the bodies had been buried in the autumn and winter of 1941, they were still not decomposing by March 1942. Therefore, it was necessary to wait at least one summer for the bodies to decompose, and then excavate them in the spring of 1943.
Revisionist Evidence Refuted
The two eyewitnesses presented by the Gorbachevites are indeed lying about what really occurred. But it is not them who are to be blamed. They had no other choice. Soprunenko refused to admit that he received such an order for several months. The daughter, fearing for her and her fathers safety, said it was true that her father had seen an order from Stalin to kill the prisoners. The old man denied it, until after months of intimidation and threats was forced to tell them what they wanted to hear. But the Gorbechevite inspectors had not taken into consideration one detail. Soprunenko had already been asked the question of what happened to the Polish officers. He was asked this by the Committee that Stalin organized in the fall of 1941 to find out what happened to the Polish officers (on behalf of Sikorsky). The documentation the general-major received and sent on this matter was found in the Archives of the USSR as “Top Secret” documents. The truth, that Soprunenko had said in the fall of 1941, was finally found out and shattered the lies of the revisionists. One of the first persons questioned in 1941 on what happened to the Polish officers was precisely General-Major Soprunenko. Soprunenko wrote several documents under the title “Top Secret”. In these documents Soprunenko says the UNKVD “is at a loss” about what happened to the Polish officers. It did not know! He also wrote a document about the release of prisoners of German origin to Germany in a prisoner exchange program. But his reply to the Commission was that the UNKVD did not know. If the general-major had indeed been ordered by Beria to execute the Polish officers, he would have replied “on the indication of Comrade Beria, the Polish officers were shot.” Remember that the documents were “Top Secret”. No one would have seen them, except for people who would have sent such on order themselves! Why hide an order of Stalin and Beria…from Stalin and Beria? Yet Soprunenko made no such comment. He never received or saw such an order. He placed the responsibility for the disappearance of the prisoners on himself and on the UNKVD. So the truth of what the old man knew became known in the “Top Secret” documents, and the testimony he was forced to give to the Gorbachevite inspectors was proven to be false.
The testimony of Tokarev was false as well. He knew the Gorbachev inspectors would not quit until they heard what they wanted to hear. So Tokarev, being smarter than these revisionists, told them exactly what they wanted to hear, and at the same time hinted in his testimony he was only pulling their tail. The whole story of how the executions were carried out makes absolutely no sense. Even according to the German investigation, the pistols used in executing the Poles were low-velocity pistols. Tokarev says the executioners used TT pistols. TT pistols are very high-velocity guns, with a muzzle velocity of 420m/s. It is very powerful, and at a point blank range, it would not have produced a simple entry and exit wound. At that range, it would have carried away with it half the head! To give an impression of its power, even today the only hand guns that compare to its power are magnum revolvers. Furthermore, when shooting indoors against brick or cement walls, it ricochets off the walls and hits the executioners themselves! Therefore, TT pistols are never used for executions at close range and inside buildings. TT pistols also have a caliber of 7.62mm. No such bullets were found in the Katyn graves. Of course, Tokarev was aware of this, but his questioners were not.
The most obvious aspect of Tokarev’s false testimonial is his description of the execution process. Tokarev says the executions were carried out in the UNKVD buidling in the middle of Smolensk. How can executions of 300 prisoners per day be kept secret in a large prison in the middle of a city? It cannot. The executions, if they were 6000 per month, went on for 2 months. If the executions were to be carried out in absolute secrecy, the building had to be emptied of personnel for 2 months. All the other prisoners, the guards, the office personnel, the telephone operators, the janitors, the cooks and storekeepers of the complex had to be sent home for 2 months and operations of the UNKVD had to be shut down for that period. Guards would have to be placed outside the building, indeed a long way out of the building, to keep people from coming near enough to hear the shooting. Could all this have been carried out in secret in the middle of a city? Of course not. It makes no sense, and Tokarev knew this. Furthermore, is it possible for 10 guards to execute 300-200 prisoners every day? According to Tokarev, they were executed in groups of 10-40 people. The entire process, according to Tokarev, was to take them out of their cells, take them to an office room to be identified and to complete necessary documentation, take them to special room to be executed. Afterwards, they were loaded into trucks from the back door of the building and taken to their burial sites. This entire process would have taken a very long time, especially for a small group of 10 guards. The prisoners would have been less than cooperative. It is hard to drag 10-40 men who know that they are going to be executed. So the time elapsed in this process is even longer. If there are 10 hours of daylight in April, and Tokarev said the executions were carried out during the daylight hours, then there was a 2 minute time period for the execution of every person in order to kill 300 persons per day. This is the time if the guards take no breaks and eat nothing during this process. Furthermore, if the prisoners were killed in the UNKVD building in the middle of the city, why were there bullet cases in the graves of the Polish officers? It is simply impossible. The Burdenko Commission already showed how the Germans, who were master executioners, carried out their actions.
