ROMUALD SWIATEK
THE KATYN FOREST
This map shows a European part of the U.S.S.R. and the main camps where the Polish prisoners of war were held during 1939-1940.
PREFACE
I hope that following will clarify my reasons for writing this book. When, in 1950, I found myself in Soviet labour camps, amongst German prisoners of war, Polish underground army members, some of Vlasov's men and Bandera's men, where the crime of Katyn was frequently and hotly discussed. I developed, quite when I know not, a deeper interest in the subject and, with the passage of time and influenced by material I had gathered, I began to see that the version of the Katyn crime given in 1943 by Polish exile groups in London had no real foundation.
During my seven-year stay in the camps, I met many German officers who, in 1941, were occupying the territories of Smolensk and saw, with their own eyes camps with Polish officers. I also met in the camps several residents of Smolensk whose statements finaly confirmed my conviction that some Polish exile groups in London, /Sanacja/ took advantage of the discovery by Germans of the mass graves of Polish officers in order to use it as a political weapon against General Sikorski, whose policy towards the Soviet Union, as, indeed, his very person, was to them, total anathema.
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THE DISCOVERY OF THE MASS GRAVES AT KATYN
First communique given out by the German radio
At 9.15 a.m. New York time on April 13, 1943, the following news was broadcast by Radio Berlin:
"A report has reached us from Smolensk to the effect that the local inhabitants mentioned to the German authorities the existence of a place where mass execution had been carried out by the Bolsheviks and where 10.000 Polish officers had been murdered by the GPU.
The German authorities accordingly went to the place called Kosogory, a Soviet health resort situated 12 kilometres west of Smolensk, where a terrible discovery was made. A ditch was found, 28 metres long and 16 metres wide, in which the bodies of 3.000 Polish officers were piled up in twelve layers. They were fully dressed in military uniforms, some were bound, and had pistols shot wounds in the back of their heads. There will be no difficulty in identifying the bodies, as owing to the nature of the ground, they are in a state of mummification and the Russian had left on the bodies their personal documents. It has been stated today, that General Smorowinski from Lublin has been found amongst other murdered officers. Previously these officers were in the camp of Kozielsk near Orel and, in February and March 1940, were brought in "cattle" freight-cars to Smolensk. Thence they were taken in lorries to Kosogory and were murdered there by Bolsheviks. The search for further pits is in progress. New layers may be found under those already discovered. It is estimated that the total number of officers killed amounts to 10.000, which would correspond to the entire cadre of Polish officers taken prisoners by the Russians. The correspondents of Norwegian newspapers, who were on the spot and were thus able to obtain direct evidence of the crime, immediately sent their dispatches to their papers in Oslo.
In its further transmissions Radio Berlin announced that medical commissions from neutral countries had arrived on the spot to investigate the crime and were proceeding with exhumation of the bodies. New mass-graves continued to be discovered up till April 16, bringing to light an additional 1.500 bodies.
Impressions in London
In London circles the news given by the Radio Berlin was received with diffidence.
At 7.15 a.m. on April 15.1943, Radio Moscow broadcast the following:
In the past two or three days Goebbels' slanderer have been spreading vile fabrications alleging that the Soviet authorities carried out a mass shooting of Polish officers in the spring of 1940 in the Smolensk area. In launching this
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monstrous invention the German-Fascist scoundrels did not hesitate to spread the most unscrupulous and base lies, in their attempts to cover up crimes which, as have now became evident, were perpetrated by themselves.
The German-Fascist report on this subject leaves no doubt as to the tragic fate of the former Polish prisoners-of-war who in 1941 were engaged in construction work in area west of Smolensk region and who fell into the hands of German-Fascist hangmen in the summer of 1941, after the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from the Smolensk area.
Beyond doubt Goebbels' slanderers are now trying with lies and calumnies to cover up the bloody crimes of the Hitlerite gangsters. In their clumsily concocted fabrication about the numerous graves which the German allegedly discovered near Smolensk, the Hitlerite liars mention the village of Gniezdova. But, like the swindlers they are, remain silent about the fact that it was near the village of Gniezdova that the archeological excavation of the historic Gniezdova burial place were made.
4. The German propaganda campaign
At the same time the German Press started a violent propaganda offensive, exploiting the tragedy of the thousands of murdered Polish officers to further their own political aims. The following details were given in countless communiques, reports and articles:
In the summer of 1942, several Poles from Labour units attached to the German Army as well as some civilians who had escaped from Soviet captivity, learned from the local population that Poles had been shot by the Bolsheviks in the region of Smolensk. From the disclosures of local peasants and workmen they gradually learned that the murdered Poles were probably buried in Katyn Forest to the right of the road joining the Smolensk — Katyn highway to the NKVD (originally GPU) resting-house. Transports of Polish officer prisoners-of-war arrived from time to time at Gniezdova railway station and these officers were removed in lorries to the neighbouring Katyn Forest.
The above-mentioned persons, anxious to learn something more about the fate of their countrymen, started to excavate a mound which obviously did not harmonise with the surrounding country and had an artificial appearance. They soon came upon the body of a Polish officer in uniform. At first they did not realise that they had found a mass-grave. As the German unit to which these workers were attached had to go elswhere, the search was discontinued.
The local inhabitants, terrorised by the Soviet regime, were not willing to recount their experience of 1940. It was not until the spring of 1943 that the news about the trenches containing bodies of murdered prisoners reached the German authorities. They then initiated systematic investigations on a large scale, which brought to light details of all events that preceded this monstrous crime. Little by little the proposterous scope of this mass-murder was revealed. The sworn evidence of numerous witnesses gave a clear picture of the situation, which was consistent with the facts disclosed by the excavations. These statements proved that the Katyn Forest had been used by the GPU
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for many years as a place of execution and that recently near the entire cadre of Polish officers, after falling into the hands of the Red Army, had become victims of a colossal mass-murder.
(C 4761/258/55)
Communique issued by the Polish Minister of National Defence on the 17th April 1943.
The Polish Minister of National Defence, Lieut.-General Marian Kukiel, has issued the following communique concerning the Polish officers missing in the U.S.S.R. —
On the 17th September, 1940, the official organ of the Red Army, the Red Star, stated that during the fighting which took place after 17th September, 1939, 181.000 Polish prisoners of war were taken by Soviets; the number of regular officers and those of the reserve among them amounted to about 10.000.
According to information in possession of the Polish Government, three large camps of Polish prisoners were set up in the U.S.S.R. in November 1939:
(1) In Kozielsk — East of Smolensk;
(2) In Starobielsk — near Kharkov; and
(3) In Ostashkov — near Kalinin, where police and military police were concentrated.
At the beginning of 1940 the camp authorities informed the prisoners in all three camps that the liquidation of all camps was about to take place and that prisoners of war would be allowed to return to their families, and for that purpose, it was alleged, lists of places to which individual prisoners would like to go after their release, was made. At that time there were —
(1) About 5.000 people in Kozielsk, among them about 4.500 officers;
(2) About 3.920 people in Starobielsk, among them about 100 civilians, the rest were officers who included about 400 medical officers;
(3) About 6.570 people in Ostashkov, among them about 380 officers.
On the 5th April 1940 began the liquidation of these camps and groups of 60 to 300 were removed from them every few days until the middle of May. From Kozielsk they were sent in the direction of Smolensk. Only about 400 people were moved from all three camps in June 1940 to Griazoviec in Vologda Oblast.
When after the conclusion of the Polish-Soviet Treaty of the 30th July, 1941, and the signing of the military agreement of the 14th August, 1941, the Polish Government proceeded to form the Polish army in the U.S.S.R., it was to be expected that the officers from the above-mentioned camps would form above all the cadres of higher and lower commanders of the rising army. A group of Polish officers from Griazoviec arrived to join the Polish units in Buzuluk at the end of August 1941; not one officer, however, appeared among those deported in another direction from Kozielsk, Starobielsk and Ostashkov. In all, therefore, about 8.300 were missing, not counting another
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7.000 composed of n.c.os., soldiers and civilians, who were in those camps at the time of their liquidation.
Ambassador Kot and General Anders, perturbed by this state of affairs, addressed themselves to the appropriate responsible Soviet authorities with inquiries and representations about the fate of Polish officers from the above-mentioned camps. In a conversation with M.Vyshinsky, People's Vice-Commissar for Foreign Affairs, on the 6th October, 1941, Ambassador Kot asked what had happened to the missing officers. M.Vyshinsky answered that all prisoners of war had been freed from the camps and therefore must be at liberty.
In October and November, Ambassador Kot mentioned several times in his conversations with Premier Stalin, M.Molotov and M.Vyshinsky, the question of prisoners of war and insisted upon being supplied with lists of them, which were kept by the Soviet Government very carefuly in great detail.
Premier Sikorski during his visit to Moscow on the 3rd of December, 1941, also intervened in a conversation with Premier Stalin for the liberation of all Polish prisoners of war, and not having been supplied by the Soviet authorities with their lists, he handed in to Premier Stalin on this occasion a complete list of Polish officers to the number of 3.845, which their former fellow-prisoners succeded in compiling. Premier Stalin assured General Sikorski that the amnesty was of a general and universal character and affected both the military and the civilians, and that the Soviet Government has freed all Polish officers. On the 18th March, 1942, General Anders handed in to Premier Stalin a supplementary list of 800 officers. Nevertheless, not one of the officers mentioned in either of these lists has been returned to the Polish Army.
Apart from the interventions in Moscow and Kuibyshev, the question of the fate of Polish prisoners of war was the subject of several interviews between Minister Raczynski and Ambassador Bogomolov. On the 28th January, 1942, Minister Raczynski, in the name of the Polish Government, handed in a Note to the Soviet Ambassador Bogomolov, drawing his attention once again to the painful fact that many thousand Polish officers had still not been found.
Ambassador Bogomolov informed Minister Raczynski on the 13th March, 1942, that in accordance with the Decree of Presidium of the Supreme Council of U.S.S.R. of the 12th August, 1941, and in accordance with the statement of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the 8th and 19th November, 1941, the amnesty had been fully carried out, and that it related both to the civilians and the military.
On the May, 1942, Ambassador Kot sent to the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs a memorandum in which he expressed his regret at the refusal which met his request for a list of prisoners, and his concern as to their fate, stressing the high value these officers would have in military operations against Germany.
Never did either the Polish Government or the Polish Embassy in Kuibyshev receive an answer, as to the whereabouts of the missing officers and other prisoners who have been deported from the three above-mentioned camps.
We have become used to the lies of German propaganda and we understand the purpose behind its latest revelations. Faced, however, with abun-
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dant and detailed German information concerning the discovery near Smolensk of many thousand bodies of Polish officers, and categorical statement that they were murdered by the Soviet authorities in the spring of 1940, the necessity has arisen that the mass graves which have been discovered, should be investigated and the facts quoted verified by a proper international body, such as the International Red Cross. The Polish Government has therefore approached this institution with a view of their sending a delegation to the place where the massacre of the Polish prisoners of war is said to have taken place.
Gen. Sikorski and Gen. Anders with Stalin and Molotov.
(C 4761/258/55)
Polish Government's communique of the 17th April, 1943.
There is no Pole who would not be deeply shocked by the news of the discovery near Smolensk in a common grave of massacred bodies of the Polish officers missing in the U.S.S.R. and of the mass execution of which they have become victims, news of which is being given the widest publicity in German propaganda. The Polish Government has instructed their representative in Switzerland to request the International Red Cross in Geneva to send a delegation which would investigate on the spot the true state of affairs. It is to be desired that the findings of this protecting institution, which is to be entrusted with the task of claryfying the matter and of establishing responsibility, should be issued without any dely.
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At the same time, however, the Polish Government, on behalf oh the Polish nation, denies to the Germans the right to draw from a crime which they ascribe to others arguments in their own defence. The profoundly hypocritical indignation of the German propaganda will not succed in concealing from the world the many cruel, repeated, and still lasting crimes committed on Polish people.
The Polish Government recalls such facts as: The removal of Polish officers from prisoner of war camps in the Reich and subsequent shooting of them for political offences alleged to have been committed before the war; mass arrests of reserve officers subsequently deported to concentration camps, to die a slow death. From Cracow and the neighbouring district alone 6.000 were deported in June 1942; the compulsory enlistment into the German army of Polish war prisoners from territories illegaly incorporated into the Reich; the forcible conscription of about 200.000 Poles from the same territories, the execution of the families of those who managed to escape; the massacre of one and a half million people by executions and in concentration camps; the recent imprisonment of 80.000 people of military age, officers and men, and the torturing and murdering of them in the camps of Majdanek and Treblinka.
It is not to enable the Germans to lay impudent claims to appear in the role of defenders of Christianity and the European civilisation that Poland is making immense sacrifices and fighting and enduring immeasurable sufferings. The blood of Polish soldiers and Polish citizens, wherever shed, cries for expiation before the conscience of the free peoples of the world. The Polish Government deny the right to exploit all the crimes commited against the Polish citizens for political manoeuvres by whoever is guilty of these crimes.
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THREE CAMPS
KOZIELSK, STAROBIELSK, OSTASHKOV*
Polish prisoners of war were accommodated in three main camps: Kozielsk, Starobielsk and Ostashkov. In the autumn of 1939 letters from them began to reach their families left behind in Poland. On the strength of that correspondence and, above all, as statements made by these prisoners, who survived and were ultimately released after the Polish-Soviet Agreement of 1941, the Polish Military Authorities have obtained sufficient evidence to give a detailed picture of these camps and of the men held in captivity there.
* The Crime of Katyn, Facts & Documents.
KOZIELSK*
Kozielsk, once a residence of the Polish noble families of Oginski and Puzyna, is situated on the Smolensk-Garbatchevo-Tula railway line (250 km south-east of Smolensk). This camp was located in the buildings of a former monastery; the monastery area included, besides the main block of buildings, the "Skit", formely a refuge of hermit monks, surrounded by forest and situated half a kilometre from the main enclosure.
At the end of November, 1939, Kozielsk became an officers' camp accommodating about 5.000 persons. Until the beginning of April, 1940, only small groups or particular individuals were taken away from Kozielsk and from Starobielsk. Just before Christmas, 1939, all the priests with the exception of Father Ziolkowski were removed from the Kozielsk camp, among them Right Reverend Col.Novak. The only one of them to survive was the Rev.K.Kantak, a professor of the Seminary in Pinsk.
When the final winding up of Kozielsk camp began in the first days of April, 1940, it held the following high-ranking officers: four generals - B.Bohaterewicz, H.Minkiewicz, M.Smorowinski, I.Wolkowicki, and one rear admiral - K.Czarnicki.
The numbers of officers of lesser rank were approximately as follows:
100 colonels and lieutenant-colonels,
300 majors,
1.000 captains,
2.500 first and second-lieutenants,
and more than 500 cadet-officers.
This total of some 4.500 included about 200 air force and about 50 naval officers. Officers of the reserve formed about 50 per cent of the group, and among them were:
21 University professors and lecturers,
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More than 300 surgeons and physicians, military and civilians, some of them outstanding specialists,
Several hundred lawyers, judges, prosecutors, solicitors and court officials,
Several hundred engineers with University degrees,
Several hundred High School and Grammar School teachers. Many journalists, business men, etc.
*The Crime of Katyn, Facts & Documents.
STAROBIELSK*
Starobielsk is a small township in the eastern part of the Soviet Ukraine (Voroshilovgrad province) situated to the south-east of Kharkov. The Polish camp was located in the precincts of a former monastery, and comprised some 15 acres surrounded by a wall with, in the centre, a large Orthodox church facing the gate. On the left side stood another small church, and more than ten miscellaneous brick and wooden buildings. During the first years after the outbreak of the revolution, this monastery was used as a transit camp for prisoners being deported further east. In a remote part of the camp a large number of bullet marks could still be seen in the wall. Afterwards, until the arrival of the Polish prisoners in 1939, the buildings of the former monastery were used as graneries.
From the end of November until the first days of April, until the time when the final winding-up began, the camp was occupied almost exclusively by Polish officers, both regular and reserve, totalling some 4.000. About half this number were officers taken prisoners after the surrender of Lvov and deported eastwards, contrary to surrender conditions. Others were seized by the Soviets as prisoners of war or arrested in various parts of Eastern Poland, partly as a result of the registration order issued for occupied territories.
This number, as well as the general character of those detained at Starobielsk, remained unchanged until the beginning of April, 1940. Small groups were taken away, as those from Kozielsk, and most of them disappeared without trace. At the time when the winding-up of the camp started there were in captivity there, according to information in the possession of the Polish authorities, eight generals: L.Billewicz, S.Haller, A.Kowalewski, K.Lukowski, K.Plisowski, F.Sikorski, L.Skierski, P.Skuratowicz.
The number of officers of lesser rank were approximately as follows:
150 colonels and lt.colonels,
230 majors,
1.000 captains,
2.450 first and second lieutenants,
30 cadet officers, as well as 52 Polish civilians.
A total of about 3.910 persons.
From the service branches there were several hundred Air Force officers, the entire personnel of the Military Anti Gas Institute, surgeons, chaplains of all denominations ie, Catholic priests, Protestant ministers and Rabbies.
The reserve officers held in Starobielsk were:
Several hundred University professors and lecturers.
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About four hundred surgeons and physicians, both civilians and military.
Several hundred engineers with University degrees.
Several hundred lawyers - judges, public prosecutors, solicitors and civil servants.
A great number of High School and Grammar School teachers.
Many poets, writers, journalists.
A great number of social welfare workers and polititians, among them A.Eiger, Vice-President of the Anti-Hitlerite League in Poland.
*The Crime of Katyn, Facts & Documents.
OSTASHKOV*
Ostashkov is a provincial town situated north-west of Kalinin (Tver) on the Seliguer Lake and served by the railway line that runs between Wielikie Luki and Bologoye. The camp was some 15 kilometres from the town on an island on Lake Seliguer, and like the other two camps occupied the precincts of an old monastery.
From November, 1939, until the beginning of April, 1940, ie, until the date when the winding-up of the camp began, there were about 6.500 people there. Unlike the two camps already mentioned, this was not an officers' camp. There were only about 400 officers, of whom 300 belonged to the Polish Police militarised after the beginning of the war in September, 1939. In addition there were officers, non-commissioned officers and privates of the Intelligence service, Military Police, Frontier Guards, State Police and Prison Warder Corps.
*The Crime of Katyn, Facts & Documents.
General view of Kozielsk camp.
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8. Telegram sent to Geneva by the German Red Cross
On April 16, 1943, the German Red Cross sent the following message to the International Red Cross in Geneva:
"Reference the news published on the discovery of thousands of bodies of Polish officers in Katyn Forest near Smolensk. In view of international importance of the affair we regard the participation of the International Committee as very desirable, particularly in view of many cases of disappearance of persons in the USSR reported by the German Red Cross, the Polish Red Cross and other bodies. According to information obtained by the German Red Cross all facilities will be given to the representatives of the Committee to enable them to proceed forthwith to the place to take part in the investigations. (Signed) Grawitz".
A similar message was later sent to Geneva by Prince von Koburg, the President of the German Red Cross.
9. The Polish delegate asks the International Red Cross to make an inquiry to the Katyn affair
At 4.30 p.m. on April 17, 1943, in accordance with the instructions of the Polish Government in London, the deputy of the Polish Red cross delegate in Switzerland, Prince S.Radziwill, handed a note from the Polish Government to Mr.Rueger, a representative of the International Red Cross, requesting this organisation to have the massacre of Polish prisoners-of-war at Katyn investigated by a delegation of neutral representatives.
In view of the fact that similar proposals had been put forward by two parties between whom a state of war existed, the International Red Cross representatives - in accordance with the rules laid down by the International Red Cross at the beginning of the second World War with regard to the participation in international investigations - told Prince Radziwill that the proposals would most probably be considered by the Executive Council, and announced that a meeting of a special commission of the International Red Cross would be held on April 20, 1943, to appoint a neutral delegation.
This meeting, however, did not take place, the attitude of the International Red Cross having changed as a result of Russian opposition. Instead, the Executive Council replied with a short Memorandum, the third point of which reads as follows:
"(3) the context of the memorandum of September 12, 1939, does not permit us to consider sending experts to take part in the technical procedure of identification except with the agreement of all interested parties".
According to private information supplied by Prince Radziwill, the International Red Cross intended to send an investigatory commission to Katyn composed of Swedish, Portuguese and Swiss experts and Swiss experts, under the leadership of a Swiss. But, as was clear from the foregoing letter, everything depended on Russia's agreeing to this. The International Red Cross therefore suggested that the Polish Government should approach the USSR either directly or through the medium of the Anglo-Saxon Allies.
A similar letter was sent by the International Red Cross to the German
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authorities, suggesting that they endeavour to obtain the consent of the Soviet Government to an investigatory commission through the medium of the puissance protectrice".
10. Communique of the International Red Cross
In view of the world-wide interest aroused by the Katyn affair, the International Red Cross published the following communique on April 23,1943:
"The German Red Cross and the Polish Government in London have approached the International Red Cross with the request for its participation in the identification of bodies which, according to German reports, have been discovered near Smolensk.
In both instances the International Red Cross replied that in principle it is prepared to afford assistance by selecting experts, on condition that similar appeals are received from all other parties interested in this question. This is in accordance with the memorandum sent by the International Red Cross, on September 12, 1939, to all belligerent nations, defining the principles on the basis of which the International Red Cross may participate in this kind of investigation".
11. Scandalous editorial in the Moscow paper "Pravda" and attack by the "TASS" Agency
In the meantime, as early as April 21, 1943, Radio Moscow, referring to the article in "Pravda" entitled "Polish collaborators of Hitler", accused the Polish Government in London of... collaborating with Hitler. At the same time the official Soviet press agency "TASS"; made a disgraceful attack on the Government of General Sikorski, declaring that the Polish Government's appeal to the International Red Cross in Geneva showed what an enormous influence the "pro-Hitlerite elements" had in Polish Government circles.
12. Awaiting the consent of the Soviet Government
The International Red Cross in Switzerland agreed in principle to undertake the investigation at Katyn. In its opinion, however, participation was subject to the concurrence of all parties concerned. In this case, there were three parties concerned: the Polish Government, the German Government and the Soviet Government.
The messages and declarations cited above prove that both the Polish and German Government agreed that the whole matter should be entrusted to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Soviet Government had not replied. It was to be expected, though, that they would be only too glad to place the whole affair into the hands of a reputable, neutral body such as the International Red Cross, which enjoys the respect and confidence of all nations of the world. This solution would have offered the Soviet Government a chance to clear itself of all accusations, and of proving incontestably that this terrible crime had been committed by the Germans, as was stated by the Soviet Government in its first wireless communique.