Forged Documents
As a final chapter to the Katyn drama, the Gorbachevite “historians” announced in 1992 the discovery of three documents, undeniably proving Soviet guilt in Katyn. The first document was a request by Beria to the Political Bureau, to give the order to execute the Polish officers. The second document, is the protocol of the Political Bureau for its Session No.13, where the request of Beria is noted. The third document is a letter from Shepelin to Khrushchev dated March 3 1959, informing him that all documentation on Katyn would be destroyed.
All three of these documents are false, and this article shall prove so. The letter of Beria to the Politburo is of most importance. It is also the most obvious fake. In the letter dated March 5 1940, Beria says he thinks it necessary that “the NKVD” propose to “the NKVD” to transfer the cases for 14,700 prisoners of war and 11,000 arrested people. It asks the Politburo in request I, to order “the application to them of the highest measure of punishment – execution”. In request II, it asks that the sentences for the persons be carried out without their presence and without representation for them. In request III, it asks the Politburo to appoint this matter to a “troika” made up of Kabulov, Merkulov and Bashtakov. This letter is under the title “Top Secret”. On the first page of the document, it is signed by Stalin, Molotov, Mikoyan, Voroshilov. The names of Kaganovich and Kalinin are added under these, where they express “after”.
The mistakes and inconsistencies in this letter are many. To start, the letter is “Top Secret”. Standard procedure for a “Top Secret” letter were to write on the letter the name of the person who typed it, the names of all the persons who have seen the document, the names of all persons to whom this letter is to be sent, the number of copies made of this letter, the carbon paper used to make a copy of it and finally the tape of the typewriter used to make this paper. For the “Beria document”, none of these exist. Without these precautions, it is not a “Top Secret” letter. The forger of this document either was not aware of the requirements of a “Top Secret” paper, or such requirements could not be forged by them. Either way, this paper immediately looses its value, and furthermore shows it is a forgery.
But the mistakes do not stop here. The signatures of the members of the Politburo go against the form. In this letter, 4 members of the Politburo have simply signed their names. By this act, they have rejected the request of Beria. You see, if the members of the Politburo agreed to send out an order or to carry out a request, it was necessary for them to sign the document, and to write next to their signatures “agreed” or “after”. In order for the request to be agreed and the order to be sent out, the members had to express their agreement to the request or their agreement to an order being sent. If they simply signed the paper, it meant that the members had read the document, but had not agreed to it and had not sent out any orders. The forger was obviously not aware of this and has made the mistake. Even if this request is authentic, which it is not, it was not accepted by the Politburo.
On the first page of the document, along with the four signatures of Stalin, Molotov, Mikoyan and Voroshilov, the forger added the names of Kaganovich and Kalinin underneath these. What the forger was not aware of, is that both Kaganovich and Kalinin were absent from the 13th Session of the Politburo in March 1940. They could not have placed their signatures on this document.
Beria’s requests contain even more proof that it is a forgery. Beria’s requests that he finds it necessary for the NKVD to propose to the NKVD, makes no sense. Why would Beria find it necessary to propose to Beria? This is a mistake which the forger accidentally made. Why he made this mistake shall be discussed below.