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13. Soviet note of April 26, 1943
Instead of consenting, as expected, to the participation of the International Red Cross in the investigations, the Soviet Government severed diplomatic relations with the Polish Government and at the same time started to organise a "Polish Committee" in Moscow, composed of Polish Communists.
On the night of April 25, 1943, at 12.15 a.m., the Polish Ambassador in the USSR was summoned to the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (NKID), where Molotov attempted to hand him a note, which he had previously read aloud.
The note read as follows:
"Moscow, April 6, 1943.
Mr.Ambassador,
On behalf of the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, I have the honour to notify the Polish Government of the following:
The Soviet Government consider the recent behaviour of the Polish Government with regard to the USSR as entirely abnormal, and violating all regulations and standards of conduct between two allied States. The slanderous campaign against the Soviet Union launched by the German Fascists in connection with the murder of the Polish officers, which they themselves committed in the Smolensk area on the territory occupied by German troops, was at once taken up by the Polish Government and is being fanned in every way by the Polish official Press.
Far from offering a rebuff to the vile Fasisct slander of the USSR, the Polish Government did not even find it necessary to address to the Soviet Government any inquiry or request for an explanation on this subject.
Having committed a monstrous crime against the Polish officers, the Hitlerite authorities are now staging a farcical investigation, and for this they made use of certain Polish pro-Fascist elements which they themselves selected in occupied Poland where everything is under Hitler's heel, and where no honest Pole can openly have his say.
For the "investigation", both the Polish Government and the Hitlerite Government invited the International Red Cross, which is compelled, in the face of a terroristic regime with its gallows and mass extermination of the peaceful population, to take part in this investigation farce staged by Hitler. Clearly such an "investigation", conducted behind the back of the Soviet Government, cannot evoke the confidence of people possessing any degree of honesty.
The fact that the hostile campaign against the Soviet Union commenced simultaneously in the German and Polish Press, and was conducted along the same lines, leaves no doubt as to the existence of contact and accord in carrying out this hostile campaign between the enemy of the Allies - Hitler - and the Polish Government.
While the peoples of the Soviet Union, bleeding profusely in a hard struggle against Hitlerite Germany, are straining every nerve for the defeat of the common enemy of the Russian and Polish people, and of all freedom-loving
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democratic countries, the Polish Government, in support of Hitler's tyranny, have dealt a treacherous blow to the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Government are aware that this hostile campaign against the Soviet Union is being undertaken by the Polish Government in order to exert pressure upon the Soviet Government by making use of the slanderous Hitlerite fake for the purpose of wresting from it territorial concessions at the expense of the interests of the Soviet Ukraine, Soviet Byelorussia and Soviet Lithuania.
All these circumstances compell the Soviet Government to recognise that the present Government of Poland, having embarked on the path of accord with Hitler's Government, have in effect discontinued friendly relations with the USSR, and has adopted a hostile attitude towards the Soviet Union.
On the strenght of the above, the Soviet Government have decided to sever relations with the Polish Government.
Molotov."
5. The anxiety of Anglo-Saxon public opinion
Moscow Radio's communique announcing the severing of diplomatic relations with Poland by the Soviets surprised public opinion in the West, where the possibility of such drastic action had not been envisaged.
This action on the part of the Soviet Government shifted the Katyn affair from a moral to a political plane; as a result of this development, fears that the USSR might make a separate peace with Germany were again revived. As a matter of fact these fears had never quite abated.
That is why the Soviet decision to sever diplomatic relations with Poland made a particular impression on the British Government, which immediately attempted to appease both parties.
On May 4, 1943, the British Foreign Secretary, Mr.Eden (now Lord Avon), stated in the House of Commons:
"The House will no doubt wish me to make a brief statement about the unfortunate difficulties between the Soviet and Polish Governments which have arisen since the House rose. There is no need for me to enter into the immediate origins of the dispute. I would only draw attention, as indeed the Soviet and Polish Governments have already done in their published statements, to the cynicism which permits the Nazi murderers of hundreds of thousands of innocent Poles and Russians to make use of a story of mass murder in an attempt to disturb the unity of the Allies.
From the outset His Majesty's Government have used their best efforts to persuade both the Poles and the Russians not to allow these German manoeuvres to have even the semblance of success. It was, therefore, with regret that they learned that, following an appeal by the Polish Government to the International Red Cross to investigate the German story, the Soviet Government felt compelled to interrupt relations with the Polish Government. His Majesty's Government have no wish to attribute blame for these events to anyone axcept the common enemy. Their sole desire is that these differences between two of the United Nations shall be repaired as swiftly as possible and that relations between the Soviet Union and Poland shall be restored on
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the basis of collaboration established, in spite of all the difficulties, between Marshal Stalin and General Sikorski, which has proved of such benefit to the cause of United Nations and is of far-reaching importance for the future well-being of Europe.
In pursuing this policy, His Majesty's Government are, of course, working in the closest consultation and collaboration with the Government of the United States. They trust that the statemanship which led to the conclusion of the Soviet-Polish Agreement of July 30, 1941, will succeed again where it succeeded before. One thing at least is certain: the Germans need indulge no hope that their manoeuvres will weaken the combined offensive of the Allies or the growing resistance of the enslaved population of Europe."
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"THE TIMES" REPORTS
CEASELLESS ALLIED EFFORTS
From Our Diplomatic Correspondent
The British Government throughout yesterday were still trying to repair the breach between the Soviet and Polish Governments. The work has to be quiet and tentative: and any progress, so far as it can be made, is almost certainly bound to be slow. At noon Mr.Eden met General Sikorski, the Polish Prime Minister and commander-in-chief, and Count Raczynski, the Foreign Minister. In the afternoon Mr.Churchill and Mr.Eden again received the two Polish leaders at No. 10, Downing Street, for a conference similar to the one held on Tuesday. Throughout the day the British Government were in touch with Washington and Moscow; messages are understood to have been exchanged on the highest executive level.
THE ONLY GAINERS
British and American newspapers, reflecting public opinion, yesterday discussed the breach in tones of regret and with marked restraint. With one voice they pointed out that the Germans were the only gainers from any rift in the allied ranks. The vehemence of Soviet writers, sustained in articles yesterday, sharply corrected any assumption that the storm would quickly and easily blow itself out.
German propagandists were, of course, having the time of their lives. In the main they assumed that the split between the Soviet and Polish Governments was beyond repair, and hopefully turned to new mischief. To invent a difference of opinion between "pro-Soviet London" and "pro-Polish Washington" was easy, if profitless. It served them as a starting point for long new denunciations of the british Government as the arch-enemy and betrayer of Europe, "choosing between a strong ally and moral principles". There are columns more of it in the same strain, and all of it is being repeated hour by hour over the wirelles to all countries, especially to the countries whom Germany enslaved. The fond desire to bring about wider splits is seen in the simple fact that Britain and the British alliance with Soviet Russia are being denounced much more fiercely than Soviet Russia herself.
GEN. SIKORSKI SEES MR. CHURCHILL
From Our Diplomatic Correspondent
General Sikorski, the Polish Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Polish forces in this country and in the Middle East, called at No. 10,
21
Downing Street last night to confer with Mr.Churchill and Mr.Eden on the Soviet Government's suspension of relations with the Polish Government. Earlier in the day General Sikorski had presided over a meeting of the Polish Cabinet, and Mr.Eden had discussed the whole problem with Count Raczynski, the Polish Foreign Minister, and Mr.Winant, the American Ambassador. Last night the British Cabinet discussed the question in the hope of repairing the breach.
Throughout the past few weeks, when the Soviet and Polish Governments were all too clearly drawing apart, London and Washington have been in the closest consultations. All the allied Governments share the British and American regret that events appeared to get out of hand after the Germans launched their propaganda campaign, in which they announced the discovery of the bodies of several thousand Polish officers at Katyn, near Smolensk, and alleged that they had proof that the officers had been murdered in the spring of 1940 by the G.P.U., the Soviet security police.
The Germans knew only too well that the story would act like a strong draught on the smouldering suspicion between the two governments and peoples. The Polish Government asked the International Red Cross at Geneva to send a committee of investigation to the graves. As this committee could operate only with German assistance, the Soviet Government argued that the Polish Government were pre-judging the issue and that they were even prepared to work with the German authorities in the investigation; accused the Polish Government of dealing "a treacherous blow against the Soviet Union in deference to Hitler's tyranny"; and decided to suspend realtions. M.Romer, the Polish Ambassador, is still in Moscow awaiting the next move for good or ill.
GERMAN INTENTIONS
Meanwhile the Poles in Poland are receiving the German propagandist version of the whole affair; of all peoples, they have the least reason to believe anything the Germans say, but the German intention is plain. It fits into their general propagandist purpose of declaring "European crusade against Bolshevism." The use the phrase "good Europeans" now where formely they prated about "good Aryans". Having seen a breach come between two allied governments they are trying now to make a wider breach between Russia and the other allies, for they know that in allied disunity lies their only hope of averting defeat.
All that can be done at this stage is to review the evidence so far available about the Katyn graves against the wider background of Russian-Polish relations. Several thousand Polish officers have been missing since the Russians occupied eastern Poland in 1939; the Polish Government have made many anxious inquiries about them in Moscow and in Kuibyshev. On the evidence of Swedish journalists who have visited the Katyn graves and seen some of the exhumed bodies, many Polish officers lie dead there; their numbers may run into hundreds. Their identification papers, such as have remained intact, appear to be in order. The bodies bear the marks of bullet wounds or bayonet stabs. Beyond that point independent evidence ends.
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MARSHAL STALIN'S LETTER
of 7. 5. 1943
Marshal Stalin's letter to the Moscow Correspondent of The Times on Russo-Polish relations is widely and rightly recognized as marking a new stage, hopeful and constructive, in a controversy from which the enemy has already gratuitously benefited and will continue to benefit so long as it persists. With a directness and precision of wording which there is no mistaking the Marshal has described the two pillars of his Government's policy as, first, a strong and independent Poland after the defeat of Hitler, and, secondly, a Russio-Polish relationship based on solid good neighbourliness and mutual respect, or, if the Polish people desire it, an alliance against Germany as the common enemy of the two countries. The harm done to the cause of allied unity - and consequently to the prospect of victory itself - when the dispute came to an open breach has been serious enough, though, as is now seen, reparable. Equally, however, it has been proved, even to the enemy, that allied unity is no mere figure of speech or fiction of diplomacy but a fact sufficiently stout and robust to stand severe strain. The first phase of angry recrimination has been followed by a process of readjustment which has now been carried far by the assurances so tersly and frankly given in Marshal Stalin's letter. It is important that nothing should be done or said now which might impede the full development of that process. Marshal Stalin himself has by his letter brought the whole issue to the proper plane, and there it must be kept.
The pledge which Marshal Stalin gave to General Sikorski in December, 1941 - that the Soviet Government desired to see a strong and independent Poland - is now declared once more to be the corner-stone of Soviet-Polish relations as the Soviet sees them. If the memory and the ill-effects of the recent unhappy episode are to be erased, relations must be restored upon the basis and in the spirit of the declaration of 1941. The two leaders then agreed to wage war until "the final destruction of the German invaders", and, after victory, to collaborate in good neighbourliness and friendship and with "mutual honest" observance of undertakings assured by "both parties". In his balanced statement in Parliament on Tuesday Mr.Eden recalled this Stalin-Sikorski declaration and, pointing to the strength which it had brought in the past to the United Nations as a whole, urged that the collaboration for which it provided was the best guarantee of those orderly relations which Russia desires and Poland no less needs. This collaboration has been the goal of British and American diplomatic efforts in London, Washington, and Moscow ever since the rupture, and their helpfulness in a somewhat overcharged atmosphere is not to be underrated. Nor is it to be doubted that Anglo-American diplomacy has a still larger, and not less delicate, part to play if the new turn is to yield the utmost good.
The Polish Government in London are understood to be favourably impressed by Marshal's Stalin reaffirmation of policy and by his offer of an alliance against the common enemy of the two countries, but they have some reservations to make. There are matters of burning concern to the Poles which find no mention in the letter. The same could be said of the Russian
23
side of the case. The last thing that Marshal Stalin, or anyone else except Goebbels, could have wanted at so critical a stage as this was an exchange at long range about hotly disputed points. The whole purpose of the letter is to look ahead to the objective which must in its turn shape the means of attaining it. It is to be noted that, even when polemics were at their height, Russian criticism of General Sikorski, the Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief, has not been of the forthright kind to which some of his colleagues have been subjected. This is not surprising. As a soldier General Sikorski never despaired even when things were at their worst, and the organization of his country's military strength owes much to him; as a statesman he proved himself when he successfuly discharged his mission to Moscow in 1941.
Polish-Russian relations are at bottom part of a large process of readjustment. Our Washington dispatch yesterday reffered to a report that Mr.Joseph Davies, the former American Ambassador to Russia, may be sent to Moscow with a special message from President Roosevelt to Marshal Stalin. The choice of emissary would be significant. Mr.Davies, as his remarkable book, "Mission to Moscow", abundantly attests, was one of the shrewdest observers of the Soviet system and Soviet policy. Since his return to the United States he has done much to dispel misconceptions and ally misgivings, and American-Russian friendship has had no more ardent competent advocate than he has been. Such a mission as that now suggested for him would publicly express the increasing desire in the United States for still closer collaboration in war and peace. M.Litvinow, Russian Ambassador in Washington, is also going to Moscow to report on the position and the prospects. A suggestion is made in the United States that Mr.Churchill himself might also go; whether well based or not, the suggestion is interesting as showing how powerfully the movement for partnership is growing, as it becomes more and more insistently clear that peace positively demands a firm and close understanding between Moscow, Washington, and London as the essential nucleus of a wider system of agreement. The split which Goebbels sought to contrive has not and will not come about. Marshal Stalin, in order of the Day on May Day, dismissed contemptuously, as well he might, any notion that the Germans could separate the United Nations now that victory is assured; only the unconditional surrender of Hitlerite Germany could bring Europe in sight of peace. Wednesday's letter, following up the May Day pronouncement, now opens the door wide for consideration by those immediately concerned of the terms in which a new basis of understanding between Russia and Poland may be established.
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OFFICIAL GERMAN DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE OF THE KATYN CASE
In 1943 German authorities published a special report under the title: "The Official Statement Concerning the Mass Murder in Katyn. Collected, prepared and edited by the German Information Bureau on the basis of documentary evidence by order of the German Foreign Office."*
This volume of 330 pages begins with a short introductory section entitled "General Outline", followed by the "Documentary Evidence", divided in five chapters.
Aerial view of the graves and the disinterred bodies in Katyn Forest. Below some of the opened graves.
General outline
The "General Outline", six pages long, gives a resume of the whole case. The first few sentences present the Katyn crime in broad outline. There follows the account of events in chronological order, beginning with the discovery of the graves and the exhumation of 4.141 bodies. The total number of Polish victims buried in Katyn Forest is estimated to be 10.000-12.000. The gist of the official Soviet Statement, issued in reply to the German revelations, is then given, and the final conclusion is that the crime had been committed by the Bolsheviks. The third paragraph shows the development of Polish-Soviet relations and finally presents the attitude of Great Britain and the United States towards the Polish-Soviet conflict.
* "Amtliches Material zum Massenmord van Katyn. Im Auftrage des Auswärtigen auf Grund urkundlichen Beweismaterials zusammengestellt, bearbeited undherausgegeben von der Deutschen Informationsstelle" - Berlin 1943.
25
A. Discovery of the mass graves: the evidence of Ludvig Voss
The evidence concerning the discovery of the mass-graves of Polish officers was given by Ludvig Voss, Secretary of the Secret Field Police, in the presence of the Judge, Doctor Iuris Conrad, and an Official of the legal office of Bornemann's Army.
This witness gave the details of the case and his personal data; he then explained that his duties consisted in supervising the exhumation work at Katyn and the police investigations.
His evidence was given on April 26, 1943, and the gist of it is as follows:
The first news of the mass-graves of Katyn was received at the beginning of February, 1843. Mounds with young pine-trees planted on them were found in the Katyn Forest; on closer inspection it was discovered that they were caused by human agency. Preliminary excavations, carried out during the February frost, proved the existence of mass-graves. In view of the prevailing cold, work on a large scale could not be undertaken.
People living in the neighbourhood were called as witnesses in order to ascertain the facts. Then follows a list of witnesses.
By special order of the German High Command (OKW), the excavation of the first grave was commenced on March 29, 1943. So far 600 bodies have been identified. There were about 3.000 bodies in the first grave. It was estimated that in the nearby graves a further 5.000 to 6.000 bodies would be found.
The identification so far carried out showed beyond all doubt that they were, almost without exception, the bodies of officers of the Polish Army.
All entries in the diaries and notebooks found on the bodies ceased on dates between April 6 and April 20, 1940.
B. Evidence by witnesses
In this part, the exact wording of the statements given by the witnesses during their interrogation is recorded.
The following persons were interrogated on the subject of the Kosogory Hill, near Katyn: Kusma Godonov, Ivan Krivozertsev, Michal Shigulov.
They all certified that since 1918 the hill had been generally known as a place of execution. It was used for executions in the time of the notorious "Tcheka", which later was replaced by the "GPU", and then by the "NKVD".
In 1931 the area in question was surrounded by an enclosure, and special signs were erected warnig the inhabitants not to enter. From 1940 on, Kosogory was also guarded by sentries and police-dogs.
The report of the German Field Police, dated April 10, 1943, states that the graves Nos.8-11 (a sketch was attached) contained the bodies of numerous civilians killed by means of pistol shots in the back of the head. The state of decay of those bodies indicated that the execution were carried out at various times prior to the war then in progress.
The following persons were interrogated on the subject of the transporting and killing of the prisoners-of-war in 1940: Ivan Krivozertsev, Matthiew Zakharov, Gregory Silvestrov, Ivan Andreyev, Parfeon Kisselev.
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Krivozertsev saw trains arriving every day at Gniezdovo railway station during March and April; they were composed of three to four carriages with gratings over the windows.
Zakharov, who was working at the railway station at Smolensk, also stated that train-loads of prisoners-of-war were arriving at that time. The prisoners were in Polish uniforms. Transportation of the prisoners in the direction of Gniezdovo railway station lasted for 28 days.
Silvestrov saw the railway carriages arriving at Gniezdovo and men in uniforms being detrained. Their personal baggage would be taken away from them and thrown on lorries (trucks), whilst the prisoners themselves would be put into three buses and driven towards Katyn. Sometimes the prison buses repeated the journey between Gniezdovo railway station and the NKVD Rest House ten times a day.
Andreyev saw trains arriving with the prisoners at Gniezdovo station in the month of March and April, 1940. There were Polish soldiers in the trains; he recognised them by the shape of their caps. They were put into motor vehicles and driven towards Katyn.
Kisselev said that for four to five weeks in the Spring of 1940 prisoners were brought to Kosogory in three to four buses daily. From his house he heard shots and shouts. It was rumoured that 10.000 Poles were shot there. In 1942, several Polish workmen attached to the German Army came to his house and asked him to show them the place where the Polish officers were said to have been buried, and to lend them a shovel. Later, these workmen told him that they had found the bodies of Polish officers.
The above evidence, here given in brief, was published by the Germans together with verbatim reports, personal data, photographs of signatures and testimonies of each witness.
C. Final Report of the German Police dated June 10, 1943 (Full text)
"The work of exhuming, examining and identifying the bodies of Polish officers came to an end on June 7, 1943. In the first place it must be stressed that the Kosogory forest was used as a place of execution of those sentenced to death by the NKVD or the Committee of "The Three", as early as 1925. Preliminary excavations undertaken in various parts of the wooded area invariably led to the discovery of mass-graves ("fraternal graves") in which the bodies of Russians of both sexes were found. Some of these bodies were carefully examined and it was proved that, without exception, death was caused by a shot in the back of the neck. From the documents found, it appeared that they were prisoners from the NKVD jail in Smolensk, the majority being political prisoners.
The seven mass-graves of murdered Polish officers which have been cleared cover a relatively small area.
Of 4.143 exhumed bodies, 2.815 have been definitely identified. Identification was based on identity cards, birth certificates, and award certificates found in their pockets together with their personal correspondence.
In many cases identity cards, documents and considerable sums in Polish zlotybanknotes were sewn into the legs of their boots. Their clothes left no
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doubt as to their being Polish officers, for instance, the long cavalry boots of a shape normally worn by Polish officers.
A large number of hitherto unidentified bodies will undoubtely be identified by the Polish Red Cross.
The number of officers of various ranks is given below:
Generals
2
Colonels
12
Lt.-Colonels
50
Majors
165
Captains
440
Lieutenants
542
2nd Lieutenants
930
Paymasters
2
Warrant Officers
8
Other NCs
2
Identified as officers
101
Identified as "in uniform"
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
The exhumed bodies.
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Bodies identified as "being in uniform" must also be regarded as officers for corresponding epaulettes were often found in their pockets.
After the identification (during which each body was given a serial number) and after the forensic medical examination, the bodies were buried in the newly-dug graves with the assistance of members of the Polish Red Cross. The new graves are numbered from 1 to 6 and the numbers can be found on the reverse side of the crosses. The two single graves of the generals were marked in a similar way.
A name roll of all identified persons was made in order to facilitate meeting further enquiries from the families.
From the translation of diaries, of memoirs and other notes found with the bodies, it was proved that the officers who had been taken prisoners by the Soviet Army in 1939, were sent to various camps: Kozielsk, Starobielsk, Ostashkov, Putiviel, Bolotov, Pavlishchev Bor, Shepyetovka, Gorodok. The majority of those killed in Katyn Forest had been in the Kozielsk camp (250 kilometres south-east of Smolensk on the railway-line Smolensk-Tambov). A few a known to have been brought from Starobielsk to Katyn through Kozielsk.
From the end of March, until the first day of May, 1940, the prisoners from Kozielsk arrived by rail. The exact dates cannot be established. A few short intervals apart, a batch left almost every day; the number of prisoners varied between 100 and 300 persons ... All trains were sent to Gniezdovo near Smolensk. Thence, in the early morning, the prisoners proceeded in special lorries (trucks) to the Katyn Forest, situated three kilometres west of Gniezdovo. There the officers were immediately shot, thrown into the waiting graves and buried, as may be seen from the evidence of witness Kisselev, who had seen the ditches being prepared.