In Beria’s third request, he asks for the creation of a “troika” of three individuals mentioned by name. This entire request makes no sense. When a troika is created, its members are never mentioned by name. They are mentioned by their post. What was to happen if one of the members died or was removed from his post? Was the troika destroyed or was this person, who was no longer in position, still in the troika? It could not have been done in this way. For an example, the reader should refer to the above decision of the Special Commission of the NKVD, where its members are identified only by their post. It is not important who the individuals are. The individuals in the posts may change, but the troika still stands.
Furthermore, this document gives no indication as to who should receive or should be informed of the decision of the Politburo. The only person mentioned is L. Beria. But in a document such as this, the names of the persons to receive it are also included. Otherwise, how is Kabulov to know he is a member of the “troika”? This document is “Top Secret”. It is given to him only by the Politburo. Furthermore, the persons in charge of carrying out the orders of the Politburo, in this case the people or organs to carry out the executions, must also be named. Otherwise, if it is simply announced to them by a second or third party, it is no longer a “Top Secret” decision, but something for the whole world to know. This document contains no such names.
The request for execution to the Politburo is a further mistake of the forger. Such a request would never have been made. The Politburo did not have the authority to make such an order. The only body capable of issuing an order for execution was the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, specifically the Supreme Court of the USSR. Only by decision of the Supreme Court could an execution be carried out. The Court also established special “troikas”, which by authority of the Court had the power to sentence to execution. In this document, Beria is asking the Politburo to create a “troika” to sentence people to death. It was impossible! Only a decision of the Supreme Court could have created such a “troika”. An example of how such a process was carried out, happened in 1941. The German advance was threatening to capture the prison at Orel, where important members of anti-Soviet groups were being held. It could not be allowed for them to fall into the hands of the Germans, who would use them against the USSR. Therefore, a meeting of the Supreme Court was called where it issued an order for execution, and only then were the prisoners executed. Even in the most pressing of times, 1941, the rule of Soviet law was not broken. So why was Beria asking the Politburo for such a decision?
The question must be asked, why did the forger make such mistakes? The reason for them is that the forger used an original document from Beria to the Politburo. The forger needed an original document to have a document number and to keep the same characteristic style of Beria. He did not change the first page, except for adding the names of Kaganovich and Kalinin (which the forger thought should have been there). However, the forger changed the second page, Beria’s requests. So in the original document of Beria it read “…the NKVD finds it necessary to propose to the Special Commission of the NKVD…” Then it would make sense. The forger however, removed the Special Commission, since its decision was to sentence the officers to a maximum of 5 years of imprisonment. Therefore, in the original document, Beria’s request was not to execute the prisoners, and thus disagree with the conclusion of the Special Commission. It was in agreement with the Special Commission. Instead of ordering an execution, the original document should have read ” with the application to them of the sentence of 5-8 years of imprisonment as specified by the Special Commission of the NKVD”. Also, in the original there was no request for the creation of a troika. Only then would this document make sense. It was only asking the members of the Politburo to agree to allow the NKVD to propose to the Special Commission of the NKVD the transfer of files to them and to allow the NKVD to propose to the Special Commission to carry out its investigation of individuals without their presence and without the presence of their representation. This original request of the document is supported in the fact that on March 16, 1940, the Special Commission started receiving personal information on the prisoners and began its individual sentencing. This is the exact request of Beria’s original letter to the Politburo.
If the original document had read as such, then the signatures on the first page are transformed into an agreement. This is not bizarre, but if the Politburo was not asked to carry out an order or to take any action, but only to agree, then a simple signature would have sufficed. If there were no orders or actions to be carried out, then none had to be specified next to the names. So by changing the requests of Beria, the forger also changed the decision of the Politburo. Nevertheless, this document so proudly displayed by the revisionists is no doubt a fake.
The second document is the protocol of the Politburo on the request of Beria. It confirms all the requests of Beria, the execution of the prisoners and the creation of the “troika” with the members Beria mentioned. This is the letter that is taken from the logs of the Politburo and sent to the persons specified in Beria’s request are to receive it. However, since no such persons were indicated on the letter of Beria, to whom was this protocol sent to? Furthermore, since by their simple signatures, the members of the Politburo did not agree to Beria’s request, why was a protocol of the Politburo made for it? Also, it does not contain the signature of the Secretary of the Politburo. Without the signature, it means nothing. This second document is simply a continuation of the first one, an attempt of the forgers to show the Politburo agreed and sent out an order. Just as the Korger changed the original Beria document to suggest execution, so was changed the original protocol of the Politburo.