That the shooting took place immediately after the arrival of a batch of prisoners is proved by witnesses who heard shots after every such arrival. There was no accommodation in the forest apart from the rest house, which had a limited capacity. The notes of Major Solski merit attention: the translation of his diary is preserved with other documentary evidence of the crime. Major Solski made a few entries in his diary during the last hour of his life.
A certain number of spent pistol cartridge-cases with the stamp "Geco 7,65 D" were found beyond the area of the graves; some single spent cases were found among the bodies in the graves. With a few exceptions, all the bodies show pistol-shots in the head; generally the place of entry of the bullet is below the protrusion at the back of the skull and the exit is in the forehead above the eye. (Cf. detailed photographs and the report of the medical expert, Professor Dr.Buhtz, as well as the evidence of Polish doctor, Wodzinski). In many instances the bullets had not left the skull. The calibre of the bullets found, 7.65 mm, would account for the damage to the skulls. The ammunition used was manufactured by the German firm of "Genschow". According to information given by the German High Command on May 31, 1943 (Ch.H.Rust und Befehlshaber des Ersatzheeres), ammunition for pistols of that calibre and actual pistols were supplied to Soviet Russia and Poland. It remains to be established whether the ammunition and pistols came from Russian dumps or from Polish equipment captured by the Russians when they overran the eastern part of Poland.
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From the position of the bodies it may be assumed that the majority were murdered outside the graves. The bodies were in a complete tangle, except in graves Nos. 1, 2 and 4, where some of them lay side by side or on the top of each other. On some bodies spent cartridges were found between the collar of the victim's greatcoat and his neck, and there were holes in the collars of all the greatcoats. Every one of the collars was turned up. In other instances the bullets were found between the forehead and the inside of the cap. The number of persons shot in the graves totalled between 500 and 600.
Very many of the dead men had their hands tied behind their back. In the case of a small number of bodies there was evidence that the head had been covered by the service dress or greatcoat and that a cord of the type used for hanging curtains had been tied round the neck.
A few wedding rings and gold coins, etc., were the only valuables found in the victims' pockets. From the notes and diaries of the murdered persons it was evident that all valuables had been taken away from them in the camps. If anybody still possessed something of that kind, he had to hand it over immediately before the execution. They were left with zloty banknotes and these were found in great quantities.
In spite of repeated announcements and searches, no eye-witnesses of the murders could be traced. The only known name is that of the administrator of the Rest House who lived there. The evidence of witnesses confirms that access to the forest was forbidden.
Not all the bodies of the murdered officers had been exhumed when the work was interrupted, since a new grave of unknown capacity has recently been found. The possibility that further graves may come to light is not ruled out.
The papers and personal effects were kept separately marked with the serial numbers of the victims and were always mentioned in routine reports.
Voss, Secretary of the Field Police."
D. Report by Professor Dr. Gerhard Buhtz, in charge of forensic medical investigations (Excerpts only)
On march 1, 1943, I received for examination a report from the Secret Field Police dated February 28, 1943, concerning the discovery in Katyn Forest of mass-graves of Polish officers shot in 1940 by NKVD personnel. Together with the representatives of the Secret Field Police I carried out a number of experimental exhumations and myself soon became convinced that the evidence collected during the interrogation of the inhabitants of a nearby village confirmed by the facts. The frozen ground did not then allow the exhumation and examination of the bodies to be started.
On the instruction of the German High Command the exhumation began on March 29, 1943.
Eight graves
Up to June 1, 1943, seven mass-graves containing the bodies of officers of the Polish Army were found in the area of Katyn Forest. These graves were
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situated near each other in a clearing in the wood and had young pine trees planted on the top of them...
The seven graves occupied a total area of at least 478 square metres.
The depth of the various graves was between 1.85 and 3.30 metres. The central sector of the longer arm of the L-shaped grave was the deepest place. The differences in the depth could be explained by the varying levels of the bottom of the graves. Thus, the depth of grave No.6 at its north-eastern end was 2.10, at the south-western end only 1.74 metres.
As a rule the graves were filled with bodies to within 1.5 metres of the surface.
Grave No.8 was discovered in the south-western part of the marshy lowland on June 1, 1943, about 100 metres from the area occupied by graves Nos.l to 7...
In the woods north-east of the area of graves Nos.l - 7 on the other side of a forest track leading to the Rest House, and to the south-east of grave No.8, several experimental excavations were carried out. They led to the discovery of the graves of many Russian civilians; this definitely confirmed previous information received to the effect that the Katyn forest had been used for many years as a place of execution of the victims of the NKVD, and of its predecessors, the Cheka and GPU.
On June 3, 1943, the exhumation work had to be temporarily stopped by the sanitary police on account of the heat and the flies.
Protection and identification of the bodies
Doctor Wodzinski, from Cracow, a representative of the Polish Red Cross, was recently made responsible for the work of protecting the bodies, which service previously been carried out by specially trained German personnel assisted by workmen recruited from among the local inhabitants. (See Chapter X).
All bodies exhumed from the seven graves were duly buried in new graves situated to the north-west of the original grave area. Thirteen bodies of Polish Army personnel from the grave No.8 were re-buried in the same grave after examination and the securing of proofs of identity.
Results of the examination - general
All the bodies from graves Nos.1-7 wore winter clothing, for the most part military greatcoats, leather or fur jerkins, pullovers and sweaters. Only two of the bodies exhumed from the grave No.8 on June 1, 1943, were in overcoats but not wearing warm underclothes; the remainder were in summer clothes (officers in service dress).
We may deduce from this that the executions were carried out at different tunes of the year; this is corroborated by the various Russian and Polish newspapers, whole or fragmentary, found amongst the victims' personal papers. Whilst the newspapers found in graves Nos.1-7 were dated March or the first half of April, 1940, those found in grave No.8 bore dates ranging from the latter part of April to the beginning of May, 1940. For example,
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there were fragments of the Polish newspaper Glos Radziecki (edited in Kiev), dated April 26 and 28, 1940, with an editorial headed "Catchwords for the First of May", as well as Russian newspapers dated May 1 and 6,1940.
The uniforms in which the exhumed bodies were clothed were unquestionably those of the Polish Army, for with them were found the following articles: Polish eagles on the buttons, badges of rank, awards and medals, regimental badges, Polish type boots, field caps of officers and other ranks, belts with field flasks, aluminium cups, and markings on the linen. It must be pointed out that amongst the victims there were many officers of Marshal J.Pilsudski's First Cavalry Regiment. This is proved by shoulder-straps found in grave No.8 with the letters "J.P." It was a crack Polish Cavalry regiment.
The highest awards for gallantry were found on many of the victims' uniforms; for instance, the Silver Cross "Virtuti Militari" (corresponding to the German Knight's Cross), the Polish Cross of Merit, the Cross for Valour, etc.
For the most part the uniforms were well cut and a good fit; the boots too were well-fitting. Often personal monograms were found on the underclothing. In all instances the uniforms and the underclothes were well-buttoned. Braces and belts were in good order. Apart from a few instances of damage by bayonets, the clothing had not been interfered with and there were no traces of violence.
All this facts definitely lead to the conclusion that the victims were buried in the uniforms worn in captivity prior to their death, and the bodies lay untouched until the opening of the graves. A theory, widely disseminated by the enemy, that the bodies were later dressed in Polish officers' uniforms is therefore without foundation. It is disproved by the results of the medical examination of the bodies; moreover, forensic medicine has taught us that it would be out of the question to remove the clothes of thousands of dead bodies and then, for the sake of camouflage, to clothe them in well-fitting linen and uniforms.
No watches or rings were found on the bodies; detailed entries in the diaries of certain of the victims indicate, however, that they had their watches with them up to the last. On one of the bodies a well-concealed emerald ring of great value was found; several other bodies had valuables concealed on them, particularly silver cigarette-cases. The gold from teeth had not been removed. Crosses, gold chains, etc., were found under the shirts.
Apart from small change (Polish paper money, nickel and copper coins), larger sums of money in zloty banknotes were found on the victims. In many instances wooden, hand-made cigarette-cases were found together with partly-filled tobacco pouches, cigarette holders engraved with monograms, inscriptions and the dates 1939 or 1940. Often the word "Kozielsk" was engraved on articles; this is the name of the camp, situated 250 kilometres south-west of Smolensk and 120 kilometres north of Orel, where the majority of the murdered officers had been held. There was also personal correspondence from relatives and friends addressed to Kozielsk. Documents found on the victims (identity cards - but not military passports - diaries, letters, postcards, calendars, photographs, drawings, etc.) gave the name, age, profession, origin and family relations of the victims. Pathetic entries in the diaries testify to the treatment of the victims by the NKVD. Letters and postcards from
32
relatives in Upper Silesia, in the "General Government" and in the Russian-occupied zone, written, to judge the post-stamps, between autumn, 1939 and March or April, 1940, clearly point to the time of the crime (spring, 1940).
Summary
(1) As a result of the investigations in Katyn Forest 4.143 bodies of the members of the Polish Army were exhumed from the mass-graves. Out of this number 2.815 (67.9 per cent) were identified. On June 3, 1943, the exhumation had to be stopped for sanitary reasons (heat, flies). A lot more victims await exhumation, identification and forensic medical examination.
(2) Besides two major-generals, the following victims were identified on the spot: 2.250 officers of various ranks, 156 medical and veterinary officers, 406 officers of unknown rank, warrant-officers and cadet-officers, and one chaplain. Identification of the remaining bodies continues, based on correspondence and other personal effects found upon them.
(3) On all the bodies were found small objects of a personal nature, including souvenirs, letters, documents, diaries. They wore well-fitting Polish uniforms on which the rank badges, awards and medals could be recognised. In addition, many articles of military equipment were found on the bodies. The bodies from graves Nos.1-7 were in winter clothing, those from grave No.8 in summer clothing.
(4) Upon examination of the bodies, there was no suggestion that disease might have been the cause of death. With a few exceptions the usual bullet shot in the nape of the neck from a 7.65 mm pistol was found. Corroboration is provided by corresponding spent cartridge-cases and bullets (some lodged in the bodies) and by one live cartridge found at the place of execution. In many instances the shots in the nape of the neck had passed through the raised collar of the greatcoat. Up-to-date physical, chemical and optical methods of investigation showed that the shots we fired at extremely close range.
(5) The execution most probably took place outside the graves.
(6) A uniform method of binding the hands across the back had been used on a considerable number of victims. Others (particularly those from grave No.5) had greatcoats thrown over their heads and in some cases sawdust was found between the coat and the face of the victim. Forensic medical examination brought to light distinct signs of torture.
(7) Numerous stab—marks were found, undoubtedly inflicted prior to the execution with a dagger-like weapon corresponding to the fluted Russian bayonet. No doubt these stabs were a means of urging the victims on their way to the place of execution.
(8) Broken jaws, obviously suffered by the victims when they were still alive, prove that they were battered or beaten with rifle-butts prior to the murder.
(9) The uniform shot in the nape of the neck and the uniform method of tying the victim's hands and binding his head show that this was the work of skilled men.
(10) The bodies were in various stages of decay. In a few cases mummifica-
33
tion of the uncovered parts had taken place (bodies from the upper layers), but generally the formation of adipocere had started with the fat penetrating into the clothing.
(11) Initially, the decomposition of the bodies was not affected by the ground, but after some time it was partly influenced by the acids in the soil (formation of adipocere and preservation of inner organs). On the other hand the products of the decomposition caused characteristic (chemical and structural) changes in the soil. These phenomena show that the bodies lay undisturbed for years in their original place.
(12) The material discovered in the graves (amongst others, documents found there) and the evidence of witnesses (Russian inhabitants of the neighbouring villages) prove that the bodies had lain in the graves for three years. The changes that had taken place, as ascertained during the post mortem, and the other findings at the inquest, bear this out.
(13) The execution and the burial of the victims were carried out in a cool season, when there were no insects. The documents, correspondence, diaries and newspapers found on the bodies prove that the officers were murdered in March, April and May, 1940.
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REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL COMMISSION
In the early May, 1943, the following report was published by an International Medical Commission which conducted an investigation into the mass-graves at Katyn Forest on the invitation of the German authorities:
I. Official communique
"A Commission consisting of the representatives from the Institutes of Forensic Medicine and Criminology of European Universities, as well as of other professors of medicine, conducted a scientific examination of the mass-graves of Polish officers in Katyn Forest near Smolensk, between April 28 and 30, 1943.
The Commission was composed of the following members:
(1) Belgium, Speelers, M.D., Professor of Ophtalmology, Ghent University-
(2) Bulgaria, Markov, M.D., Reader in Forensic Medicine and Criminology, Sofia University.
(3) Denmark, Tramsen, M.D., Assistant at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Copenhagen.
(4) Finland, Saxen, M.D., Professor of Pathological Anatomy, Helsinki University.
(5) Croatia, Miloslavich, M.D., Professor of Forensic Medicine and Criminology, Zagreb University.
(6) Italy, Palmieri, M.D., Professor of Forensic Medicine and Criminology, Naples University.
(7) Holland, De Burlet, M.D., Professor of Anatomy, Groningen University.
(8) Bohemian and Moravian Protectorate, Hajek, M.D., Professor of Forensic Medicine and Criminology, Prague University.
(9) Rumania, Birkle, M.D., Expert in Forensic Medicine at the Rumanian Ministry of Justice.
(10) Switzerland, Naville, M.D., Professor of Forensic Medicine and Criminology, Geneva University.
(11) Slovakia, Subik, M.D., Professor of Pathological Anatomy, Bratislava University.
(12) Hungary, Orsos, M.D., Professor of Forensic Medicine and Criminology, Budapest University.
Further, the investigations and meeting of the Commission were attendet by:
(1) Buhtz, M.D., Professor of Forensic Medicine and Criminology at Breslau (Wroclaw) University, entrusted with the exhumation work at Katyn by the German Hihg Command.
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(2) Costedoat, Medical Inspector, attending the work of the Commission on behalf of the Head of the French Government.
Professor F. Neville from Switzerland.
The discovery of the mass-graves of Polish officers in Katyn Forest, near Smolensk, recently brought to the attention of the German authorities, induced Doctor Conti, the Head of the Reich Health Department, to ask the above-mentioned specialists from various European countries to investigate the Katyn discovery and thus to assist in elucidating this unique case.
The Commission personally questioned a number of Russian witnesses from the vicinity who testified that in March and April, 1940, large transports of Polish officers arrived almost daily at the railway station of Gniezdovo, near Katyn, where they were unloaded and sent in lorries (trucks) toward the Katyn forest, never to be heard of again. The Commission also examined the discoveries and the results of previous investigations, as well as such evidence as had been collected. Up to April 30, 1943, 982 bodies had been exhumed. Of these, about 70 per cent were gradually identified; documents found on the remaining victims could not be used for identification until they had been properly cleaned. All bodies exhumed prior to the arrival of the Commission had been examined and in most cases a post mortem had been carried out by Professor Buhtz and his colleagues. Up till now seven mass graves have been excavated. The largest contained the bodies of about 2.500 officers.
The members of the Commission personally conducted a post mortem on nine of the bodies, and proceeded to establish the evidence in specially selected cases.
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Results of autopsies and forensic medical examinations
All bodies so far exhumed show that death was caused by a shot in the head. These shots were without exception fired into the nape of the neck; generally one shot had been fired, in some instances two, and in one instance three. In every case the bullet had entered the lower part of the nape, piercing the occipital bone, close to the opening of the lower part of the skull; the point of exit was in the forehead, generally on the line of the hair-growth, in some rare cases in the lower part of the forehead. The shots were without exception those of a pistol with a calibre of less than eight millimetres.
That the shots had been fired from a barrel touching the nape of the neck or at extremely close range is proved by the cracks in the skull, by traces of gunpowder on the base of the skull close to the entrance of the bullet, and by the similarity of the exit orifices caused by the bullet. This may also be deduced from the fact that, apart from a few isolated cases, the path of the bullet is identical. The striking uniformity of the injuries and the position of the bullet's entry, all within a very small circumference on the lower part of the skull, point to experienced hands having been at work. The wrists of a large number of victims were found to have been tied in exactly the same way and in a few cases light bayonet stabs were noticed in the skin and in the clothes. The way in which the hands of the victims were tied is similar to that observed in the case of corpses of Russian civilians, also exhumed in Katyn Forest, but buried much earlier. Further it has been established that the shots in the nape of the neck of these civilians had likewise been the work of experienced men.
A stray bullet which had penetrated the head of a Polish officer previously killed by the usual shot in the nape of the neck, and which was wedged in the exterior part of the bone, proves that the bullet first killed another officer and then struck this officer who already lay dead in the pit. This fact warrants the assertion that shooting also took place in the pits themselves, in order to avoid transferring the corpses to the burial ground.
The mass-graves are situated in clearings, which had been completely levelled and then planted with pine trees. According to personal examinations carried out by the members of the Commission and the statements of senior forestry inspector Von Herff, who had been summoned as an expert, the pine trees in question were at least five years old, rather stunted owing to their being in the shade of older trees, and had been planted in that area three years ago.
The pits were dug in stepped terraces in a hilly area and in sandy soil. In places they penetrated to underground water.
The bodies were almost without exception laid face downwards, pressed together, fairly tidily around the sides of the pit but more irregularly in the centre. In almost all cases the legs were extended. It is clear that the bodies were arranged systematically. The Commission observed that the uniforms of the exhumed bodies, especially in respect of buttons, badges, decorations, boots, marks on the underwear, etc., were typically Polish. The uniforms in question were winter ones. Fur coats, leather jackets, pullovers, officers'
37
boots and caps customarily worn by Polish officers were frequently found. Only a few bodies of other ranks were discovered; he body of a priest was also found. All the uniforms were well-fitting despite the varying sizes of the wearers. The underclothes were buttoned up in the normal way; the braces of the trousers were properly adjusted. The Commission arrived at the conclusion that the victims were buried in the uniforms worn by them up to the moment of their death.
No watches or rings were found on the bodies although, judging from the entries in the notebooks in which the exact time had been recorded, the officers must have been in possession of watches until the last moment. Valuable articles of metal were found concealed on a few bodies only. Bank-notes were found in large quantities and quite often some small change. Boxes of matches and Polish cigarettes were also found, and in some cases tobacco pouches, and cigarette cases bearing the inscription "Kozielsk" (the name of the last Russian POW camp where the majority of the murdered officers had been imprisoned). The documents found on the bodies (notebooks, letters, newspapers) bear the dates covering the period between the autumn of 1939 and the months of April and March, 1940. So far, the most recent date that has come to light is that on a Russian newspaper dated April 22, 1940.
The stages of decay were found to vary in accordance with the position of the bodies in the pits. Whilst mummification had taken place on the top and at the sides of the mass of bodies, a humid process could be observed caused by the damp nearer the centre. Adjacent bodies were stuck together with a thick putrid liquid. The peculiar deformation due to pressure clearly show that the bodies remained in the position they had assumed when they were first thrown into the pits.
Neither insects nor any traces of them, such as could have dated from the time of the burial, were found on the bodies. This proves that the shooting of the victims and their burial took place in the cold season, when there were no insects.
Several skulls were examined with a view to seeing whether they showed a condition which, if present, constitutes, according to the experiments made by Professor Orsos, clear evidence regarding the date of death. This appears as a crust, formed of layers of necrotic structure, around the surface of the brain which is turned into a uniform clay, like pulp. Bodies that have been in graves less than three years do not show this condition. Amongst others, body No.526, which was discovered on the surface of a big mass grave, bore distinct traces of this phenomenon.
Recapitulation
The Commission has examined the mass-graves of Polish officers in Katyn Forest. So far seven of the graves have been opened. Up to the present a total of 982 bodies has been exhumed and examined. Some of them have been submitted to a detailed post-mortem examination. Seventy per cent of the bodies have been identified.
The death of all these victims was caused exclusively by a shot in the nape of the neck. From statements made by witnesses, as well as from letters.
Diging from grave No.l.
diaries, newspapers, etc. found on the bodies, it follows that the executions took place in March and April, 1940. There is complete conformity between the statements concerning the mass-graves and the results of the examination of single bodies of Polish officers".
The above experts' report was signed at Smolensk on April 30, 1943, by the following persons: Speelers, Markov, Tramsen, Saxen, Palmieri, Miloslavich, De Burlet, Hajek, Birkle, Subik, Orsos.
2. The origin of the International Medical Commission and the method of investigation
Professor Palmieri gave to the Polish military authorities in Naples, in 1944 following information concerning the origin of the Commission, the members of which had been invited by the Germans and of the method employed by the investigators.
The Commission was summoned after the refusal of the International Red Cross to participate in the investigation. As is known, the International Red
Cross in Switzerland was obliged to refuse, because it had not received the necessary authorisation from the Soviet Government. In view of the foregoing, the German Government decided to organise their own investigations,
39
Hands tied with a rope.
by entrusting the inquiry into the Katyn crime to the best-known European specialists in forensic medicine. A delegate of the Polish Government in London was invited to join the Commission, but he declined.
Thirteen delegates of various countries met in Berlin. German scientists did not part take in the work of the Commission; Doctor Buhtz, Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Breslau (Wroclaw), merely acted in a liaison capacity between the Commission and the German authorities.
From the very beginning, that is to say at the preliminary meeting of the Commission, it was unanimously decided that the investigations should be conducted on purely a scientific basis, excluding all political or polemic aspects. The Commission then proceeded to formulate the questions to which they would limit themselves, viz.:
(1) Identification of bodies.
(2) Ascertaining the cause of death.
(3) Establishing the time at which death occurred.
It must be stressed that during the entirely impartial investigations and the drawing-up of the well-known conclusions unanimously adopted, the Commission adhered strictly to the above-mentioned rules.
All members of the Commission enjoyed absolute freedom of movement and were provided with such technical means as might be of help to them. They were allowed to go to the graves in order to direct the exhumation in the places and under the conditions that they deemed suitable. A Commission of the Polish Red Cross which had arrived from Warsaw worked simultaneously but separately at Katyn and arrived at the same conclusions.
On their return to Berlin, the members of the Commission handed over
40
their report to Doctor Conti, the Head of the Reich Health Department, and the Commission was then disbanded.
It must be emphasised that the work of the members of the Commission was enterely honorary. None of them received any salary or allowance, decoration or academic distinction, or any other compensation whatsoever. They merely received railway tickets and their hotel bills were settled on the spot.