The third document is very poorly made and seems to have the purpose of telling all other historians not to search documents on Katyn any more, Khrushchev has destroyed them all! On this letter of Shepelin to Khrushchev, there is no number at all and there is no signature. It follows no form. Nevertheless, in this letter Shepelin tells Khrushchev that all documents on Katyn will be destroyed since they have no “historical value” to anyone. How did Shepelin think that documents on executions of thousands of foreign nationals, had no value to anyone? Among the documents Shepelin mentions, are the stock-taking documents of the prisoners of war from their camps, mentioned among them is Starobelsk camp. As we have already seen, an order was sent from Beria to the commander of Starobelsk in September 1940, to destroy the stock-taking documents of the prisoners of war since criminal cases for them would be opened. How did these stock-taking documents reappear in 1959 for Shepelin to destroy? For the prisoners of war sentenced to prison by the Special Commission of the NKVD, criminal cases were opened and there existed no more documents of their prisoner of war status. Also, in this document, the protocol to execute the Poles is said to have come from the Politburo of the CPSU. Shepelin simply refers “to the protocol of the Politburo of the CPSU to execute…” The problem with this is that the CPSU did not exist until 1952. In 1940, there was no such government body! In 1940, it was called the Politburo of the AUCP(B) (All Union Communist Party – Bolshevik). Also, Shepelin cannot simply refer to such a “Top Secret” document without quoting it or without including a copy of it for Khrushchev. Otherwise, how would Khrushchev know what Shepelin was talking about. Yet all these simple mistakes are made by the forger.
All three documents are forgeries. There are only a few authentic documents recovered on Katyn (the resolution of the Special Commission, the orders to Starobelsk ext.) Any additional documents on Katyn, such as the criminal cases of the prisoners, were located in the Smolensk Archives. Unfortunately, the Smolensk Archives were captured by the Germans during WW2 and later by the Americans. If these documents exist anymore, they are in the hands of the Americans, and will thus never be revealed. Nevertheless, it is important to show that the revisionists have no documents implicating the USSR, but instead resort to forgeries and lies.
Conclusion
What conclusion can be drawn from the evidence, counter-evidence, documents, forgeries and heaps of propaganda on Katyn? For 60 years the anti-communist forces of the world have told us Katyn was a Soviet responsibility. The Nazis proclaimed this as a crime of the Jewish communists. They used it as one of the many pretexts for placing into concentration camps and slaughtering tens of millions of Soviet citizens and Jews. The western imperialists used the Nazi pretext in the 1950s, to place on trial communists. They used it to launch a crusade against communism, to protect their empires and colonies, slaughtering more millions. The anti-communists and scoundrels ruling the USSR in the 80s and 90s used Katyn as a pretext for destroying the USSR and throwing the Soviet people into the brutal exploitation of capitalist and Mafiosi gangsters. Millions more died. Today, the modern revisionist “historians” would like to exonerate the Nazis of any responsibility. Today they use Katyn as yet another pretext to show how the Soviets “fabricated” the Holocaust and how they “fabricated” Auschwitz and all the other unimaginable crimes of the Nazis. Katyn has always been used as a weapon of the fascists and imperialists for justifying their murderous campaigns. The truth on Katyn however is far from what these Nazi sympathizers and scoundrels would like us to believe. Katyn was the work of the Nazis. It is they who killed the Polish officers after capturing them from Soviet camps. The conclusion one should draw simply from the heaps of lies, propaganda and forgeries the imperialists and Nazi-sympathizers, is that Katyn is their responsibility. Otherwise, there would have been no reason for the Nazis to conduct their “international” investigation as they did and for the Gorbachevite revisionists to create fake documents. But beyond their lies and forgeries, one should look at the truth on Katyn. The truth stands that the Polish officers were sentenced to terms of prison for their various war crimes. To tell the truth, no one should feel sorry for these Polish officers. They were traitors and cowards in the face of their country and people. However, they did not deserve a German bullet in the back of their head. Only a Polish bullet would have sufficed for their crimes against the Polish people.