3. Dr. Markov's revocation
The Bulgarian expert, Dr.Markov, lecturer at the University of Sofia, subsequently revoked his signed statement, included in the report of the International Medical Commission. He did it for the first time in February, 1945, when arraigned before the Highest Military Court for leading German war criminals in Bulgaria, which court had been established after the German troops had withdrawn from that country, the Soviet army had overrun Bulgaria and the Communist regime was established there. In consequence of this revocation, the Prosecutor withdrew his indictment against Dr.Markov.
At Nuremberg on July 1, 1946, Dr.Markov repeated the evidence he had given before the People's Tribunal in Sofia.
4. Report of a Swiss Professor, François Naville, of January, 1947
In September, 1946, when the Nuremberg Trial was nearing its end, a Communist member of the Swiss Grand Council, Mr. Vincent (Swiss Communists ostensibly belong to the "Labour Party"), deemed it expedient to launch an attack against Professor François Naville on account of his participation in an International Medical Commission which in 1943 had conducted an investigation at Katyn and later published its well-known report. Mr.Vincent chose the form of an interpellation addressed to the Geneva Executive Body (State Council).
This interpellation had its repercussion at a sitting of the Geneva Legislative Body (Grand Council) in 1947, when Mr.Albert Picot, Head of the Cantonal Government, answered Mr.Vincent's case. A substantial part of this answer consisted in reading extracts from Professor Naville's report, presented by the latter to the Government, at the request, following the interpellation. The following is the substance of Mr. Albert Picot's statement.
At the meeting of the Grand Council of September 11, 1946, a member, Mr.Vincent, asked the Council of State how they proposed to judge the case of Dr.Naville, Professor of Forensic Medicine, who had agreed to act as legal expert at the request of the German Government in April, 1943, where the origin of the 10.000 corpses of Polish officers discovered in Katyn Forest near Smolensk was concerned. It is known that Katyn is in Russia, in a region which the Russians had occupied since the beginning of the Polish-German war in 1939, and where the Germans had not arrived until the summer or autumn of 1941, after the first successes of their offensive in the direction of Smolensk.*
* Smolensk and Katyn are actually situated in an area which lay inside the borders of the USSR before 1939.
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Bodies in the bottom of a mass grave.
If the killings took place in 1940 or the winter of 1940-41, then these men were executed by the Russians. If the corpses dated from the autumn of 1941 or from 1942, then the murderers were Germans.
Considering the climatic conditions, the question could be decided by the advanced state of decomposition of the bodies.
In its report the State Council would deal only with the following three point:
(1) The relation between Mr.Naville and the Swiss authorities (federal, cantonal and military) before his departure.
(2) Did Mr.Naville receive any reward from Germany?
(3) Did Mr.Naville agree to work under conditions of constraint, thus soiling the honour of a Swiss Professor?
On all these three questions they were in possession of a clear report from Mr.Naville, and he was happy to read them extracts from it:
1. Preamble
"I wish to state that in the present circumstances I have been obliged for the first time to abandon the restrain which I deliberately undertook to exercise for the last three years. I am not mixed up with politics. I consider that I did my duty by participating in the technical enquiry with a view to throwing some light on the matter concerned, and I have always refused to follow up the numerous requests addressed to me, either by Swiss or by foreigners, to make public my findings or my opinion. Rightly or wrongly, I considered that only the Poles, who had asked for an enquiry into the circumstances in which
some ten thousand of their officers, prisoners-of-war, had been killed, could assume the responsibility of initiating a public discussion on the subject, of which the consequences could not be foretold. But intervention of Mr.Vincent forces me to give certain information on the matter.
Conditions of request and acceptance
I recall that after the Germans had uncovered the ditches containing several thousand Polish officers, killed, according to them, by Russian secret police, the Polish Government in London as well as the Polish and German Red Cross asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to conduct an investigation on the spot. As Russia seemed determined to veto such an enquiry, the German sanitary authorities, in order to accede to the wishes of the Poles, decided to entrust the investigation to a committee of experts composed of one specialist in forensic medicine from almost every neutral country, that is, each country not directly interested in the matter.
The Russians, considering that the demand for an impartial investigation submitted by the Poles was a hostile act on their part, severed diplomatic relations with the Polish Government on Monday, April 26, 1943. This I was told by the Swiss Envoy in Berlin, Mr.Frohlicher, on whom I called immediately after my arrival in Berlin...
It was on the night of April 22, 1943, that Dr.Steiner, of Geneva, medical adviser to the German Consulate General there, asked me whether I could and would leave on April 26 to join the committee of experts concerned. May I add in this connection that I have never concealed from anybody my outspoken, and I may even say violent, hostility towards Germany after 1914, caused by their foreign policy which I always considered dangerous for Switzerland, and since 1933 by the attitude adopted by the Nazi bosses. I could give many proofs of this. It was well known to my students at the University, as even the late German Professor Askanasy occasionally protested to me about it. Your department can ascertain from Professor Liebeskind what I said after incidents provoked by one of his lectures to German students, and from the Dean of Faculty of Law the way in which I intervened in connection with the affair of the German student-spies.
Therefore I refused at first, and suggested some other Swiss experts in forensic medicine. In the meantime, however, I contacted other persons. They told me that this was not a matter of rendering a service to the Germans, but of responding to the legitimate wish of the Poles, who demanded that an impartial investigation be made, and that it should be established whether anything had been done to produce a nominal roll of the dead officers, to proceed with the identifications as far as possible, and to inform the next-of-kin. Here I must remind you that, contrary to the practice followed by all the other belligerents, the Russians always refused to supply lists of prisoners-of-war taken by them to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and that for a long time no news had been received of the 10.000 officers they had taken prisoner.
When Dr.Steiner again invited me, therefore I decided to accept; if I am not mistaken it was on Friday night. It seemed to me that it would be cowar-
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A body of Polish major.
dly to refuse to co-operate in an inquiry whose object was to establish the truth, under the pretext that I would necessarily be dissatisfied with one or the other of the belligerents accused of a crime so particularly odious and contrary to the modern usages of war. At that time, moreover, I did not know what the composition of the committee of experts would be, or even what would be submitted to me for examination and enquiry."
Departure
Professor Naville's report goes on to state that he was authorised to take part in the Medical Commission of Investigation both by the Swiss military authorities and by the Federal authorities (Political Department). In accordance with the regulations he advised the Dean of his Faculty, who neither at that time nor at any later period, raised any objection. Next, the report deals with the question of the fees which the Germans were supposed to have paid to the members of the Commission:
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Fees
"Mr.Vincent seems to be under the impression that I received a considerable amount of German gold. He can be relieved of his anxiety. I was certainly entitled to ask for a fee for such complicated work of such importance, on which I spent one month of my time carrying out various researches, after a journey taking eight days. But from the very beginning I decided to refuse it, on moral grounds. I did not want to obtain money either from the Poles or from the Germans. I do not know who paid the expenses of the journey of our committee of experts, but I personally never asked for nor received from anyone any gold, money, gifts, rewards, assets, or promises of any kind. If, at a time when it is being mauled simultaneously by the armies of two mighty neighbours, a country learns of the massacre of nearly 10.000 of its officers, prisoners-of-war, who commited no crime other than to fight in its defence, and when that country tries to find out how this came about, a decent man cannot demand fees for going to the place and trying to lift the hem of the veil which concealed, and still conceals, the circumstances in which this act of odious cowardice, so contrary to the usages of war, was committed.
Money and other objects found on the bodies.
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Conditions of work
Mr.Vincent asserts that I was acting under constant pressure from the Gestapo, which prevented us from having a free hand. This is absolutely untrue. I do not know whether the police were represented amongst those who received and accompanied us (doctors and guides), but I can definitely state that we were able to proceed undisturbed with our work as experts. I did not notice any signs of pressure being exerted on myself or any of my colleagues. We were always able to discuss all matters freely amongst ourselves without the Germans being present. On many occasions I told my co-experts and the Germans who received us certain "truths" which they considered rather outspoken. They seemed dumbfounded, but no one ever molested me. I did not conceal what I thought of the moral responsibility of the Germans in this matter, as it was they who went to war and invaded Poland, even if our conclusions should establish their innocence in the matter of the death of the officers.
We spent two days and three nights at Smolensk, about 50 km. from the Russian lines. I moved about quite freely at Smolensk, as in Berlin, without being in any way accompanied or shadowed. As two of us could speak Russian, we were on several occasions able to talk to the peasants and Russian prisoners-of-war. We also contacted the medical personnel of the Polish Red Cross, who co-operated at the exhumation, and were specially detailed to identify the bodies, make nominal rolls and inform the next-of-kin. We assured ourselves that everything possible was being done in this respect.
We freely carried out about ten post mortem examinations of bodies which we had had taken, in our presence, from the lower layers of the unexplored common graves. Undisturbed, we dictated reports on the post mortem examinations, without any intervention from the German medical personnel. We examined, superficially but quite freely, about one hundred corpses which had been disinterred in our presence. I, myself, found in the clothes of one of them a wooden cigarette-holder engraved with the name "Kozielsk"(one of the three camps from which the doomed officers had come), and in the uniform of another I found a box of matches from a Russian factory in the Province of Orel, the region where the three camps concerned were situated.*
At the examinations, being concerned with the forensic medicine aspect, we paid particular attention to the transformation of the fatty substances of the skin and internal organs, to changes in the bones, to the destruction of joint tendons, to changes and atrophies of various parts of the body, and also to all other signs which would testify to the time of death.
Examination of the skull of a lieutenant, undertaken specifically by Professor Orsos from Budapest, at which I was present, brought to light a condition that virtually excluded the possibility of death having occurred less than three years previously, according to scientific works already published on that kind of mutilation...
* Only Kozielsk was situated in the region of Orel.
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A body with hands tied behind.
We experts were also at liberty to discuss amongst ourselves all our findings as well as the wording of our report. After having examined the graves and the corpses on Thursday and Friday, 29 and 30 April, all the experts met on Friday afternoon to discuss and decide on the composition of the report. Only medical personnel took part in that discussion, but without any interference. Some of us made a draft of the final report, and it was submitted to me for signature on Saturday, May 1, at 3.a.m. I offered several comments and asked for some changes and additions, which were immediately made. I do not know whether the same consideration was given to the observations and criticisms made by Dr.Markov of Bulgaria; I do not remember whether he intervened during our discussion at the meeting, but I was present when he signed the report on May 1 about noon, and I can state that he did not make any objections or protests. I do not know whether he was subject to any constraint by the authorities of his own country, either before the journey to Katyn or at the time he revoked his signature, on being charged with collaboration and when he declared that he had acted under pressure; but he was certainly not under pressure or constraint while the committee of which
47
he was a member was at work. In any case, he made in our presence a post mortem of one corpse and quite freely dictated the report on it, of which I have a copy...
By joining the twelve other experts in signing our report of 1943, I by no means wished to serve the Germans, but only the Poles and the Truth. The report, by the way, occupies only five pages in the thick illustrated volume of 331 pages which the Germans published about Katyn, which I possess, and which I was told is also in the possession of the public library in Geneva.
Mr.Vincent is a solicitor in Geneva. He knows that even in our country, in matters where a public confession or substantial evidence have not entirely clarified matters, the parties concerned try to take advantage of all obscure points. He also knows that not everywhere in Europe are the rights of man and the truth unsullied by the ideological and political trends of the day respected as they are, happily, in Switzerland.
As for us, the forensic medicine experts, it is our right and our duty in our modest sphere to seek above all to serve the truth in conflicts where the parties sometimes serve other masters; it is the tradition and the pride of our profession, an honour sometimes dangerous. We must do this without yelding to pressure, from whatever quarter it may come, without regard for the criticism and hostility of those who may be put into an awkward position by our unbiased impartiality. May our motto always remain that which honours certain tombs: Vitam impendere vero.
Here, Mr.President, is the report you asked me to submit in justification of my actions. I leave to you to decide whether it would be appropriate to contact the Federal Political Department, with whose consent I took part in the experts' examination in question, before you submit the text or its gist to the Grand Council, which might have political consequences I cannot foresee.
(signed) F.Naville."
Mr. Picot's statement
Those, continued Mr.Picot, were the parts of the report submitted by Dr.Naville that concerned them most.
"The State Council considers that there is nothing with which to reproach Dr.François Naville, distinguished man of science, excellent forensic medicine expert, who acted on his own responsibility and who did nothing to infringe any rule of professional conduct or of the code of honour. Dr.Naville's report contains a statement justifying the conclusions of his original report of 1943. He may publish it when he wishes. The Grand Council is not entitled to make any pronouncement on this matter.
On the other hand, the Grand Council agrees with us that it is in accordance with the ideal of science and the moral principles of our country that a scientist should seek the truth by means of thorough investigation."*
* La Tribune de Geneve, January 20, 1947.
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One of the victim tied with the rope.
49
THE POLISH CONSPIRACY
by George Audit
GROUND SOFTENED FOR GOEBBELS
It was in this way that the ground was softened for the new bid to wreck the unity of the Allied camp which the German Propaganda Ministry made on April 11th this year. On this day the German Transocean agency launched its masterpiece of anti-Soviet fabrication against the weakest spot in Allied relationship. It announced; -
,,10.000 Polish officers - the entire Polish officer corps - has been discovered shot dead through the nape of the neck in the Katyn Wood near Smolensk. The German military authorities, acting on information supplied by the local population, had excavations conducted at the O.G.P.U. Recreation Home near Smolensk early this month. A mass grave was discovered, 28 m. by 16 m., in which, in twelve layers, 3.000 Polish officers in full uniform were buried face down with their hands tied. They had been shot dead in February and March, 1940. These officers could be all identified as the O.G.P.U. men left credentials on their bodies".
This broadcast did not, of course, explain why the German military authorities, during the period of nearly two years in which they had been in occupation of the Smolensk region, had never before come into possession of this highly useful and convinient information which was in the hands of the local population". As the Moscow Radio later commented, this Goebbels atrocity story, this "hideous frame-up", came into the world with all the typical hallmarks of a hundred other exposed Gestapo fabrications:-
"With the much-to-fresh bodies of their victims buried in Soviet soil, with their carefully preserved diaries, with their false witnesses and their shady investigators, they have overshot the mark".
Later version of the Smolensk massacre fable
The need appeares to have been soon felt in Berlin to tidy up and improve on this first botched-job of a story. During the succeeding days, when all Axis and Axis-controlled radio stations talked of little else the story began to be told in different forms almost from hour to hour.
On April 12th Transocean's Special Correspondent, Robert Broese wrote that he was "able to assure General Sikorski" that he was waiting in vain for the return of 900.000 Polish officers and men...he had just returned from Smolensk, "where no fewer then 10.000 officers lie buried in one grave like dead dogs".
On April 13th the heat was turned full on and the story was put out in endless repetition and with elaborations by the score. The German Home
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News, at 10 a.m., stated that "the murders were carried out between March and May, 1940, and went on to broadcast the following characteristic details:
"Less than five hundred yards from the mass graves the Bolsheviks (later "the Bolshevik male and female officials") held orgies. The area had been hedged in barbed wire and was constantly guarded by O.G.P.U. men. To carry out the mass murder the Bolsheviks cleared a part of the wood of trees. Firs were planted on the graves and are now three years old (other broadcaster considered that abandoned vodka bottles provided a more convinving proof of Soviet authorship). The state of decomposition of the bodies agrees with this time check and with the statements of the local population. The wood of Katyn has at last revealed its terrible secret. Jewish bolshevism shows the world its horrible grimace. The discovery of Smolensk is a stirring warning to Europe and a roll-call for an unrelenting struggle against the most terrible enemy humanity has ever encountered".
A comparison of the answers given by the German Press and Radio at different times to various natural questions about the story will prove indisputably where it was concocted.
Who discovered the bodies, and when?
"Polish lumbermen": Minister Braun von Stumm, Spokeman of the German Foreign Office, 13.4.43.
"An old peasant": German Home Service, 16.4.43.
"A German military lieutenant": German Home Service, 14.4.43.
"Early this month": Transocean, 11.4.43.
"The autumn of 1942": Deutschlandsender, 14.4.43.
(What sense of modesty prevented Dr.Goebbels from telling the world for six whole months?)
[It was left to the Editor of the notorious paper Truth to provide the Doctor with an alibi, as follows: "Germany has used the incident with skill. She must have known of the graves in the forest for a long time, but has waited until her diplomats and propagandists regard as the crucial moment to force the present split".]
"The summer of 1942": Deutschlandsender, 14.4.43.
This last account is worth quoting: -
"Four Polish transport men, having heard of the murders from the local people, went into the forest with picks and spades. Shortly afterwards they returned, some utterly broken, and some shaking with indignation, and said they had found the place of the murders. Evacuation began at once (i.e. in the summer of last year) ...wherever one dug there were corpses...all the area between the pits has not been evacuated, but there can be no doubt that the burial place covers the whole hill where new trees have been planted".
Could the bodies be identified?
"Members of the Polish delegation (i.e. Polish quislings brought by the Germans from Warsaw) recognised the faces of many of the high Polish officers whom they knew". - German Home Service, 14.4.43.
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"A great stench arises from this mass of partly decomposed and partly mummified humanity...no features could be discerned... even old experienced officers held handkerchiefs before their noses". - Calais in English for England, 14.4.43.
"Several hundred more names": Weichsel Radio, 18.4.43.
"It has been possible to identify 95 per cent of the bodies". - 21.4.43.
How many graves were there?
"A mass grave...in which 3.000 Polish officers in full uniform were buried": Transocean, 11.4.43.
"A mass grave...in which no fewer than 10,000 officers lie buried": Transocean, 12.4.43.
"Six similar graves have been discovered": Donau Radio, 12.4.43.
"Two great mass graves have so far been uncovered": Calais in English for England, 22.4.43.
Finally, a sort of mass grave hysteria seems to have seized on the German liars, and graves began to be discovered from one end of Europe to the other. Mass-graves indeed there are, in every country in Europe where the German Fascists have set their heel, and it has been well known to the whole world for some time who makes these mass graves for the peoples of Europe. Oslo Radio reported on April 21st that "Germans from the Baltic States" had witnessed the opening of a mass grave at Riga, and were able to testify that "the bodies were all members of the upper and middle class, and their fate is a warning of what will happen to those classes in Western Europe if the Bolshevik plague should ever gain the upper hand".
The same source reported the discovery of another grave outside Odessa. Here, too, the same forger's recipe could be recognised; here, too, local inhabitants were suddenly inspired to inform the Rumanian military authorities that "there were O.G.P.U. graves close by", and the Rumanian authorities ordered digging to begin at once. The graves were four years old, it was announced, and contained from 4.000 to 5.000 corpses. (It will readily be recalled that it was at Odessa that one of the worst pogroms of all time was carried out: 50.000 Jews, the entire Jewish population of the town, were put to death by the Gestapo after the Red Army withdrew from the town late in 1941).
Other discrepancies
German propaganda was unable to stick to one story even about precisely how the execution was carried out. In the original version, all the victims were shot neatly and symmetrically through the nape of the neck. But such was the Nazi zeal for inventing convincing detail that before the week had passed at least three different methods were widely stated to have been used, as the following quotations will show: -
"Iinhabitants in the neighbourhood... have stated that for some ten days the rattle of machine-guns and cries of terrified victims could be heard".
"Officers of the Polish General Staff were executed in a particularly cruel
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manner. They were shackled and then buried alive". "The corpses of the Polish officers showed the evidence of numerous bayonet stabs. These stabs were made with the typical Bolshevik four-edged military bayonet".
The two following statements were broadcast at the same hour on April 23rd: - (l)" Owing to the soil the corpses were mummified. The documents found on the bodies were almost intact because they had been impregnated with the grease of the bodies". (2)"The Polish Red Cross is expected soon to start identifying the bodies. This will be very difficult owing to the advanced stage of decomposition of the victims".
German Foreign Office angles for Polish Government support
During the whole period of the most intense concentration of German propaganda on the Smolensk massacre fable, Minister Braun von Stumm, spokesman of the German Foreign Office, was daily revealing to the Press Conference in Berlin the real purpose behind the story. On April 13th he "reminded correspondents of the Polish calculations that one and a half million Polish refugees and about 10.000 officers had fallen into Soviet hands. Despite pressing Polish inquiries, Moscow had refused to reply. Information on the fate of the 10.000 Polish officers was now being provided by the Germans instead". He added that the murdered Polish officers did not come from the Eastern Polish territories officially claimed by the Soviets, but came mostly from the Cracow and Warsaw districts. "This fact (!) - on the next day the German Home Service reported "so far only 76 cases have been investigated" - was clear proof that the Soviets regard even these territories as of political, in other words annexationist, interest".
Polish Government demands "investigation"
On April 16th, four days after the Nazi propagandists had let their story loose, it was already perfectly clear to all the world what kind of a story this was. The signature of the stage-managers of the Reichstag Fire Trial, of the Polish atrocities against Germans in Western Poland, of the "bolshevik massacres" at Lvov, and hundred more forgeries long ago exposed and derided by the free world, was clearly written over whole insidious tale. A Soviet statement issued on the previous day had summed up what was the general public reaction to the story throughout the world: -
"Beyond doubt Goebbels' slanderers are now trying by lies and calumnies to cover up the bloody crimes of the Hitlerite gangsters".
It seems likely, therefore, that the story would be allowed to run for a week or two, and replaced as soon as some fresher invention was ready to take its place in German propaganda. This, indeed, would certainly have been its fate, and it would have achieved nothing more than the further discrediting of its inventors, had not the Polish Government suddenly decided to accept Goebbels' story at its face value, and to use it for its own hostile campaign against the Soviet. On April 16th the Polish official newspaper in London, Dziennik Polski, wrote: -
53
"The fate of the Polish officers who were in the Kozielsk and Starobyelsk camps is unknown, and is the subject of the greatest concern to the Polish people".
Later in the same day the Polish Ministry of National Defence announced that the Polish Government "is asking the International Red Cross to send an investigation committee to Poland to investigate the graves". The communique explained, after a long series of allegations about "disappearance" of certain Polish officers in the Soviet Union, that the "detailed information given by the German necessitates the approach to the Red Cross with a request for an investigation".
Fifty minutes later the Berlin radio came on the air with the news that Hitler also had appealed to the International Red Cross to investigate the graves. And on the following morning Donau Radio stated that "Berlin welcomes the appeal of the Polish emigree Government to the Geneva Red Cross". Many other broadcasts emphasised the "deep satisfaction caused in Germany by the Polish Government's request". As if to place their provocative intentions in no doubt, the Polish National Council followed this up on the next day with a resolution declaring that "it did not believe" the Soviet statement on the reasons for the execution of Erlich and Alter given by the Soviet Information Bureau seven weeks before. The Polish Cabinet, after a meeting held on the same day, stated in an official communique: -
"There is no Pole who would not be deeply shocked by the news of the discovery near Smolensk in a common grave of massacred bodies of the Polish officers missing in the U.S.S.R. and the mass execution of which they have become victims..."
Pravda warning
In a leading article published on April 19th, the following was Pravda's comment on this insulting Polish appeal: -
"Slander spreads quickly... The Polish ministerial circles should have known that this is not the first time that the Hitlerite liars have resorted to this form of pressure on public opinion."
After recalling the full and circumstancial disproof which the Soviet Information Bureau had been able to publish in 1941 concerning the so-called victims of Bolshevik terror at Lvov, Pravda went on[ -
"A similar foul piece of Hitlerite provocation has now once again been fabricated. As how now become perfectly clear, the Germans captured former prisoners of war who in 1941 were engaged on building construction in the area west of Smolensk, and who together with many Soviet citizens living in the Smolensk region, fell into the hands of the German Fascist hangmen in the summer of 1941, after the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from the Smolensk area"... The more details they present, even including visiting cards which they themselves put with great foresight into the pockets of the savagely tortured officers, the more clear it becomes that the Hitlerite hangmen are describing their own experience".
"The appeal of the Polish Ministry", Pravda went on, "cannot be regarded as anything but direct and open support of the Hitlerite provocateurs in the
54
fabrication of their foul inventions. The Polish people will turn their backs on them as persons who encourage Hitler, the accursed enemy of Poland".
A success for Goebbels
During the week following April 17th Axis propaganda was whipped up to new hights of fury and mendacity in an attempt to make the very most of this gift from the Polish Government. In Poland the Polish partisans and patriots were fighting the German hordes, wrecking trains daily, ambushing convoys, sabotaging the Nazi factories, fighting in alliance with the Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Jugoslavs and all other Eastern European peoples a deadly battle with the Fascist enslavers. But in London the emigre Polish Government chose just this moment, on the eve of the decisive battles of the war, to volunteer for the anti-bolshevik legion. Many of Polish fighter for freedom inside Poland, hearing on the German radio and in the B.B.C.'s Polish service the full story and attempted justification of the Polish Government's treacherous act, must have determined in his heart that the Polish Junkers and near-Fascists should never be allowed to return to Poland when the struggle against Hitler had been won.
The official British attitude was that all that had happened was a "dispute" between two allied Governments, and this neutral policy was strictly adhered to in all British news broadcasts to Europe, with the exception of the Polish broadcasts which are controlled by the Polish Government. On April 16th the British Foreign Office had already refused to make any comment, on the ground that the matter was the concern only of the two allied Governments.
The Times, speaking after the breach, wrote on April 28th: -
"The general abstention from comment during the past ten days has not been sufficient to prevent an open breach, and may even have hastened it by allowing the hidden sore to fester... the action of the Polish Government ten days ago beyond doubt played, in fact though not in intention (!the Polish Government could not have been ignorant of the assistance it was in fact rendering to Germany) directly into German hands and followed precisely the course which German propaganda was designed to dictate".
Speaking in the House of Commons a few days later, the Foreign Secretary summed up the situation with the words: "Least said, soonest mended". Never has there been such a negation of diplomatic action, as this bland assumption that fundamental differences can be dissolved by ignoring them.
When on May 7, M.Vyshinski, Soviet Deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs, published to the world a detailed statement of espionage activities by Polish diplomats in the U.S.S.R., ostensibly engaged in charitable work among their compatriots, and in addition exposed the duplicity with which the Polish High Command had evaded its military responsibilities on the Soviet front, the Diplomatic Correspondent of The Times described it as regrettable that "a subordinate" should have undone the good impression created by M.Stalin's May Day Order of the Day. Comment of other Diplomatic Correspondents was so similar in character as to suggest that this also was a line suggested from on high.
Certainly Nazi hopes went much further than immediate object of enlisting the support of the Polish Junkers in a joint anti-Soviet campaign. Their
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object was nothing less than to drive a wedge into the Allied coalition, to gain precious time in which to prepare for the spring battles in the East and the West, and to prepare the ground for a "peace offensive" on a world scale.
It was no coincidence that it was on April 16th, the very day that the Polish National Council sent its request to the International Red Cross, that the most definite peace offer yet made by Fascism was put out on its behalf by the Spanish Foreign Minister, Jordana. Speaking in the presence of the Argentine and Chilean Ambassadors, he stated that it was now quite clear that none of the belligerents could win the war, that the "Western and Central Powers" were exhausting themselves, and that every one of them, including the United States, would fall a "prey to Bolshevism" if the struggle were allowed to continue much longer. He concluded by expressing the willingness of the Spanish Government to mediate between belligerents. The timing of this peace proposal to coincide with the Smolensk massacre agitation and the treachery of the Polish Government in London leaves no room for doubt that this was the climax of the sustained Axis "anti-bolshevik campaign", and that the Polish Government in London played a vital part in the attempt made by German Fascism and its supporters throughout the world to split the Allied camp.
It is interesting to note that on April 21st the official Spanish news agency instructed all Spanish newspapers to publish suitable comment on the Smolensk story, "with special reference to the International Red Cross and the Polish Government in London".
Polish Government reply
The great majority of the British and American Press did not hesitate to condemn the action of the Polish Government. "On two simple counts", said the London Evening Standard, "we believe the Polish Government must be held responsible for the breach. First, they had no right to suppose that a German allegation might contain the truth. Second, they had no right to call for an investigation on territory occupied by the enemy". The Times reminded the Poles that they themselves had been victims of similar allegation from the same source: -
"Surprise as well as regret will be felt that those who have had so much cause to understand the perfidy and ingenuity of the Goebbels propaganda machine should have themselves fallen into the trap laid by it. Poles will hardly have forgotten a volume widely circulated in the first winter of the war which described with every appearance of circumstantial avidence, including that of photography, alleged Polish atrocities against the peaceful German inhabitants of Poland; and this gruesome and fantastic fabrication, neither the first nor the last of its kind, might have deterred them from treating at the face value accusations of a similiar character when directed against others... At no moment of the war, and at no moment of history, have the closest confidence and co-operiation between Britain and Russia been more essential than now".
The viewpoint of the trade unionists of Britain was vigorously expressed at the Scottich Trades Union Congress by Mr.James Campbell, a member of the General Council, who said: -
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"I say to the Poles in this country that, if they are going to use their sanctuary here to attack Russia, they will lose the sympathy of the organised working class of Britain, and our answer will be, "You have outstayed your welcome".
Yet the British Press partly disguised the seriousness of the matter by fairly consistently reffering to it as a "dispute between two Governments". The only official comment available in London, even two days after the breach, was that "the Governments of Britain and the United States are endeavouring to alleviate a regrettable situation", and the Washington State Department announced on the same day "without reference to the merits of the matter, and without knowing as yet the full facts, we learn of this development with regret".
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DAILY WORKER 18TH JANUARY 1944
Katyn murders
A special Soviet Commission has been investigating the circumstances of the shooting of the Polish prisoners of war in the Katyn forest near Smolensk. The Commission is completing its work and in the near future will publish a statement on its findings.
This was disclosed yesterday by Moscow radio which said that in connection with the liberation of the Smolensk region and on the decision of the Extraordinary State Commission for the investigation of the crimes of the Germans invaders the special committee was formed.
Among the members of the special Committee are Academician Alexei Tolstoy, famous Soviet novelist, N.W.Burdenko, chief surgeon of the Red Army, and the Metropolitan Nikolas.
The Soviet people are expressing great satisfaction that the Committee will soon report its findings, says the cable from John Gibbon, Daily Worker Special Correspondent in Moscow.
Those who fell head over heels into the trap laid for them by the Nazis will be made to look very foolish, was the comment of the people reading Pravda at a newspaper stand in the Nikitsky Boulevard, Moscow, he reports.
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POLITICAL DISTRIBUTION
FROM MOSCOW TO FOREIGN OFFICE
Mr. Balfour.
No. 219
26th January 1944.
D. 11.10 a.m. 27th January 1944.
R. 4.50 p.m. 27th January 1944.
Z-Z-Z-Z-Z
IMMEDIATE
My immediately preceding telegram. C 1171/8/55
Leading article Pravda January 26th stated Katyn massacre was arranged by Germans, then used by them to cast discredit on Soviet Union. "Freedom-loving peoples all countries rejected with scorn this base German calumny on Soviet nation which has shown to whole world wonders of heroism, manliness and nobility. Only emigrant Polish government was easily caught on hook of Nazi provocateurs and played role of one of Hitler's accomplices. Polish government took active part in hostile anti-Soviet campaign slander organised by German occupation authorities in connexion with "Katyn murders". At time when peoples of the Soviet Union were shedding their blood in bitter warfare against Hitlerite Germany and straining every nerve to defeat common enemy of Russian, Polish peoples and all democratic countries, Polish government dealt treacherous blow at Soviet Union to please Hitlerites. As result of fault of Polish government and its active participation in hostile anti-Soviet campaign of slander conducted by German occupation authorities, diplomatic relations between Soviet government and Polish government were broken off".
Izvestia writes as follows: "In light of incontestable and established facts shameful role assumed by Polish government appears still sharper relief. By its active participation in anti-Soviet campaign of slander conducted by German occupation authorities, it covered the executioners of Polish nation. To please Hitler it dealt treacherous blow at Soviet Union, peoples of which are straining every nerve in bitter warfare against Hitlerite Germany to defeat common enemy of Russian and Polish nations and all freedom-loving democratic countries. By acting in unison with Hitler - worst enemy of Polish people - Polish government has done immense harm to cause of Poland".
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STATEMENT OF THE SPECIAL COMMISSION OF THE USSR
TO ESTABLISH AND INVESTIGATE
THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE SHOOTING BY GERMAN FASCIST
INVADERS OF CAPTIVE POLISH OFFICERS IN THE KATYN
WOODS
By decision of the Extraordinary State Commission for the establishment and investigation of the crimes committed by the German fascist invaders and their accomplices, a Special Commission was formed to establish and investigate the circumstances of the shooting by the German fascist invaders of captive Polish officers in the Katyn Woods (near Smolensk).
The Commission includes: N.N.Burdenko, member of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. and member of the Extraordinary Commission (Chairman of the Commission);
Alexei Tolstoi, member of the Academy of Sciences and member of the Extraordinary State Commission;
Metropolitan Nikolai, member of the Extraordinary State Commission;
Lieutenant General A.S.Gundorov, Chairman of the All-Slav Committee;
S.A.Kolesnikov, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Union of the Red Crescent Societies;
V.P.Potomkin, member of the Academy of Sciences, People's Commissar of Education of the R.S.F.S.R.;
Colonel General E.I.Smirnov, Chief of the Central Medical Service Administration of the Red Army, and
R.E.Molnikov, Chairman of the Smolensk Regional Executive Committee.
In order to fulfil the task which had been assigned to it, the commission appointed the following experts in forensic medicine to participate in its work:
V.I.Prozorovski, Chief Expert in Forensic Medicine of the People's Commissariat for Health of the U.S.S.R. and Director of the Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Medicine;
V.M.Smolyaninov, Med. Dr., Professor of Forensic Medicine of the Second Moscow Medical Institute;
P.S.Semyonovski, Senior Scientific Worker of the State Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Medicine of the People's Commissariat for Health of the U.S.S.R.;
Dotsent M.D.Shvaikova, Senior Scientific Worker of the State Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Medicine of the People's Commissariat for Health of the U.S.S.R., and
Professor D.M.Vyropaev, Chief Front Pathologist, Major of the Medical Service.
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The Special Commission had at its disposal voluminous data submitted by N.N.Burdenko, member of the Extraordinary State Commission, his colleagues and medico-legal experts who arrived in the city of Smolensk on September 26th, 1943, immediately after its liberation and made a preliminary study and investigation of the circumstances of all the crimes committed by the Germans.
The Special Commission verified and established on the spot that 15 kilometres from the city of Smolensk, on the Vitebsk highway, in the region of Katyn Woods, on what is known as the Goat Hills, 200 metres southwest of the main road in the direction of the Dnieper, there were graves in which were buried Polish war prisoners shot by the German occupationists.
On the order of the Special Commission and in the presence of all its members and the medico-legal experts, the graves were excavated. A large number of bodies clad in Polish military uniforms were found in the graves. The total number of bodies, as calculated by the medico-legal experts, reaches 11.000. The medico-legal experts made detailed examinations of the exhumed bodies and of documents and material evidence discovered on the bodies and in the graves. Simultaneously with the excavation of the graves and examination of the bodies, the Special Commission examined numerous witnesses amongst local residents whose testimony established with precision the time and circumstances of the crimes committed by the German occupationists.
The testimony of witnesses reveals the following:
The Katyn Forest
The Katyn Forest has been for long the favourite resort of the Smolensk people where they used to rest on holidays. The population of the neighbourhood grazed cattle and gathered fuel in the Katyn Forest. Access to the Katyn Forest was not banned nor restricted in any manner. This situation prevailed in the Katyn Forest up to the outbreak of war. Even in the summer of 1941 there was a Young Pioners' Camp of the Industrial Insurance Board in this forest, and it was not liquidated until July, 1941.
An entirely different regime was instituted in the Katyn Forest after the capture of Smolensk by the Germans. The forest was heavily patrolled. Notices appeared in many places warning that persons entering the forest without special passes would be shot on the spot. The part of the Katyn forest, named "Kozy Gory" was guarded particularly strictly, as was the area on the bank of the Dnieper where, 700 metres from the graves of Polish war prisoners there had been a country house - the rest home of the Smolensk Administration of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs. When the Germans arrived this country house was taken over by a German institution with the name "Headquarters of the 537th Building Battalion".
The Polish War Prisoners In The Smolensk Area
The Special Commission established that, before the capture of Smolensk by Germans, Polish officers and men war prisoners worked in the western
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district of the Region building and repairing roads. These war prisoners were quartered in three special camps named: Camp No. 1 O.N., Camp No.2 O.N., and Camp No.3 O.N. These camps were located 25-45 kilometres west of Smolensk.
The testimony of witnesses and documentary evidence establish that after the outbreak of hostilities, in view of the situation that arose, the camps could not be evacuated in time and all the Polish war prisoners, as well as part of the guards and staffs of the camps, fell prisoner to the Germans. The former Chief of Camp No.l O.N., Major of the State Security, Votoshnikov, interrogated by the Special Commission, testified: "I was waiting for the order on the liquidation of the camp, but communication with Smolensk was cut. Then I myself with several staff members went to Smolensk to clarify the situation. In Smolensk I found a tense situation. I applied to the chief of traffic of the Smolensk section of the Western Railway, Ivanov, asking him to provide the camp with railway cars for evacuation of the Polish war prisoners. But Ivanov answered that I could not count on receiving cars. I also tried to get in touch with Moscow to obtain permission to set out on foot but I failed in this. By that time Smolensk was already cut off from the camp by Germans and I do not know what happened to the Polish war prisoners and guards who remained in the camp".
Engineer Ivanov, who in July 1941 was acting Chief of Traffic of the Smolensk Section of the Western Railway, testified before the Special Commission: "The Administration of Polish War Prisoners Camps applied to my office for cars for evacuation of the Poles, but we had none to spare. Besides, we could not send cars to the Gussino where the majority of the Polish war prisoners were, since that line was already under fire. Therefore we could not comply with the request of the Camps Administration. Thus the Polish war prisoners remained in the Smolensk Region".
The presence of the Polish war prisoners in the camps in the Smolensk Region is confirmed by the testimony of numerous witnesses who saw these Poles near Smolensk in the early months of the occupation up to September 1941 inclusive.
Witness Maria Alexandrovna Sashneva, elementary school teacher in the village of Zenkovo, told the Special Commission that in August 1941 she gave shelter in her house in Zenkovo to a Polish war prisoner who had escaped from camp.
The Pole wore Polish military uniform which I recognised at once as during 1940 and 1941 I used to see groups of Polish war prisoners working on the road under guard... I took an interest in the Pole because it transpired that, before being called up, he had been an elementary school teacher in Poland. He told me that he had completed normal school in Poland and then studied at some military school and was a Junior Lieutenant of the Reserve. At the outbreak of war between Poland and Germany he was called up and served in Brest-Litovsk where he was taken prisoner by Red Army units... He spent over a year in the camp near Smolensk. When the Germans arrived they seized the Polish camp and instituted a strict regime in it. The Germans did not regard the Poles as human beings. They oppressed and outraged them in every way. On some occasions Poles were shot without any reasons at all.
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He decided to escape. Speaking of himself, he said that his wife, too, was a teacher and that he had two brothers and two sisters..."
On leaving next day the Pole gave his name which Sashneva put down in a book. In this book - "Practical Studies in Natural History" by Yagodovsky, which Sashneva handed to the Special Commission, there is a note on the last page:"Juzeph and Sofia Lock. House 25, Ogorodnaya St., town Zamostye". In the list published by the Germans under No.3796 Lt.Juzeph Lock is put down as having been shot at "Kozy Gory" in the Katyn Forest in the spring of 1940. Thus from the German report, it would appear that Juzeph Lock had been shot one year before the witness Sashneva saw him.
The witness Danilenkov, a peasant of the collective farm "Krasnaya Zarya" of the Katyn Rural Soviet, stated: "In August and September 1941 when the Germans arrived I used to meet Poles working on the roads in groups of 15-20".
The NKVD dacha in the Katyn wood.
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Similar statements were made by witnesses: Soldatenkov, former headman of the village of Borok; Kolachev, a Smolensk doctor; Oglobin, a priest; Sergeyev, track foreman; Smiryagin, engineer; Moskovskaya, resident of Smolensk; Alexeyev, chairman of a collective farm in the village of Borok; Kutsov, waterworks technician; Gorodetsky, a priest; Bazekina, a bookkeeper; Vetrova, a teacher; Savateyev, station master at the Gnezdovo station, and others.
Round-ups of Polish War Prisoners
The presence of Polish war prisoners in the autumn of 1941 in Smolensk districts is also confirmed by the fact that the Germans made numerous round-ups of these war prisoners who had escaped from the camps.
Witness Kartoshkin, a carpenter, testified: "In the autumn of 1941 the Germans not only searched for Polish war prisoners in the forests but also used police to effect night searches in the villages".
Zakharov, former headman of the village of Novye Bateki, testified that in the autumn of 1941 the Germans intensely "combed" the villages and forests in the search for Polish war prisoners. Witness Danilenkov, a peasant of the collective farm Krasnaya Zarya, testified: "special round ups were effected in our place to apprehend Polish war prisoners who escaped. Such searches took place in my house two or three times. After one such search I asked the headman Konstantin Sergeyev whom they were looking for in our village. Sergeyev said that an order had been received from the German Kommandantur according to which searches were to be made in all houses without exception, since Polish war prisoners who had escaped from the camp were hiding in our village. After some time the searches were discontinued".
The witness collective farmer Fantkov testified: "Round-ups in searches for Polish war prisoners were effected several times. That was in August and September, 1941. After September, 1941, such round-ups were discontinued and no one saw Polish war prisoners any more".
Shootings of Polish War Prisoners
The above-mentioned "Headquarters of the 537th Building Battalion" quartered in the country house at "Kozy Gory" did not engage in any building work. Its activities formed a closely guarded secret. What this "headquarters" engaged in, in reality, was revealed by numerous witnesses including Alexeyeva, Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya, residents of the village of Borok of the Katyn Rural Soviet. On the order of the German Kommandant of the Settlement of Katyn, they were detailed by the headman of the village of Borok, Soldatenkov, to serve the personnel of "headquarters" of the above-mentioned country house. On arrival in "Kozy Gory" they were told through an interpreter about a number of restrictions: They were absolutely forbidden to go far from the country house or to go to the forest, to enter rooms without being called and without being escorted by German soldiers, to remain in the grounds of the country house at night. They were allowed to come to work and leave after work only by a definite route and only escorted by soldiers. This warning was given to Alexeyeva, Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya, through an interpreter, personally by the Chief of the German Institution, Lt. Col. Arnes, who for this purpose summoned them one at the time.
As to the personnel of the "headquarters", Alexeyeva testified: "In the Kozy Gory" country house there were constantly about thirty Germans. Their chief was Lt-Col. Arnes and his aide was Lt.Rekst. Here were also a Lt.Hott, Sergeant Major Lumert, N.C.O. in charge of supplies Rose, his assistant
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Isikes, Sergeant Major Gronowski, who was in charge of the power station the photographer - a corporal whose name I do not remember, the interpreter, a Volga German whose name seems to have been Johann but I called him Ivan, the cook, a German named Gustav, and a number of others whose names and surnames I do not know".
Soon after beginning their work Alexeyeva, Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya began to notice that "some shady doings" were going on at the country house.
Alexeyeva testified: "The interpreter warned us several times on behalf of Arnes to "hold our tongues" and not to chatter about what we saw and heard at the country house. Besides, I guessed from a number of indications that the Germans were engaged in some shady doings at this country house... At the close of August 1941 several trucks used to come practically every day to the "Kozy Gory" country house. At first I paid no attention to that but later I noticed that each time these trucks arrived at the grounds of the country house they stopped for half an hour and sometimes for a whole hour somewhere on the country road connecting the country house with the highway. 1 drew this conclusion because some time after these trucks reached the grounds of the country house the noise they made would cease. Simultaneously with the noise stopping, single shots would be heard. The shots followed one another at short but approximately even intervals. Then the shooting would die down and the trucks would drive up right to the country house. German soldiers and N.C.O.'s came out of the trucks. Talking noisily they went to wash in the bathhouse, after which they engaged in drunken orgies. On these days a fire was always kept burning in the bathhouse stove. On days when the trucks arrived more soldiers from some German military units used to arrive at the country house. Special beds were put up for them in the soldiers' Casino set up in one of the halls of the country house. On these days many meals were cooked in the kitchen and a double ration of drinks was served with the meals... Shortly before the trucks reached the country house, armed soldiers went to the forest, evidently to the spot where the trucks stopped, because in half an hour or an hour they returned in these trucks together with the soldiers who lived permanently in the country house. Probably I would not have watched or noticed how the noise of the trucks coming to the country house used to die down and then rise again, were it not for the fact that whenever the trucks arrived we (Konakhovskaya, Mikhailova and myself) were driven to the kitchen if we were at the time in the courtyard near the house, and that they would not let us out of the kitchen if we happened to be in it. There was also the fact that on several occasions I noticed stains of fresh blood on the clothes of two Lance Corporals. All this made me pay close attention to what was going on at the country house. Then I noticed strange intervals in the movement of the trucks and their stop-overs in the forest. I also noticed that blood stains appeared on the clothes of the same two men - the Lance Corporals. One of them was tall and red headed, the other of medium height and fair. From all this I inferred that the Germans brought people in the trucks to the country house and shot them. I even guessed approximately where this took place as, when coming to and leaving the country house, I noticed freshly-thrown up earth in several places near
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the road. In the course of time the earth in those spots began to look normal.