Mukhin, Y.I., Katyn Detective,1995
STALIN SEVERS TIES WITH POLISH GOVT BECAUSE IT SUPPORTS WITH HITLER ON KATYN
[Personal and secret message from Josef Stalin to Winston Churchill on April 21, 1943]
The behavior of the Polish government towards the USSR of late is, in the view of the Soviet Government, completely abnormal and contrary to all the rules and standards governing relations between two allied states.
The anti-Soviet slander campaign launched by the German fascists in connection with the Polish officers whom they themselves murdered in the Smolensk area, in German-occupied territory, was immediately seized upon by the Sikorski Government and is being fanned in every way by the Polish official press. Far from countering the infamous fascist slander against the USSR, the Sikorski Government has not found it necessary even to address questions to the Soviet Government or to request information on the matter.
The Hitler authorities, having perpetrated a monstrous crime against the Polish officers, are now staging a farcical investigation, using for the purpose certain pro-fascist Polish elements picked by themselves in occupied Poland, where everything is under Hitler’s heel and where no honest Pole can open his mouth.
Both the Sikorski and Hitler governments have enlisted for the “investigation” the head of the International Red Cross, which, under a terror regime of gallows and wholesale extermination of the civil population, is forced to take part in the investigation farce directed by Hitler. It is obvious that this “investigation,” which, moreover, is being carried out behind the Soviet Government’s back, cannot enjoy the confidence of anyone with a semblance of honesty.
The fact that the anti-Soviet campaign has been started simultaneously in the German and Polish press and follows identical lines is indubitable evidence of contact and collusion between Hitler,the Allies’ enemy,and the Sikorski Government in this hostile campaign.
At a time when the peoples of the Soviet Union are shedding their blood in a grim struggle against Hitler Germany and bending their energies to defeat the common foe of the freedom-loving democratic countries, the Sikorski Government is striking a treacherous blow at the Soviet Union to help Hitler tyranny.
These circumstances compel the Soviet Government to consider that the present Polish government, having descended to collusion with the Hitler Government, has, in practice, severed its relations of alliance with the USSR and adopted a hostile attitude to the Soviet Union.
For these reasons, the Soviet Government has decided to interrupt relations with that Government.
I think it necessary to inform you of the foregoing, and I trust that the British Government will appreciate the motives that necessitated this forced step on the part of the Soviet Government.
Richardson, S, Ed. The Secret History of World War II. NY: Richardson & Steirman, 1986, p. 91-93
Katyn
GERMANS COMMITTED THE KATYN FOREST MASSACRE
All the evidence I secured showed that the Polish group in London was more interested in doing something against Russia than in doing anything for Poland. This made it easy to understand why they accepted and spread the Goebbels story about the murder of 10,000 Poles in Smolensk. Their unhesitating acceptance of this Nazi propaganda caused the Soviet government to sever relations with the Polish government-in-exile in 1943. It will be remembered that the Germans captured Smolensk on the night of July 15th 1941. Almost two years later Goebbels broadcast to the world that the Russians had killed 10,000 Polish prisoners there, and that their bodies had been found in the Katyn Forest. The Polish government-in-exile immediately gave credence to the Nazi allegation by asking the international Red Cross to investigate. It seemed a preposterous charge. If the Russians had really killed the Poles it would have been known by the people of Smolensk and the Germans would certainly have found out about it almost immediately. It was not the sort of thing that the Germans would have kept quiet about for two years. The Red Army retook Smolensk on September 25, 1943, and the Soviet government immediately instituted an investigation of a massacre.
I visited the Katyn Forest with American, British, Chinese, and French correspondents. Dr. Victor Prozorovsky, Director of the Moscow Institute of Criminal Medical Research, showed me about. The 10,000 bodies had been dug up, and the Russians were systematically examining everything found on them as well as performing autopsies. Eleven doctors were working continuously. I watched some of the autopsies, which were very thorough. The bodies, including the internal organs, were remarkably well preserved. The doctor said that this alone was sufficient to prove the falsity of the charge.