In answer to the question of the Special Commission - what kind of people were shot in the forest near the country house - Alexeyeva replied that they were Polish war prisoners, and in confirmation of her words, stated the following:
"There were days when no trucks arrived at the country house but nevertheless soldiers left the house for the forest whence came frequent single shots. On returning the soldiers always took a bath and then drank. Another thing happened. Once I stayed at the country house somewhat later that usual. Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya had already left. Before 1 finished the work which had kept me there, a soldier suddenly entered and told me I could go. He reffered to Rose's order. He also accompanied me to the highway. Standing on the highway 150 or 200 metres from where the road branches off to the country house I saw a group of about 30 Polish War Prisoners marching along the highway under heavy German escort. I know them to be Poles because even before the war, and for some time after Germans came, I used to meet on the highway Polish War Prisoners wearing the same uniform with their characteristic four cornered hats. I halted near the roadside to see where they were being led, and I saw they turned towards our country house at "Kozy Gory". Since by that time I had begun to watch closely everything going on at the country house I became interested in this. I went back some distance along the highway, hid in bushes near the roadside, and waited. In some 20 or 30 minutes I heard the familiar and characteristic single shots. Then everything became clear to me and I hurried home. From this fact I also concluded that evidently the Germans were shooting Poles not only in the daytime when we worked at the country house but also at night in our absence. I understood this also from recalling the occasions when all officers and men who lived in the country house, with the exception of the sentries, woke up late, about noon. On several occasions we guessed about the arrival of the Poles in "Kozy Gory" from the tense atmosphere that descended on the country house... All the officers left the country house and only a few sentries remained in it, while Sergeant Major kept checking up on the sentries over telephone..."
Mikhailova testified:
In September 1941 shooting was heard very often in the "Kozy Gory" Forest. At first I took no notice of the trucks, which were closed on the sides and on top and painted green, and which used to drive up to our country house always accompanied by N.C.O.'s. Then I noticed that these trucks never entered our garage, and also never unloaded. These trucks used to come very often, especially in September, 1941. Among the N.C.O.'s who always sat with the drivers I began to notice one tall one with a pale face and red hair. When those trucks drove up to the country house, all the Germans, as if at a command, went to the bathhouse and bathed for a long time, after which they drank heavily in the country house. Once this tall red headed German alighted from the truck, went to the kitchen and asked for water. When he was drinking the water out of a glass I noticed blood on the cuff of the right sleeve of his uniform".
Once Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya witnessed the shooting of two Polish
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war prisoners who had evidently escaped from the Germans and been caught. Mikhailova testified in this connection: "Once Konakhovskaya and I were at our usual work in the kitchen, when we heard a noise near the country house. On coming out we saw two Polish war prisoners surrounded by German soldiers who were explaining something to N.C.O. Rose. The Lt.-Col. Arnes came came over to them and told Rose something. We hid some distance away as we were afraid that for this display of curiosity Rose would beat us.
Nevertheless we were discovered, and on a signal from Rose the mechanic Glinowski drove us into the kitchen and the Poles away from the country house. A few minutes later we heard shots. The German soldiers and N.C.O. Rose, who soon returned, were engaged in animated conversation. Desiring to find out what the Germans had done to the detained Poles, Konakhovskaya and I again came out. Arnes aide, who came out simultaneously with us from the main entrance of the country house, asked Rose something in German to which the latter answered, also in German, "everything is in order". We understood these words because the German often used them in their conversations. From all that took place I concluded that those two Poles were shot".
Similar testimony on this point was also given by Konakhovskaya. Frightened by the happenings at the country house, Alexeyeva, Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya decided to quit work there on some convenient pretext. Taking advantage of the reduction of their "wages" from nine to three marks a month at the beginning of January 1942, on Mikhailova's suggestion they did not report for work. In the evening of the same day a car came to fetch them, they were brought to the country house and incarcerated by way of punishment - Mikhailova for eight days and Alexeyeva and Konakhovskaya for three days each. After they had served their terms all of them were released.
During their work at the country house Alexeyeva, Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya had been afraid to speak to each other about what they had observed of the happenings there. But during their arrest, sitting in the cell at night, they shared their knowledge.
At the interrogation on December 24, 1943, Mikhailova testified: "Here for the first time we talked frankly about the happenings at the country house. I told all I knew but it transpired that Konakhovskaya and Alexeyeva also knew these facts but, like myself, were afraid to discuss them. Here I learned that it was Polish war prisoners the Germans used to shoot at "Kozy Gory". Alexeyeva related that once in the autumn of 1941, when she was returning home after work, she saw the Germans driving a large group of Polish war prisoners into "Kozy Gory" forest and then she heard shooting in that place".
Similar testimony on this point was given by Alexeyeva and Konakhovskaya. On comparing notes Alexeyeva, Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya arrived at the firm conviction that in August and September, 1941, Germans engaged in mass shooting of Polish war prisoners at the country house in "Kozy Gory".
The testimony of Alexeyeva is confirmed by the testimony of her father, Mikhail Alexeyev, whom she told as far back as in the autumn of 1941, during her work at the country house, about her observations of the Germans'
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activities at the country house. "For a long time she would not tell me anything", Mikhail Alexeyev testified, "only on coming home she complained that she was afraid to work at the country house and did not know how to get away from there. When I asked her why she was afraid she said that very often shooting was heard in the forest. Once on coming home she told me in secret that in "Kozy Gory" forest the Germans were shooting Poles. I listened to my daughter and very strictly warned, her that she should not tell anyone else about it as otherwise the Germans would learn and then our whole family would suffer".
General view of Katyn wood.
That Polish war prisoners used to be brought to "Kozy Gory" in small groups of 20 to 30 men escorted by five to seven German soldiers, was also testified by other witnesses interrogated by the Special Commission: Kisselev, peasant of "Kozy Gory" hamlet; Krivozertsev, carpenter of Krasnyi Bor station in the Katyn Forest; Ivanov, former station master at Gniezdovo in the Katyn Forest area; Savateyev, station master on duty at the same station; Alexeyev, chairman of a collective farm in the village of Borok; Ogloblin, priest of Kuprino Church, and others. These witnesses also heard shots in the forest at "Kozy Gory".
Of a specially great importance for ascertaining what took place at "Kozy Gory" country house in the autumn of 1941 is the testimony of Professor of Astronomy Bazilevsky, director of the Smolensk Observatory. In the early days of the occupation of Smolensk by the Germans, Professor Bazilevsky was forcibly appointed by them assistant Burgomaster, while to the post of Burgomaster they appointed the lawyer Menshagin who subsequently left together with them, a traitor who enjoyed the special confidence of the German Command and in particular of the Smolensk Kommandant Von Schwetz.
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Early in September 1941 Bazilevsky addressed to Menshagin a request to solicit the Kommandantd Von Schwetz for the liberation of the teacher Zhiglinsky from War Prisoners' Camp No. 126. In compliance with this request Menshagin approached Von Schwetz and then informed Bazilevsky that his request could not be granted since, according to Von Schwetz, instructions had been received from Berlin prescribing that the strictest regime be maintained in regard to war prisoners without any slackening".
"I voluntarily retorted", witness Bazilevsky testified, "What could be stricter than the regime existing in the camp?" Menshagin looked at me in a strange way and bending to my ear, answered in a low voice: "Yes, there can be. The Russians can at least be left to die off, but as to the Polish war prisoners the orders say that they are to be simply exterminated". "How is that? How should it be understood?" I exclaimed. "This should be understood literally. There is such a directive from Berlin", answered Menshagin and directly asked me "for the sake of all that is Holy" not to tell anyone about this ...
About a fortnight after the above conversation with Menshagin, when I was again received by him, I could not keep myself from asking: What news about the Poles? Menshagin hesitated awhile but then answered nevertheless: "Everything is over with them. Von Schwetz told me that they had been shot somewhere near Smolensk". Seeing my bewilderment Menshagin warned me about the necessity of keeping this affair in the strictest secrecy and then started "explaining" to me the Germans' policy in this matter. He told me that the shooting of Poles is one link in the general chain of anti-Polish policy pursued by Germany which became especially marked in connection with the conclusion of the Russo-Polish Treaty".
Bazilovsky also told the Special Commission about his conversation with the Sonderfuehrer of the 7th Department of the German Kommandant's Office, Hirschfeld, a Baltic German who spoke good Russian:
"With the cynical frankness Hirschfeld told me that the harmfulness and inferiority of the Poles have been proved by history and thereafter reduction of Poland's population would fertilise the soil and make possible an extension of Germany's living space. In this connection Hirschfeld told me boastfully that absolutely no intellectuals have been left in Poland as they had been hanged, shot or confined in camps".
Bazilovsky's testimony is confirmed by the witness Yefimov, Professor of Physics, who has been interrogated by the Special Commission and whom Bazilovsky at that time, in the autumn of 1941, told about his conversation with Menshagin.
Documentary corroboration of Bazilovsky's and Yefimov's testimony is supplied by notes made by Menshagin in his own hand in his notebook. This notebook, containing 17 incomplete pages, was found in the files of the Smolensk Municipal Board after the liberation of Smolensk by the Red Army. Menshagin's ownership of the notebook and his handwriting have been confirmed both by Bazilevsky, who knew Menshagin's hand well and by expert graphologists. Judging by the dates in the notebook, its contents relate to the period from early August 1941 to November of the same year. Among the various notes on economic matters (on firewood, electric power, trade etc.)
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there is a number of notes made by Menshagin evidently as a reminder of instructions of the German Kommandant's Office in Smolensk. These notes reveal with sufficient clarity the range of problems with which the Municipal Board dealt as the organ that fulfilled all the instructions of the German command.
The first three pages of the notebook lay down in detail the procedure of the organisation of the Jewish "Ghetto" and the system of reprisals to be applied against the Jews.
Page 10, dated August 15th, 1941, contains the following note:
"A11 fugitive Polish war prisoners are to be detained and delivered to the Kommandant's Office". Page 5 (undated) contains the entry: "Are there any rumours among the population concerning the shooting of Polish war prisoners in Koz.Gor.(for Umnov)".
It transpires from the first entry, firstly, that on August 15th, 1941, Polish war prisoners were still in the Smolensk area and, secondly, that they were being arrested by the German authorities. The second entry indicates that the German Command, worried by the possibility of rumours about the crime it had committed becoming known among the civilian population, issued special instructions for checking this surmise. Umnov, mentioned in this entry, was the Chief of the Russian Police in Smolensk during the early months of its occupation.
BEGINNING OF GERMAN PROVOCATION
MOSCOW, Jan. 26th, 1944. (TASS) - In the winter of 1942-43 the general military situation sharply changed to the disadvantage of the Germans. The military power of the Soviet Union was continually growing stronger. The unity between the U.S.S.R. and her Allies was growing stronger. The Germans resolved to launch a provocation, using for this purpose the crimes they had committed in the Katyn Forest, and to ascribe them to the organs of the Soviet authorities. In this way they intended to set the Russians and Poles at loggerheads and to cover up the traces of their own crimes. The Priest Ogloblin of the village Kuprino of the Smolensk district, stated:
"After the events at Stalingrad, when the Germans began to feel uncertain, they launched this business. The people started to say that "the Germans are trying to mend their affairs". Having embarked on the preparation of the Katyn provocation, the Germans first set about looking for "witnesses" who would under the influence or persuasion, bribes, or threats give the testimony which the Germans needed. The attention of the Germans was attracted to the peasant Parfon Gavrilich Kisselov, born in 1870, of the hamlet nearest to the house in Kozy Gory".
Kisselov was summoned to the Gestapo already at the close of 1942, and under thread of reprisals they demanded of him fictitious testimony to the effect that he allegedly knew that in the spring of 1940 the Bolsheviks shot Polish war prisoners at the country house of the administration of the People's Commisariat for Internal Affairs in Kozy Gory.
Kisselov stated on this point that: "In the autumn of 1942 two policemen came to my house and ordered me to report to the Gestapo at Gnezdovo
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station. On that same day I went to the Gestapo, which had its premises in a two-storyed house next to the railway station. In a room which I entered there were a German officer and interpreter. The German officer started asking me through the interpreter how long I had lived in that district, what my occupation and my material circumstances were. I told him that I had lived in the hamlet in the area of Kozy Gory since 1907 and worked on my farm. As to my material circumstances, I said that I experienced some difficulties since I was old and my sons were at war.
After a brief conversation on this subject, the officer stated that according to information at the disposal of the Gestapo, in 1940 in the area of Kozy Gory and in the Katyn Forest staff members of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs shot Polish officers, and he asked me what testimony I could give on this score. I answered that in general I never heard of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs shooting people at Kozy Gory, and that this was hardly possible at all, I explained to the officer, since Kozy Gory is an absolutely open and much frequented place and had shootings been effected there the entire population of the neighbouring villages would have known.
The officer told me that I must nevertheless give such evidence, because it allegedly did take place. I was promised a big reward for this testimony. I again told the officer that I did not know anything about shootings, and that generally nothing of that sort could have taken place in our locality before the war. Despite this, the officer obstinately insisted on my giving false evidence.
After the first conversation about which I have already spoken, I was summoned again to the Gestapo only in February 1943. By that time I already knew that other residents of neighbouring villages has also been summoned to the Gestapo and that the same testimony they demanded of me was also demanded of them.
At the Gestapo the same officer and interpreter who interrogated me the first time again demanded of me evidence that I was witness of the shooting of Polish officers, allegedly effected by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs in 1940. I again told the Gestapo officer that this was a lie, as before the war I had not heard anything about any shootings, and that I would not give false evidence. The interpreter however would not listen to me, took a handwritten document from the desk and read it to me. It said that I, Kisselov, resident of a hamlet in the Kozy Gory area personally witnessed the shooting of Polish officers by staff members of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs in 1940.
Having read this document, the interpreter told me to sign it. I refused to do so. The interpreter began to force me to do it by abuse and threats. Finally he stated: "Either you sign it at once or we shall destroy you. Make your choice!"
Frightened by these threats, I signed the document and thought matters would end at that".
Subsequently, after the Germans had arranged visits to Katyn graves by various delegations", Kisselev was made to speak before a "Polish delegation" which arrived there. Kisselev forgot the contents of the protocol he had
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signed at the Gestapo, became mixed up and finally refused to speak. The Gestapo then arrested Kisselev, and ruthless beatings in the course of six weeks again obtained his consent to "public speeches".
In this connection Kisselev stated: "In reality things went quite a different way. In spring 1943 the Germans announced that in the Kozy Gory area and in Katyn Forest they had discovered the graves of Polish officers allegedly shot in 1940 by organs of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs. Soon after that, the Gestapo interpreter came to my house and took me to the forest in the Kozy Gory area.
When we left the house and remained alone, the interpreter warned me that I must tell the people present in the forest everything exactly as was written down in the document which I signed at the Gestapo.
When I came into the forest I saw opened graves and a group of strangers. The interpreter told me that these were "Polish delegates" who had arrived for inspection of the graves. When we approached the graves the "delegates" started asking me various questions in Russian in connection with the shooting of Poles, but as more than one month had passed since I had been summoned to the Gestapo I forgot everything that was in the document I had signed, became mixed up and finally said that I did not know anything about the shootings of the Polish officers.
The German officer got very angry, while the interpreter roughly dragged me away from the "delegation" and chased me away. Next morning, a car with a Gestapo officer drove up to my house. He found me in the yard, told me that I was arrested, put me into the car and took me to Smolensk Prison
After arrest I was summoned to interrogations many times, but they beat me no more than they questioned me. The first time they summoned me they beat me up heavily and abused me, stating that I had let them down, and then sent me back to the cell. During the next summons they told me that I must state publicly that I had witnessed the shooting of the Polish officers by the Bolsheviks and that until the Gestapo was satisfied I would do this in good faith I would not be released from prison. I told the officer that I would rather sit in prison that tell people lies in their faces. After that I was badly beaten up.
There were several such interrogations accompanied by beatings, and as a result I lost all my strength, my hearing became poor and I could not move my right arm. About one month after my arrest a German officer summoned me and said: "You see the consequences of your obstinacy, Kisselev. We have decided to execute you. In the morning we shall take you to Katyn Forest and hang you". I asked the officer not to do this, and started pleading with him that I was not fit for the part of "eye-witness" of the shooting as generally I did not know how to tell lies and therefore I would mix something up again.
The officer continued to insist. Several minutes later soldiers came into the room and started beating me with rubber clubs. Being unable to stand the beatings and torture, I agreed to appear publicly with a fallacious tale about shooting of Poles by Bolsheviks. After that I was released from prison on condition that on the first demand of the Germans I would speak before "delegations" in Katyn Forest...
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On every occasion, before leading me to the graves in the forest the interpreter used to come to my house, call me out into the yard, take me aside to make sure that no one would hear, and for half an hour make me memorise by heart everything I would have to say about the alleged shooting of Polish officers by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs in 1940. I recall that the interpreter told me something like the following: "I live in a cottage in Kozy Gory area not far from the country house of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs. In spring 1940 I saw Poles taken on various nights to the forest and shot there". And then it was imperative that I must state literally that "this was the doing of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs". After I had memorised what the interpreter told me, he would take me to the open graves in the forest and compel me to repeat all this in the presence of "delegations" which came there.
My statements were strictly supervised and directed by the Gestapo interpreter. Once when I spoke before some "delegation" I was asked the question: "Did I see those Poles personally before they were shot by the Bolsheviks?" I was not prepared for such a question and answered the way it was in fact, i.e., that I saw Polish war prisoners before the war as they worked on the roads. Then the interpreter dragged me aside and drove me home.
Please believe me that all the time I felt pangs of conscience, as I know that in reality the Polish officers were shot by the Germans in 1941. I had no other recource as I was constantly threatened with the repetition of my arrest and tortures".
Kisselev's testimony concerning his summons to the Gestapo, subsequent arrest and beatings are confirmed by his wife Aksinya Kisseleva, born 1870, his son Vassily Kisselev, born 1911, and his daughter-in-law Mariya Kisseleva born 1918, who live with him, as well as by track foreman Timofey Sergeyev, born 1901 who rents a room in Kisselev's hamlet. The injuries caused to Kisselev at the Gestapo (injury of shoulder, considerable impartment of hearing) are confirmed by a protocol of medical examination.
In their search for "witnesses" the Germans subsequently became interested in workers of the railway station Gnezdovo, two and a half kilometres from "Kozy Gory". It was this station at which the Polish war prisoners arrived in spring 1940, and the Germans evidently wanted to obtain corresponding testimony from the railway men. For this purpose in spring 1943 the Germans summoned to the Gestapo the ex-station master of Gnezdovo station Ivanov, the station master on duty Savvateyev and others.
Ivanov, born in 1882, stated the following on the circumstances in which he was summoned to the Gestapo: "that was in March 1943. I was interrogated by a German officer in the presence of an interpreter. Having asked me through the interpreter who I was and what post I held at Gnezdovo station before the occupation of the district by the Germans, the officer enquired whether I know that in spring 1940 large parties of captured Polish officers arrived at Gnezdovo station in several trains. I said that I knew about this. The officer then asked me whether I knew that in the same spring of 1940, soon after the arrival of the Polish officers, the Bolsheviks shot them all in Katyn Forest. I answered that I did not know anything about that, and that this could not be as in the course of 1940-1941 up to the occupation of
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Smolensk by the Germans I had met captured Polish officers who had arrived in spring 1940 at Gnezdovo station, and who were engaged in road construction work.
The officer told me that if a German officer said the Poles were shot by the Bolsheviks, it meant that this was the fact. "Therefore", the officer continued, "you need not fear anything and you can sign with a clear conscience a protocol saying that the prisoned Polish officers were shot by the Bolsheviks and that you witnessed it".
I replied to him that I was already an old man, that I was 61 years old and did not want to commit a sin in my old age. I could only testify that the prisoned Poles really arrived at the station of Gnezdovo in spring 1940. The German officer began to persuade me to give the required testimony, promising that if 1 agreed he would promote me from the position of watchman on a railway crossing to that of station master of Gnezdovo station which I held under the Soviet Government, and also to provide for my material needs.
The interpreter emphasized that my testimony as a former railway official at Gnezdovo station situated closest to Katyn Forest was extremely important for the German Command, and that I would not regret it if I gave such testimony. I understood that I had landed in an extremely difficult situation, and that a sad fate awaited me. Nevertheless, I again refused to give false testimony to the German officer. The officer started shouting at me, threatened me with beating and shooting and said that I did not understand what was good for me. However, I firmly stood my ground. The interpreter then drew up a short protocol in German on one page, and gave a free translation of its contents. This protocol recorded, as the interpreter told me, only the fact of the arrival of the Polish war prisoners at Gnezdovo station. When I asked that my testimony be recorded not only in German but also in Russian, the officer finally went beside himself with fury, beat me up with a rubber club and drove out of the premises ..."
Savvateyev, born in 1880, testified: "In the Gestapo I testified that in spring 1940 Polish war prisoners did arrive at the station of Gnezdovo in several trains and proceeded farther in trucks, and I did not know where they went. I also added that I repeatedly met those Poles later on the Moscow-Minsk highway, where they were working on repairs in small groups. The officer told me that I was mixing things up, that I could not have met the Poles on the highway as they had been shot by the Bolsheviks, and demanded that I testify to this.
I refused. After threatening and cajoling me for a long time, the officer consulted about something with the interpreter in German, and then the interpreter wrote a short protocol and gave it to me to sign. He explained that this was a record of my testimony. I asked the interpreter to let me read the protocol myself, but he interrupted me with abuse and ordered me to sign it immediately and get out. I hesitated a minute, the interpreter seized a rubber club hanging on the wall and made to strike me. After that I signed the protocol shoved to me. The interpreter told me to get out and go home, and not to talk to anyone or I would beshot..."
The search for "witnesses" was not limited to the above mentioned persons. The Germans persistently strove to locate former employees of the People's
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Commissariat for Internal Affairs and extort from them the false testimony which the Germans needed. Having arrested by chance Ignatyuk, former labourer in the garage of the Smolensk Regional Administration of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the Germans stubbornly by threats and beatings tried to extort from him testimony that he had been a car driver and not a mere labourer in the garage, and has himself driven Polish war prisoners to the shooting site.