The Russians found letters on the bodies dated after the Germans occupied the city, thus proving that the victims could not had been killed at the time alleged. We talked with a Russian priest whose parish was in the Katyn Forest. He had been driven out of this church by the Germans, and then the building had been surrounded by barbed wire and SS men. The priest declared that the Germans had killed the Poles there. A Russian who had served under the Germans testified that the German authorities had ordered the death of the Polish prisoners. The diary of the Mayor who fled with the Germans contained clear evidence that the Germans had committed the murders. However, the fact which impressed me as much as any other, was that the corpses still had their fine leather boots. I had seen, traveling at the front, that it was general Russian practice to remove the boots of the dead. It seemed unlikely that they would have made an exception in this case, and left 10,000 pairs of good boots behind. Every correspondent who visited Katyn Forest came away convinced that it was another Nazi atrocity.
Davis, Jerome. Behind Soviet Power. New York, N. Y.: The Readers’ Press, Inc., c1946, p. 99
In 1943, near the railway station of Katyn, in the forest near the village of Kozy Gory, a vast burial ground of several thousand Polish officers was discovered. The Nazis at once declared that this was the work of Soviet hands’, while a special commission in Moscow stated that it was simply another example of Nazi brutality. A series of documents have been found in a special section of the Main Soviet Archives which make it plain that Katyn was in fact the work of Beria’a agency, though no single document has yet been found bearing his signature or that of any of his henchmen actually ordering the massacre. The order must either have been destroyed after the act or have been given orally.
Volkogonov, Dmitri. Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991, p. 360
Each one of them [Polish officers] had been shot in the back of the neck with a German bullet.
Nekrich and Heller. Utopia in Power. New York: Summit Books, c1986, p. 404
KATYN GRAVES STORY DECLARED GRIM FRAUD
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, June 28.
The story of the mass graves at Katyn, which caused a world sensation two years ago, was a propaganda stunt staged by Goebbels and Ribbentrop to cause a split between Russia and her western allies, says a report received here through special channels that is supported by a message from Oslo tonight. A Himmler close collaborator, SS Brigade Leader Schellenberg, is declared to have given this sensational information during an examination at Allied Headquarters in Germany last Tuesday. He is quoted as saying that 12,000 bodies were taken from German concentration camps and attired in old Polish uniforms to make them appear to be Polish officers.
Tonight a corroborative report was received from Oslo, where Erik Johansen–recently repatriated prisoner from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany–tells an interesting story about German production of false identification documents for bodies in Katyn mass graves.
Johansen says a special section of the concentration camp was completely isolated and strongly guarded by SS men, whereupon forty to sixty Jewish prisoners were picked out to forge the documents. They received the best optical instruments obtainable so the work could be done to perfection. They made passports, letters, etc. and even wallets, which were treated with a special chemical fluid to make them look worn.
Before the German capitulation all machines, instruments and material used were destroyed and the Jewish specialists were killed to prevent the secret from getting out, he said.
New York Times, June 29, 1945 p. 2
Katyn Forest Massacre
from Military-Historical Journal, 1991
by Romyald Sviatec
Who gained more from the murder of the Polish officers?
In order to answer this question, it is necessary to, at least sketchily, clarify the relations of the Germans and the Russians toward the Poles. It is known that the Germans started the war with Poland, as they required Polish lands and Polish workers. From the first days of the occupation, they began to destroy the Polish intellectual elite. The movement of the Russians into the eastern part of Poland had a different character, which was expressed in the note of the Soviet Government handed to the Polish ambassador in Moscow. The Polish-German war exposed the insolvency of the Polish state. In the course of ten days of military (German) operations, Poland lost all of its manufacturing and cultural centers. Warsaw, as a Capital of Poland, did not exist any more. The Polish government fell apart and did not show signs of life. This meant that the Polish state and its government factually ceased to exist.
With this, the agreements that had been concluded between the USSR and Poland were no longer valid–left to itself and abandoned without direction. Poland became a convenient field for all kinds of the accidental and unexpected, capable of threats to the Soviet Union. Because of this, being until then neutral, the Soviet government could not be in different to these facts any more, as also to the fact that the Ukrainians and the White Russians,–being of the same blood (as the Russians)–and living on the territory of Poland, and having been thrown to the mercy of such destiny, remained unprotected.