In this connection Ignatyuk, born in 1903, testified: "When I was examined for the first time by the Chief of Police Alferchik, he accused me of agitating against the German authorities, and asked what work I did for the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs. I replied that I worked in the garage of the Smolensk Regional Administration of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs as a labourer. At this examination Alferchik tried to get me to testify that I worked as a car driver and not as a labourer in the garage of the Regional Administration of the People's Commissariat for the Internal Affairs. Failing to obtain the required testimony from me, Alferchik was greatly irritated and he and his aide, whom he called George, tied up my head and mouth with some rag, removed my trousers, laid me on a table and began to beat me with rubber clubs.
After that I was again summoned for examination, and Alferchik demanded that I give him false testimony to the effect that the Polish Officers were shot in Katyn Forest by organs of the People's Commisarriat for Internal Affairs in 1940, of which I allegedly was aware as a chauffer who took part in driving the Polish officers to Katyn Forest and who was present at their shooting. If I would agree to give such testimony, Alferchik promised to liberate me from prison and get me a job with the police where I would be given good living conditions - otherwise they would shoot me...
The last time I was interrogated in the police station by Examiner Alexandrov, who demanded from me the same false testimony about the shooting of the Polish officers as Alferchik, but at this examination too I refused to give false evidence. After this examination I was again beaten up and sent to the Gestapo ... In the Gestapo, just as in the police station, they demanded from me false evidence about the shooting of the Polish officers in Katyn Forest in 1940 by Soviet authorities of which I as car driver was allegedly aware".
A book published by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and containing materials about the "Katyn affair" fabricated by the Germans, refers besides the above mentioned Kisselev also "witnesses" Godosov (alias Godunov) born in 1877, Grigori Silvestrov born in 1891, Ivan Andreyev born in 1917, Mikhail Zhigulev born in 1915, Ivan Krivozertsev born in 1915 and Matvey Zakharov born in 1893.
A check up revealed that the first two of the above persons (Godesov and Silverstov) died in 1943 before the liberation of the Smolensk Region by the Red Army; the next three (Andreyev, Zhigulev and Krivozertsev) left with the Germans or perhaps were forcibly abducted by them, while the last -Matvey Zakharov - a former coupler at Smolensk Station who worked under the Germans as headman in the village Novye Batoki - was located and examined by the Special Commission.
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Zakharov related how the Germans obtain from him false testimony about the "Katyn Affair" which they needed: "early in March 1943", Zakharov testified, "an employee of the Gnezdovo Gestapo whose name I dot no know came to my house and told me that an officer was summoning me. When I arrived in the Gestapo a German officer told me through an interpreter: "We know that you worked as coupler at Smolensk Central Station and you must testify that in 1940 cars with Polish war prisoners passed Smolensk to the station of Gnezdovo, after which the Poles were shot in the forest at Kozy Gory". In reply I stated that in 1940 cars with Poles did pass Smolensk westwards but I did not know what their station of destination was...
The officer told me that if I did not want to testify of my own accord he would force me to do so under coercion. After these words he took a rubber club and began to beat me up. Then I was laid on a bench and the officer, together with the interpreter, beat me. I do not remember how many strokes were given me as I soon fainted.
When I came to, the officer demanded that I sign a protocol of the examination. I lost courage as a result of the beating and threats of shooting, gave false evidence and signed the protocol. After I signed the protocol I was released from the Gestapo...
Several days after I had been summoned to the Gestapo, approximately in mid March 1943, the interpreter came to my house and said that I must go to the German general and confirm my testimony there. When we came to the general he asked me whether I confirmed my testimony, I said that I did confirm it as on the way I was warned by the interpreter that if I refused to confirm the testimony, I would have a much worse experience than that of my first visit to the Gestapo.
Fearing a repetition of the torture, I replied that 1 confirmed my testimony. Then the interpreter ordered me to raise my right hand, and told me that I had taken an oath and could go home".
It has been established that the Germans used persuasion, threats and tortures in trying to obtain the testimony they needed from other persons as well, for example from the former Deputy Chief of the Smolensk Prison Kaverznev, from the former staff member of the same prison Kovalev, and others. Inasmuch as the search for witnesses failed to yield any success, a number of Germans posted up in Smolensk city and neighbouring villages the following handbills, a copy of which is on the files of the Special Commission.
"Address to the population. Who can give information concerning the massacre of prisoners, Polish officers and priests by the Bolsheviks in the forest of Kozy Gory near the Gnezdovo-Katyn highway in 1940? Who saw columns of trucks on their way from Gnezdovo to Kozy Gory or who saw or heard the shootings? Who knows residents who can tell us about this? Rewards will be given for any information. Information to be sent to Smolensk, German Police Station, No.6 Muzelnaya Street, and in Gnezdovo to the German Police Station, house No. 105 near the railway station ... Lt. of Field Police, May 3rd, 1943". (The name of this German signatory as given by Moscow radio is indistinct E.D.Soviet Monitor).
The fact that the Germans promised rewards for evidence on the "Katyn
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Affair" which they needed was stated by witnesses called by the Special Commission, residents of Smolensk: Sokolova, Pushchina, Bychkov, Bondarov ... (one name indistinct), and many others.
Preparing Katyn Graves
Along with the search for "witnesses" the Germans proceeded with the corresponding preparation of the graves in the Katyn Forest: they removed from the clothing of the Polish prisoners whom they killed all documents dated later that April of 1940 - that is, the time when, according to the German provocational version the Poles were shot by the Bolsheviks - and removed all material evidence which could disprove this provocational version. In its investigation the Special Commission revealed that for this purpose the Germans used up to 500 Russian war prisoners specially selected from war prisoners' camp No. 126.
The Special Commission has at its disposal numerous statements of witnesses on this matter. Of these, especial attention is merited by the evidence of the medical personnel of the above mentioned camp. Doctor Krizhov who worked in camp No. 126 during the German occupation of Smolensk testified:
"Approximately at the beginning of March, 1943, several groups of physically stronger war prisoners, totalling about 500 from the Smolensk Camp No. 126 were sent ostensibly for trench work. None of these prisoners ever returned to the camp".
Doctor Khmyrov, who also worked in the same camp under the Germans, testified:
"I know that approximately in the second half of February or the beginning of March 1943, about 500 imprisoned Red Army men were sent from our camp to a place unknown to me. The prisoners were apparently sent to dig trenches, for the more physically fit men were selected..."
Identical evidence was given by medical nurse Lipovskaya, medical nurse Timofeyeva, witnesses Orlova, Dobroserdova and Kochotkov.
Where actually the 500 war prisoners from Camp No. 126 were sent was clear from the testimony of Moskovskaya. On October 5th 1943 citizens Moskovskaya, Alexandra Mikhailovna, who lived on the outskirts of Smolensk and worked during the occupation in the kitchen of the German military unit, filed an application to the Extraordinary Committee for the Investigation of Atrocities Perpetrated by the German Invaders, with the request to summon her to give important evidence. On being summoned she told the Special Commission that before leaving for work in March 1943, when she went to fetch firewood from her shed located in the yard on the banks of the Dnieper, she discovered there a person who proved to be a war prisoner.
Moskovskaya, who was born in 1922, testified:
"From conversation with him I learned the following: his name was Nikolai Yegorov, a native from Leningrad. From the end of 1941 he had been kept all the time in the German camp for war prisoners No. 126 in the town of Smolensk. At the beginning of March, 1943, he was sent with the column of several hundred war prisoners from the camp to Katyn Forest. There they, including Yegorov, were compelled to dig up graves with bodies in the uni-
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forms of Polish officers, drag these bodies out of the graves and take out of their pockets documents, letters, photographs and all other articles. The Germans gave the strictest order that nothing be left in the pockets on the bodies. The war prisoners were shot because after they had searched some of the bodies, a German officer discovered papers on the bodies. Articles, documents and letters extracted from the clothing which was on the bodies were examined by the German officers who then compelled the prisoners to put part of the papers back into the pockets on the bodies, while the rest was flung on a heap of articles and documents they had extracted and later burned.
Besides this the Germans made the prisoners put into the pockets of the Polish officers some papers which they took from cases or suitcases, (I do not remember exactly) which they had brought along. All the war prisoners lived in Katyn Forest in appalling conditions under the open sky, and were extremely strongly guarded ... At the beginning of April, 1943, all the work planned by the Germans was apparently completed, as for three days no one of the war prisoners was made to work... Suddenly at night all of them without exception were awakened and led somewhere. The guard was strengthened. Yegorov sensed something was wrong and began to watch with especial attention everything that happened. They marched for three or four hours in an unknown direction. They stopped in the forest at a pit in some clearing. He saw how a group of war prisoners were separated from the rest and driven towards the pit and then shot. The war prisoners grew agitated, restless and noisy. Not far from Yegorov several war prisoners attacked the guards. Other guards ran towards the place. Yegorov took advantage of the confusion which arose and ran away into the dark forest, hearing shouts and firing.
After this terrible story which is engraved on my memory for the rest of my life, I became very sorry for Yegorov, and told him to come to my room, got warm and hide in my place until he regained his strength. But Yegorov refused ... He said that no matter what happened he was going away that very night and try to get through the front line to the Red Army forces. In the morning, when I went to make sure if Yegorov had gone, he was in the shed. It appeared that in the night he attempted to set out, but had only taken a few steps when he felt so weak that he was forced to return. This exhaustion was caused by the long imprisonment at the camp and the starvation of the last days. He needed a day or two longer at my place in order to get his strength back. I went to work. When I returned home in the evening my neighbours Maria Ivanovna Baronova and Yekaterina Victorovna ... (name unclear), told me that in the afternoon, during a search by the German police, the Red Army war prisoner was found and taken away with them".
In connection with the discovery of the war prisoner Yegorov in Moskovskaya'a shed, she was called to the Gestapo where she was accused of hiding a war prisoner. At the interrogation at the Gestapo, Moskovskaya stoutly denied that she had any connection with this war prisoner. And then since she had not been into the shed she did not know about him. Since they got no admission from Moskovskaya, and also because the war prisoner Yegorov evidently had not incriminated Moskovskaya, she was let out of the Gestapo.
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(About eight words hear unclear) working in the Katyn Forest besides excavating bodies, were employed in bringing bodies from other places to Katyn Forest. The bodies so brought were thrown into pits along with the bodies that had been dug up earlier. This is confirmed by the testimony of engineer mechanic P.S.Sukhachev, born in 1912, and engineer mechanic of the... Council, who worked under the Germans as a mechanic in the Smolensk city mill, filed a request on October 8th, 1943 that he be called to testify. Called before the Special Commission, he testified:
"I was working at the mill in the second half of March, 1943. There I spoke to a German chauffeur who spoke a little Russian, and having found out that he was carrying a load to the village of ... (unclear) for the troops and was returning on the next day to Smolensk. I asked him to take me along so that I could buy some fats in the village. In doing so I had in view the fact that making the trip in a German truck would preclude the risk of being held up at the control stations. The German agreed to do this for a price. On the same day at 10 oclock in the evening we drove on to the Smolensk-Vitebsk highway. There were the German driver in the machine and myself. The night was light, and only a low mist over the road reduced the visibility. Approximately 22 or 23 kilometres from Smolensk at a demolished bridge on the highway there is a rather steep descent at the bypass. We began to go down from the highway, when suddenly a truck appeared out of the fog coming towards us. Either because our brakes were out of order, or because the driver was inexperienced, we were unable to bring our truck to a halt, and since the passage was quite narrow we collided with the truck coming towards us. The impact was not very violent, as the driver of the other truck swerved to the side as a result of which the trucks bumped and slid along side each other.
The right wheel of the other truck however, landed in the ditch, and the truck fell over on the slope. Our truck remained up right. The driver and I immediately jumped out of the cabin and ran up to the truck which had fallen down. We were met by a heavy stench of putrifying flesh coming evidently from the truck. On coming nearer, I saw that the truck was carrying a load covered with a tarpaulin and tied up with ropes. The ropes had snapped from the impact, and part of the load had fallen out on the slope. This was a horrible load - human bodies dressed in military uniforms. As far as I can remember there were some six or seven men near the truck: one German driver, two Germans armed with tommy guns, while the rest were Russians war prisoner as they spoke Russian and were dressed accordingly. The Germans fell upon my driver with abuse and then made some attempts to right the truck. In about two minutes time two more trucks drove up to the place of the accident and pulled up. A group of Germans and Russians war prisoners, in all about ten men, came up to us from these trucks ... By joint efforts we began to raise the truck. Taking advantage of an opportune moment I asked one of the Russian war prisoners in a low voice: "What is it?". He answered very quietly: "For many nights already we have been carrying bodies to Katyn Forest".
The overturned truck was not yet raised when a German N.C.O. came up to me and my driver and ordered us to proceed immediately. As no serious
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damage had been done to our truck the driver steered it a little to one side, got on to the highway and we went on. When we were passing the two covered trucks which had come up later again I smelled the horrible stench of dead bodies".
Sukhachev's testimony is confirmed by that of Vladimir Fanassievich Yegorov, who served as policeman in the Police Station during the occupation. Yegorov testified that when owing to the nature of his duties he was guarding a bridge at a crossing of the Moscow - Minsk and Smolensk - Vitebsk highways at the end of March and early in April 1943, he saw on several nights big trucks covered with tarpaulins and spreading a heavy stench of dead flesh, going towards Smolensk. Several men, some of whom were armed and were undoubtedly Germans sat in the drivers cabins of the trucks and behind.
Yegorov reported his observations to Kuzma Demianovich Golovnev, Chief of the Police Station in the village of Arkhipovka, who advised him to "hold his tongue" and added: "This does not concern us. We have no business to be mixing in German affirs". That the Germans were carrying bodies on trucks to the Katyn Forest is also testified by Igor Maximowich Yakovlev-Sokolov, (born in 1896), a former agent for restaurant supplies in the Smolensk Restaurant Trust and, under the Germans, Chief of Police of Katyn. He stated that once, early in April, 1943, he himself saw four tarpaulin-covered trucks passing on the highway to Katyn Forest. Several men armed with tommyguns and rifles rode in them. An acrid stench of flesh came from these trucks.
From the above testimony it can be concluded with all clarity that the Germans shot Poles in other places too. In bringing their bodies to the Katyn Forest they pursued a triple object: Firstly to destroy the traces of their own crimes, secondly to ascribe their own crimes to the Soviet Government, thirdly to increase the number of "victims of Bolshevism" in the grave of the Katyn Forest.
Excursions to the Katyn Graves
In April 1943, having finished all the preparatory work at the graves in the Katyn Forest, the German occupationists began a wide campaign in the Press and over the radio in an attempt to ascribe to the Soviet Power atrocities which they themselves had committed against Polish war prisoners. As one of the methods of this provocational agitation, the Germans arranged visits to the Katyn graves by residents of Smolensk and its suburbs as well as "delegations" from countries occupied by German invaders and their vassals. The Special Commission questioned a number of delegates who took part in the "excursions" to the Katyn graves.
Trubkov, a doctor specialising in pathological anatomy who worked as Medico-Legal Expert in Smolensk, testified before the Special Commission: "The clothing of the bodies, particularly the greatcoats, boots and belts, were in a good state of preservation. The metal parts of the clothing - buckles of belts, buttons, hooks and spikes on shoe soles, etc. were not heavily rusted, and in some cases the metal still retained its polish. Sections of the skin of the bodies which could be seen - faces, necks, arms - were chiefly a dirty
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green colour and in some cases dirty brown, but there was no complete disintegration of the tissues, no putrefaction. In some cases bared tendons of whitish colour and parts of muscles could be seen. While I was at the excavations people worked sorting and extracting bodies at the bottom of a big pit. For this purpose they used spades and other tools, and also took bodies with their hands and dragged them from place to place by arms, by legs or by clothing. I did not see a single case of bodies falling apart or of any member being torn off. Considering all the above I arrived at the conclusion that the bodies had remained in the earth not three years, as the Germans affirmed, but much less. Knowing that in mass graves and especially without coffins putrefaction of bodies progresses more quickly than in single graves, I concluded that the mass shooting of the Poles was effected about a year and a half ago, and could have taken place in the autumn 1941 or in spring 1942. As a result of my visit to the excavation site I became firmly convinced that a monstrous crime was committed by the Germans".
Testimony to the effect that the clothing of the bodies, its metal parts, shoes and even the bodies themselves were well preserved, was given by numerous witnesses who took part in "excursions" to the Katyn graves questioned by the Special Commission. They include: The manager of the Smolensk Water Supply System Kutzev; the Katyn school teacher Votrova; the telephone operator of Smolensk Communication Bureau Shchodrova, resident of the village Borok Alexeyev, resident of the village Novye Bateki Krivozertsev, Station Master on duty of station Gnezdovo Sawateyev; citizen of Smolensk, Pushchina; Doctor of the Second Smolensk Hospital, Sidoruk; Doctor of the same hospital Kessarev and others.
The German Attempt to Cover up the traces of Their Crimes
"Excursions" organised by the Germans failed to achieve their aim. All those who visited the graves saw for themselves that they faced the crudest and most obvious German-Fascist frame-up. Therefore the German authorities took measures to make doubters keep quiet. The Special Commission heard the testimony of a great number of witnesses who related how German authorities persecuted those who doubted or disbelieved the provocation. They were discharged from work, arrested, threatened with shooting. The Commission established that in two cases people were shot for failure to "hold their tongues": Such reprisals were taken against the former German policeman Zazainev and against Yegorov who worked on the excavation of graves in Katyn Forest. Testimony concerning persecution of people who expressed their doubt after visiting the graves in Katyn Forest was given by: A woman cleaner of Drug Store Number 1 in Smolensk, Zubareva; Assistant Sanitation Doctor of Stalin District Health Dept. in Smolensk, Kozlova; and others.
The former Chief of Police of Katyn area Yakovlev-Sokolov testified: "A situation arose which caused serious alarm in the German Kommandant's Office, and police organs in the periphery were given urgent instructions to nip in the bud all harmful talk at any price and arrest all persons who expres-
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sed disbelief in the "Katyn Affair". I myself, as Chief of the Area Police, was given instructions to this effect at the end of May 1943 by the German Commandant of the village of Katyn, Lt.Braung, and at the beginning of June by the Chief of Smolensk District Police, Kaminetsky. I called an Instructional Conference of the Police in my area, at which I ordered them to detain and bring to the Police Station anyone who expressed disbelief or doubted the truth of the German reports about the shooting of Polish war prisoners by the Bolsheviks. In fulfilling these instructions of the German authorities I clearly acted against my conscience as I myself was certain that the "Katyn affair" was a German frame-up. I became finally convinced of that when I myself made a "excursion" to Katyn Forest".
"Seeing that the "excursions" of the local population to the Katyn graves did not achieve their purpose in the summer of 1943, the German occupation authorities ordered the graves to be filled in. Before their retreat from Smolensk the German occupation authorities began hastily to cover up the traces of their crimes. The country house occupied by the "H.Q. of the 537th Building Battalion" was burned to the ground. The Germans searched for the three girls - Alexeyeva, Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya - in the village of Borok to take them away and perhaps to kill them. The Germans also searched for their main "witness", Kisselev, who together with his family had succeeded in hiding. The Germans burned down his house. They endeavoured to seize other "witnesses" too - the former Station Master of Gnezdovo, Ivanov, and the former acting Station Master of this station, Savvateyev, as well as the former coupler at the Smolensk station, Zakharov.
During the very last days before their retreat from Smolensk, the German-Fascist occupationists looked for Professor Bazilevsky and Yefimov. Both succeeded in evading deportation or death only because they had escaped in good time. Nevertheless the German-Fascist invaders did not succeed in covering up the traces of or concealing their crime.
Examination of the exhumed bodies conducted by medico-legal experts proved irrefutably that the Polish war prisoners were shot by the Germans themselves. The protocol of the Medico-Legal Experts' investigation follows.
Protocol of the Medico-Legal Experts' Investigation
In accordance with the instructions of the Special Commission for Ascertaining and Investigating the Circumstances of the Shooting of Polish Officer Prisoners by the German-Fascist Invaders in Katyn Forest (near Smolensk), a Commission of Medico-Legal Experts was set up consisting of: Prozorovsky, Chief Medico-Legal Expert of the People's Commissariat of Health Protection of the U.S.S.R. and Director of the state Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Medicine; Doctor of Medicine Smolyaninov, Professor of Forensic Medicine at the Second Moscow State Medical Institute; Doctor of Medicine Vyropayev, Professor of Pathological Anatomy; Doctor Semenovsky, Sr.Staff Scientist of the Tanathology Department of the State Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Medicine under the People's Commissariat of Health Protection of the U.S.S.R.; Assistant Professor Shvaikova, Sr.Staff Scientist of the Chemico-Legal Department of the State Scientific Research
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Institute of Forensic Medicine under the People's Commissariat of Health Protection of the U.S.S.R.; with the participation of: Major of Medical Service Nikolsky, Chief Medico-Legal Expert of the Western Front; Captain of Medical Service Bussoyedov, Medico-Legal Expert of the X.Army; Major of Medical Service Subboin, Chief of Pathological Anatomy Laboratory No.92.; Major of Medical Service Ogloblin, Sr.Lieut. of Medical Service Sadykov, Medical Specialist; Sr.Lieut. of Medical Service Pushkareva.
During the period between January 16th and January 23rd 1944 those Medico-Legal Experts conducted exhumation and medico-legal examination of the bodies of Polish war prisoners buried in graves on the territory of "Kozy Gory" in Katyn Forest 15 km. from Smolensk. The bodies of Polish war prisoners were buried in a common grave about 60 by 60 by three metres in dimension, and also in another grave about seven by six by three and a half metres. Nine hundred and twenty-five bodies were exhumed from the graves and examined. The exhumation and medico-legal examination of the bodies were effected in order to establish: a) Identity of the dead; b) causes of death; c) time of burial.
Circumstances of the case: See materials of the Special Commission. Objective evidence: See the protocols of the medico-legal examination of the bodies.