In view of such a situation, the Soviet government gave an order to the High Command of the Red Army that the army should cross the frontier and take under protection the life and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western White Russia. After this took place, the war between Poland and the Soviet Union was officially ended and Poland represented no more of a danger for the USSR….
The situation with the Germans was exactly the opposite. In spite of the fact that the German armies were occupying Poland, the war between the two states was continuing, as some of the Polish army were fighting against the Germans in France and England, and therefore, any Polish officer presented to the Germans a potential danger.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 197-198
Being in Varkut, Camp No. 10, [Romyald Sviatec] met a Major of the German Army who, from 1941, found himself in Smolensk. From him, I found out that it definitely was the Germans who operated several camps for Polish war prisoners. In one conversation, I got interested in his knowing about Katyn. He answered me directly that this was the work of the hands of Germans, as it was in the interests of Germany to commit this massacre.
He was sincerely surprised that the Polish officials were blaming the Russians. The Major stated that a good soldier, especially an officer, must die, if his Motherland is perishing. He stated that after he had fallen to the Russians as a prisoner, he understood very well that he might die, and if that would be his fate, he would accept that as a good German soldier. He also knew the attempt by General Sikorski in Moscow to free the Polish officers and soldiers, which he said would assist the Soviet-Polish agreement. This German major did not, in the slightest, consider his Polish officers’ massacre by Germany as a crime. To his way of thinking, these Polish officers represented a danger to the German Reich. This was also the opinion of most of the other German prisoners of war.
In Camp No. 11 in Varkut, I met Vlodzhimir Mandryk, who, before the war and during the period of occupation, worked in the main post office in Smolensk. He absolutely insisted that near Smolensk, from 1940 there were German camps for Polish prisoners of war. He was adamant that the Germans murdered the Poles.
By his account of the period between August and October of 1941, letters to Polish prisoners of war ceased to arrive and be processed by the post office. Any letters that kept on coming to the prisoners, the Germans gave the post office orders to destroy all these letters. Also, at this time, Mandryk recalls the Germans told everyone in Smolensk that the Polish officers were relocated back in Polish territory.
…Amongst the many recollections which I read about Katyn, there was a book by Stanislaw Svjanevich by the name of “In the Shadow of Katyn,” and also in the book by Joseph Chapskov, “Upon the Inhuman Earth.” I learned that Polish war prisoners were treated very well by the Russians. In 1940, there were three Polish generals in POW camps–Minkewich, Smorovinsly and Bakhaterebur. When these prisoners were departing the camps, the Soviet authorities gave them a farewell banquet, especially for the higher officer corps. The Russians wanted to show the Germans that they are civilized and knew how to treat prisoners. This might be looked upon as having little meaning, but if you lived with the Russians during those hard times of war, you would appreciate the real meaning of that gesture.
The Russians wanted to show the Polish officers that they, the Russians and Poles have one common enemy, therefore, uniting together would be in the interests of everyone. No one can convince me that it was the Russians who murdered these Polish officers. [This was also shown by] the Polish-Russian agreement of 1941 when thousands of Polish prisoners of war were freed from the camps, and the formation on Soviet territory of the Polish army took place.
In July 1952, together with a group of invalids, I was directed into the region of Irkutsk to camp No. 233. Here, I got acquainted with Father Kozera, who showed a great interest in the Katyn massacre. During the eight years we were together in many camps, he accumulated many interesting materials, which brought him to the final conclusion that the Katyn crime was perpetrated by the Germans.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 206-209
…Altogether, I spent nine years in the Soviet Union–two years in exile and seven years in camps. During that time, I went through much, met thousands of interesting people, but I also know that if the Soviets had wanted to get rid of the Polish officers, they would have sent them to the ” Novaya Zemlya” to work and thus, be productive.
I am far from praising the Soviet system…. I also do not pretend that I am not guilty of many things. There were people that got into the NKVD and the party who were real enemies of the system. They got rid of many dedicated people. But I cannot keep quiet on this Katyn event. I must defend the Russian people, if only to correct the existing lie that is being nurtured and promoted to this day about the Katyn massacre.
Even though I do not like the communist system, I must admit that this system has shown decency and follows the established law and order of the system….
With all the documentation that I have in my hands, I state categorically that the accusations by the Polish government in London, England were made solely for political reasons.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 206-211
Katyn Forest Massacre– Conclusion of Romyald Sviatec
In conclusion of this sad history, I would like to advise the Poles that they once-and-for-all discontinue and stop the insults regarding their Eastern neighbor, since the borders of Poland have been enlarged as the result of the Second World War, for the benefit of Poland.
Every true Pole must not only be satisfied with this, but also appreciate the country which was responsible for saving Poland from practical extinction. I returned from the Camp in 1956 and visited our Western territories. Only then did I realize the economical importance of the new Polish borders and in my heart I forgave the Soviets for their jailing me, because it was Stalin and the USSR which brought and formed these new important borders for Poland.
For all those who still stubbornly dream about Poland from the Baltic to the Black Sea, I suggest that they read the letter by Winston Churchill to the Poles. It calls for those Poles who are not aware of history or what it is they want, nor what they now possess, and do not wish to know or admit that it was the Soviet Union through its sacrifices of many millions of its people and soldiers, so the Poles could have their own independent state–which they were never able to gain by their own strength:
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 222
[In a November 7, 1944 letter Churchill stated:]
1. …
2. …
3. Moreover, without the Russian army, Poland would have been destroyed or brought into slavery and the Polish nation itself would have been wiped off the face of the earth. Without the valiant Red Army, no other power on earth would have been able to accomplish this. Poland now will be an independent, free country in the heart of Europe with wonderful and better territories than the one she had before. And if she will not accept this, Britain removes from itself all obligations and lets the Poles themselves work out their own agreement with the Soviets.
4. I don’t think that we can be asked to give any further assurances and promises to Poland regarding their borders or their attitude regarding the USSR. Poland fell in days to German Nazis, while the Polish government at that time refused to receive help from the Soviet Union.
Those Poles that are now vying for leadership in Poland must think that we, the British, are stupid that we would start a war against our USSR ally on behalf of the demands to restore the Polish eastern borders which had the majority of non-Poles living in those territories. A nation that proved to the world that it could not defend itself, must accept the guidance of those who saved them and who represent for them a perspective of genuine freedom and independence.
Lucas and Ukas. Trans. and Ed. Secret Documents. Toronto, Canada: Northstar Compass, 1996, p. 224
POLAND ’S NOV 1939 ATTACK ON THE SU CHANGED THE STATUS OF POLISH PRISONERS
In the Soviet intervention into Poland, the USSR detained between 250-300 thousand Polish soldiers and officers. Most were released from detention centers. However, some 130,242 persons were maintained in detention camps of the NKVD, before their situation changed.
In November 1939, the Polish government in exile, as arrogant and bullish as ever, declared war on the USSR, supposedly in reply to the Soviet-Finnish War. The Poles went as far as creating a special brigade to be sent to fight the Red Army in Finland. By this act of war, the Polish government changed the status of the Polish soldiers still detained in the USSR. They now become automatically prisoners of war, and thus those still remaining in NKVD camps could not be released.
Mukhin, Y.I., Katyn Detective,1995
20,000 POLISH PRISONERS COULD NOT BE RELEASED UNTIL THEIR CASES WERE JUDGED
After the official inclusion of the territory captured by Poland in 1920 into the USSR, the Polish prisoners of war automatically became citizens of the USSR. By decision of court, it was named illegal for the NKVD to detain and force these soldiers to work. Therefore, most soldiers and petty officers were all released into civilian life as citizens of the USSR. However, there was a group of people that could not be released. These were those charged with crimes against the non-Polish and Polish population in the newly liberated areas as well as for war crimes against the USSR. This group comprised members of Poland’s military and governmental elite, gentry, landlord and manufacturers. There were plenty of war crimes committed by these people, such as the mass execution of Soviet prisoners of war in 1920 and active support for diversionary and terrorist groups against the USSR. It was decided to keep these individuals, numbering more than 20,000, in detention camps of the NKVD until a Special Commission of the NKVD examined their cases and decided upon a sentence for them.
Mukhin, Y.I., Katyn Detective,1995