Conclusion of the Medico-Legal Experts
On the basis of the results of the medico-legal examination of the bodies, the Commission of Medico-Legal Experts arrived at the following conclusion:
Upon the opening of the graves and exhumation of bodies from them, it was established that
a) Among the mass of bodies of Polish war prisoners there were bodies in civilian clothes, the number of which, in relation to the total number of bodies examined, is insignificant (in all two out of 925 exhumed bodies); shoes of army pattern were on these bodies;
b) The clothing on the bodies of the war prisoners shows that they were officers, and included some privates of the Polish Army;
c) Slits in the pockets, pockets turned inside out, and tears in them discovered during examination of the clothing show that as a rule all the clothes on each body (greatcoats, trousers, etc.) bear traces of searches effected of the dead bodies;
d) In some cases whole pockets were found during examination of the clothing, scrapes of newspapers, prayer books, pocket books, postage stamps, postcards and letters, receipts, notes and other documents, as well as articles of value ( a gold nugget, dollars), pipes, pocket knives, cigarette paper, handkerchiefs and other articles were found in these pockets as well as in the turned out and torn pockets under the linings, in the belts of the coats, in footwear and socks.
e) Some of the documents found contain data referring to the period between November 12th 1940 and June 20th 1941.
f) The fabric of clothes, especially of greatcoats, uniforms, trousers and
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tunics, is in a good state of preservation and can be torn with the hands only with great difficulty.
g) A very small proportion of the bodies (20 out of 925) had the hands tied behind the back with woven cords. The condition of the clothes on the bodies, namely the fact that uniform jackets, shirts, belts, trousers and underwear are buttoned up; boots or shoes are on the feet; scarves and ties tied around the necks, suspenders attached, shirts tucked in - testifies that no external examination of the bodies and extremities of the bodies had been effected previously. The intact state of the skin on the heads, and the absence on them, as on the skin of the chests and abdomens (save in three cases out of 925) of any incisions, cuts, other signs, convincingly shows that, judging by the bodies exhumed by the Experts' Commission, there had been no Medico-Legal examination of the bodies. External and internal examination of 925 bodies proves the existence of bullet wounds on the head and neck, combined in four cases with injury of the bones of the cranium caused by a blunt, hard, heavy object. Also, in a small number of cases were discovered injuries of the abdomen caused simultaneously with the wound in the head. Entry orifices of the bullet wounds, as a rule singular, more rarely double, are situated in the occipital part of the head near the occipital protuberance, at the big occipital orifice or at its edge. In a few cases entry orifices of bullets have been found on the back surface of the neck corresponding to the first or second or third vertebrae of the neck. The points of exit of the bullets have been found more frequently in the frontal area, more rarely in the parietal and templar areas as well as in the face and neck.
In 27 cases the bullet wounds prove to be blind (without exit orifices) and at the end of the bullet channels under the soft membrane of the cranium, in its bones, in the membranes and in the brain matter, were found deformed, barely deformed, or altogether underformed cased bullets of the type used with automatic pistols, mostly of the 7.65 mm. calibre.
The dimensions of the entry orifices in the occipital bone make it possible to draw the conclusions that firearms of two calibres were employed in the shooting: In the bulk of cases, those of less than eight mms., i.e. 7.65 mms. or less, and in a lesser number of cases - those of more than 8 mms., i.e. 9 mms.
The nature of the fissures of the cranial bones and the fact that in some cases traces of powder were found at the entry orifice, proves that the shots were fired pointblank or nearby pointblank. Correlation of the two points of entry and exit of the bullets shows that the shots were fired from behind with the head bent forward. The bullet channel pierced the vital parts of the brain, or near them, and death was caused by destruction of the brain tissues. The injuries inflicted by a blunt, hard, heavy object found on the partical bones of the cranium were concurrent with the bullet wounds of the head, and in themselves were not the cause of death.
The Medico-Legal examination of the bodies carried out in the period between January 16th and January 23rd of 1944 testifies that there are absolutely no bodies in a condition of decay or disintegration and that all the 925 bodies are in a state of preservation - in the initial phase of desiccation of the body - (which most frequently and clearly was expressed in the region of
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the thorax and abdomen, sometimes in the extremities; and in the initial stage of formation of adipocere; and in an advanced phase of formation of adipocere in the bodies extracted from the bottom of the graves); in a combination of desiccation of the tissues of the body with the formation of adipocere. Especially noteworthy is the fact that the muscles of the trunk and extremities absolutely preserved their macroscopic structure and almost normal colour; the internal organs of the thorax and porticoneal cavity preserved their configuration, in many cases sections of heart muscle have a clearly discernible structure and specific colouration, while the brain presented its characteristic structural peculiarities with a distinctly discernible border between the grey and white matter.
Besides the macroscopic examination of the tissues and organs of the bodies, the Medico-Legal Experts removed the necessary material for subsequent microscopic and chemical studies in laboratory conditions.
Properties of the soil in the place of discovery were of a certain significance in the preservation of the tissues and organs of the bodies. After the opening of the graves and exhumation of the bodies and their stay in the air, they were subject to the action of warmth and moisture in the late summer season of 1943. This could have resulted in a vigorous progress of decay of the bodies. However, the degree of the desiccation of the bodies and formation of adipocere in them, especially the good state of preservation of the muscles and internal organs, as well as the clothes, give ground to affirm that the bodies had not remained in the earth for a long time.
Comparing the condition of bodies in the grave territory of "Kozy Gory" with the condition of the bodies in other burial places in Smolensk and its nearest environs - Gedeonovka, Magalenschina, Readovka, Camp No. 126, Krasny Bor, etc. (see protocol of the Commission of Medico-Legal Exerts dated October 22nd 1943), it should be admitted that the bodies of the Polish war prisoners were buried on the territory of "Kozy Gory" about two years ago. This finds its complete corroboration in the documents found in the clothes on the bodies, which preclude the possibility of earlier burial (see point "d" of paragraph 36 and list of documents).
The Commission of Medico-Legal Experts, on the basis of the data and results of the investigation, consider as proved the fact of the killing by shooting of the Polish Army officer and private war prisoners; asserts that this shooting dates back to about two years ago, i.e. between September and December of 1941; regards the fact of the discovery by the Commission of Medico-Legal Experts, in the clothes on the bodies, of valuables and documents dated 1941, as proof that the German-Fascist authorities who undertook a search of the bodies in the spring - summer season of 1943 did not do it thoroughly, while the documents discovered testify that the shooting was done after June 1941; notes that in 1943 the Germans had made an extremely small number of post-mortem examinations of the bodies of the shot Polish war prisoners; notes the complete identity of method of shooting of the Polish war prisoners with that of the shooting of Soviet civilians and war prisoners widely practised by the German-Fascist authorities in the temporarily occupied territory of the U.S.S.R., including the towns of Smolensk, Orel, Kharkov, Krasnodar, Voronezh.
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Signed by the Chief Medico-Legal Expert of the People's Commissariat of Health Protection of the U.S.S.R., Director of the State Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Medicine under the People's Commissariat of Health Protection, Prozorovsky; Professor of Forensic Medicine at the Second Moscow State Medical Institute, Doctor of Medicine Smolyaninov; Professor of Pathological Anatomy, Doctor of Medicine Vyropayev; Senior Staff Scientist of Tanathological Dept. of the State Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Medicine under the People's Commissariat of Health Protection of the U.S.S.R., Doctor Semenovsky; Senior Staff Scientist of the Forensic Chemistry Dept. of the State Scientific Institute of Forensic Medicine under the People's Commissariat of Health Protection of the U.S.S.R., Assistant Professor Shvaikova.
Smolensk. 24th January 1944.
Documents Found on the Bodies
Besides the data recorded in the protocol of the Commission of Medico-Legal Experts, the time of the shooting of the Polish officer prisoners, by the Germans (autumn 1941 and not spring 1940 as the Germans assert) is also ascertained by the documents found when the graves were opened, dating not only the latter half of 1940 but also the spring and summer (March-June) of 1941. Of the documents discovered by the medico-legal experts, the following deserve special attention:
1. On body No.92: A letter from Warsaw addressed to the Central War Prisoners Bureau of the Red Cross, Moscow, Kuibyshev Street, House No. 12. The letter is written in Russian. In this letter Sofia Zigon enquires the whereabouts of her husband Tomasz Zigon. The letter is dated September 12th 1940. The envelope bears the impress of a German rubber stamp "War-saw Sept. 1940" and rubber stamp - "Moscow, Central Post Office, ninth delivery, Sept. 28th 1940" and an inscription in the Russian language: Ascertain and forward for delivery, November 15th 1940" (signature illegible).
2. On body No.4: A postcard registered under the number 0112 from Tarnopol stamped "Tarnopol Nov. 12th 1940". The written text and address are discoloured.
3. On body No.101: A receipt No.10293 dated Dec. 19th 1939 issued by the Kozelsk Camp testifying receipt of a gold watch from Eduard Adamovich Lewandowski. On the back of the receipt is a note dated March 14th 1941 on the sale of this watch to the Jewellery Trading Trust.
4. On the body No.46: A receipt (number illegible) issued December 16th 1939 by the Starobelsk Camp testifying receipt of a gold watch from Vladimir Rudolfovich Araszkovic. On the back of the receipt is a note dated March 25th 1941 stating that the watch was sold to the Jewellery Trading Trust.
5. On body No.71: A small paper ikon with the image of Christ, found between pages 144 and 145 of a Catholic prayer book. The inscription, with legible signature, on the back of the ikon reads - "Jadwinja" and bears the date "April 4th 1941".
6. On body No.46: A receipt dated April 6th 1941 issued by the Camp No.l-NO: showing receipt of a sum in roubles from Araszkevicz.
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7. On the same body No.46: A receipt dated May 5th 1941 issued by Camp No.l-NO: showing receipt of 102 roubles from Araszkevicz.
8. On body No.101: A receipt dated May 15th 1941 issued by Camp No.l showing receipt of 175 roubles from Lewandowski.
9. On body No.53: An unmailed postcard in the Polish language addressed: Warsaw, Bagatelia 15, Flat 47, to Irene Kuczinska dated June 20th, 1941. The sender is Stanislaw Kuczinski.
From all the material at the disposal of the Special Commission, namely, evidence given by over 100 witnesses questioned, data supplied by the medico-legal experts, documents and material evidence found in the graves of the Katyn Forest, the following conclusions emerge with irrefutable clarity:
1. The Polish prisoners of war who were in the three camps west of Smolensk, and employed on road building before the outbreak of war, remained there after the German invasion into Smolensk, till September 1941, inclusive.
2. In the Katyn Forest, in the autumn of 1941, the German occupation authorities carried out mass shooting of Polish prisoners of war from the camps named above.
3. The mass shootings of Polish prisoners of war in the Katyn Forest was carried out by the German military organisation which concealed itself by the conventional name "H.Q. of the 537th Engineering Battalion", which consisted of Lt.Col. Arnes, his assistant Lt.Rekst, and Lt.Hott.
4. In connection with the deterioration of the general military and political situation for Germany at the beginning of the year 1943, the German occupation authorities with provocational aims took a number of steps in order to ascribe their own crimes to the organs of the Soviet Power, calculating to set the Russians and the Poles loggerheads.
5. With this aim, a) The German-Fascist invaders, using persuasion, attempts at bribery, threats and barbarous torture, tried to find witnesses among Soviet citizens, from whom they tried to extort false evidence to the effect that the Polish prisoners of war were allegedly shot by the organs of Soviet Power in the spring of 1940. b) The German occupation authorities in the spring of 1943 brought in bodies of Polish war prisoners, whom they have shot, from other districts and put them into the open graves in the Katyn Forest, calculating to cover up the traces of their own crimes, and to increase the number of "victims of Bolshevik atrocities" in the Katyn Forest, c) Preparing for their provocation, the German occupation authorities started opening the graves in the Katyn Forest in order to take out documents and material evidence which exposed them, using for this work about 500 Russian prisoners of war who were shot by the Germans after the work was completed.
6. It has been established beyond doubt from the evidence of the medicolegal experts, that a) The time of the shooting was the autumn of 1941. b) In shooting the Polish war prisoners the German hangmen applied the same method of pistol shots in the back of the head, applied by them in the mass execution of Soviet citizens in other towns, e.g. Orel, Voronezh, Krasnodar and Smolensk itself.
7. The conclusions drawn from the evidence given by witnesses and findings of the medico-legal experts on the shooting of Polish war prisoners by the
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Germans in the autumn of 1941, are completely confirmed by the material evidence and documents excavated from the Katyn graves.
8. In shooting the Polish war prisoners in the Katyn Forest, the German-Fascist invaders consistently carried out their policy of physical extermination of the Slav peoples.
(Signed)
Chairman of the Special Commission, Member of the Extraordinary State Commission, Academician Burdenko.
Members:
Member of the Extraordinary State Commission, Academician Alexey Tolstoi.
Member of the Extraordinary State Commission, The Metropolitan Nikolai.
Chairman of the All-Slav Committee, Lt.Gen.Gundorov.
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Union of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Kolesnikov.
People's Commissar for Education of the R.S.F.S.R., Academician Potemkin.
Chief of the Central Medical Administration of the Red Army, Col.Gen.Smirnov.
Chairman of the Smolensk Regional Executive Committee, Melnikov.
Smolensk, January 24th, 1944. (SOVIET MONITOR)
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REQUIEM AT KATYN
By P.Lidov
On Sunday, January 30, delegates from regiments of the 1st Polish Corps in the U.S.S.R. arrived by car and on foot at Katyn Forest to pay their last respects to their brothers, the Polish officers and men who were brutally murdered by the Germans in 1941.
It was a quiet, cloudy day. The Polish soldiers lined up around the edge of the enormous fraternal grave, sixty yards long and as many wide. Brotherly hands had erected a small mound at the head of the grave, surmounted by a tall cross. In the snow they had laid out branches to form the words "Glory to the fallen, 1941", in Polish.
An altar built of young birch and fir stood near the steep, sandy side of the grave. Deep grief and unconcealed anger was expressed in the faces of the Poles who had come here to pay homage to the ashes of their countrymen, foully murdered by the Hitlerites.
* * *
In the ranks of the artillery battalion stood Jakob Moroz. I spoke to him before the ceremony began. Moroz, 48 years old, was a platoon commander in the 83rd Infantry Division of the Polish Army. In September 1939 he was taken prisoner by the Red Army and sent to Camp 2. O.N. He spent nine months in this camp, five miles or so from Kozy Gory.
"We were waiting for the end of the war in Europe so that we could be sent back to Poland", he told me. "We were all fully convinced we'd be home again before long. This conviction was supported by the humane and friendly treatment we received from everyone at the camp, from the administrative staff to the guards. We didn't look on them as enemies. It was the Germans we thought of as our enemies.
On June 12, 1940, I was transferred to another camp. Neither during my stay in camp 2 O.N., nor in this camp, nor at Kozy Gory were there any shootings. Nobody disappeared from the camp, and life proceeded quite normally. I solemnly swear that this was so".
In February 1941 Jakob Moroz got a letter from camp 2 O.N., from his friend Captain Olszewski of the 25th Uhlan Regiment. This letter was dated January 1941. Captain Olszewski wrote that he was in good health and spirits, that all their mutual acquaintances were alive and well, and that there had been no changes in the life of the camp.
The other day Sub-Lieutenant Klimczak, of a sapper battalion, informed his commander and comrades that he had arrived in the Polish officers' camp near Smolensk in March 1941. He indignantly repudiated Berlin's fantastic
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assertions that the Polish officers had been shot on this territory before the German occupation.
The report of the Special Commission to establish and investigate the circumstances of the shooting by the German-Fascist invaders of Polish prisoners of war in the Katyn Forest completely dispelled any doubts that the vile propaganda of the Nazi swindlers might have instilled into the minds of the Poles. The purpose of the German fabrication was clear to all those who had seen Nazi policy in practise in Poland. Pasuch, a gunner who has only recently arrived from occupied Poland, declares that nobody there believed the German assertions about Katyn. Everybody realised it was nothing but an attempt to sow dissension between the peoples of Poland and Russia.
* * *
At half-past eleven the mourning service began in an improvised chapel near the grave. All bared their heads. In the front row sat Major-General Sigmund Berling, Commander of the 1st Polish Corps in the U.S.S.R., and his sub-commanders, Major-General Swerczewski and Major Zawadski. The orchestra played Chopin's Funeral March.
When the service was over, Father Franciszek Kupsz, the Corps chaplain, addressed the soldiers in a brief sermon before proceeding to sanctify the grave.
"Citizen general, citizen officers and soldiers", he said, "to-day we bow our heads over the tragic grave of our brothers. They treasured above all else their honour as Poles and as soldiers. They were loyal to the oath they swore to God and their Motherland, and fought as long as they had strength to fight.
Their lot was an uneasy one. But the Pole is able not only to fight, but to suffer in a sacred cause. They believed that the Nazi enslavers would be overthrown. They believed that the Almighty would enlighten the Polish Government so that it would find a way to peace and tranquility through friendship with our great eastern neighbour.
That long-awaited day came. The Government concluded a treaty with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Polish soldiers yearned more strongly for their fettered land, for their families. But the bloodthirsty Hitlerite butchers began their hangman's work. Eleven thousand officers and soldiers, the flower of the Polish Army, were done to death in frightful torment. They perished by the same hand which exactly a year ago killed 5.000 civilians in my parish in the Pinsk region.
May the Polish blood which has been shed be a pledge of the ressurection of our free Motherland. May God give peace to the souls of the martyrs!"
In a solemn silence the priest descended into the grave and sprinkled it with holy water. Five gun volleys shook the winter sky.
* * *
General Berling and Colonel Bevzjuk approached the grave and laid the first wreath on it. Then officers and soldiers laid wreaths on behalf of their regiments.
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Major-General Berling addressed the delegates and said: "Those to whose memory we to-day pay homage fell into the clutches of implacable enemy -Germany. There are dozens of graves like this one in Poland. Thousands of victims done to death by the Hitlerites are buried in Polish soil. The cruel German enemy is destroying everything Polish, and desires to put an end to Poland, so that Germany may take her place on earth.
The graves of Poles murdered by the Germans cry out for vengeance. It is we who must avenge them. We will avenge them".
Major Zawadski then spoke. He recalled the 1.000-year-old war of the Germans against the Slav peoples, a war full of perfidy and savagery.
"Katyn is a fresh German crime against the Slavs. But the Nazi plot did not succeeded. Nobody believed the fabrication. Those Poles in London who supported the Hitlerites' atrocious calumny for their own predatory and intriguing ends have nothing in common with the Polish people. The Russians helped us to find the truth, and they will help us to carry that truths to Warsaw. Let us take vengeance on the enemy until we have utterly destroyed him!"
After the meeting, with standards lowered and drums beating, the delegates from the regiments, headed by the Corps commanders, marched slowly past the grave. Over this grave Polish and Russian fellowship in arms against the common enemy was once more solemnly cemented.
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BRITISH PRESS COMMENTS
INVITATION TO BRITISH AND UNITED STATES
CORRESPONDENTS TO VISIT KATYN WOODS
21. Jan. 1944
The Soviet authorities have invited British and United States correspondents to visit the Katyn woods and an officially conducted party is shortly to leave Moscow. Suggests that the authorities have timed the excursion to coincide with the release of the report of the commission investigating German Fascist atrocities. Pravda of 15th January announced that it was finishing its work and that a report on the shooting of Polish officers in Katyn would soon be issued. Suggests that guidance might be given to the press.
FROM MOSCOW TO FOREIGN OFFICE
25th January 1944
British and American war correspondents returned from Katyn wood on 23rd of January and have now filed their stories. None of the copy has yet been released by the censor. I have seen the story filed by Reuter. It seems to me to be a reasonable and fair account, though obviously it emphasises the Soviet case.
I have discussed this excursion with several correspondents who went to Katyn. Although they are by no means reluctant to accept Soviet version of the affair they are not altogether satisfied with what they saw and heard. Some of the American correspondents told the Press Department of Peoples Commissariat for Foreign Affairs that they were not very impressed. If such criticism should be reflected in the British or American editorial comment, we must be prepared for explosions in the Soviet press.
Principle reasons why the correspondents are hesitant are; a) Credibility of Soviet version of the affair hinges almost entirely on the medical evidence. Some correspondents consider that the evidence adduced to prove the victims were killed after July 1941 is inadequate. To complicate matters the Soviet authorities now allege graves also contained the remains of men who were killed by the Germans in Poland and shifted to Katyn to incriminate the Soviet Government.
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FROM MOSCOW TO FOREIGN OFFICE
Telegram No 149
The Katyn woods excursion party which left Moscow by special train on Friday afternoon included Miss Harriman, daughter of United States Ambassador, and Mr Melky third secretary at United States Embassy.
It is hard to believe that Russian propaganda machine will refrain from drawing the obvious conclusion from the association of these two official Americans with the enquiry.
FROM FOREIGN OFFICE
British and Polish treatment of Reuter's version of the Katyn Commission report.
After discussing Reuter's version of the Katyn commission report with the head of the Polish section of Political Warfare Executive, and on Sir Orme Sargen's instructions, Mr Roberts told Mr Scarlett and Mr Ridsdale that they should take the line that this statement was a welcome refutation of German propaganda. He also asked Sir Owen O'Malley to warn the Poles against any false publicity which could only spoil their present good position.
FROM MOSCOW TO FOREIGN OFFICE
Telegram No 198
United States Ambassador yesterday told Mr Barman that his daughter who took part in press excursion to Katyn was quite satisfied that Germans had done the deed. He is no doubt reporting in that sense to Washington.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
31st January 1944
The Counsellor of the Polish Embassy raised with me today the question of publicity in regard to the Soviet Katyn report. He said his Government of course understood that publicity must be given to the report itself and that there might be certain speculations in journalistic reports from the USSR which might be. unwelcome to his Government. They feared however that the report would be followed up by attacks upon the Polish Government and attempts to revive the quarrel arising from the Polish appeal to the Red Cross 1st April. The one desire of the Polish Government, and of the great majority of Poles, was to let this matter rest. If however the Russians insisted on reopening this recent wound, the effect on the Poles would inevitably be bad. He mentioned in this connection, that the Polish newspapers in this country very rarely reproduced or commented upon material appearing in the Soviet press. The Polish Government therefore hoped that the British press would be discouraged from reproducing Soviet attacks on the Polish Government
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or on Poles generally in regard to Katyn and that once the report itself had been published, the whole matter might be allowed to die down again.
I told Mr Kulski that we realised the position and that we shared the view of the Polish Government that this painful subject should not be reopened now. The Commission report itself was, however a non-controversial document so far as the Poles were concerned and if asked for an opinion we could therefore only welcome it as a refutation of German propaganda. I said however that I would pass on Mr Kulski's remarks to the proper quarter. He was particularly insistent that restraint should be exercised on the BBC as this, unlike the Press was regarded as official and was heard in Poland.
FROM FOREIGN OFFICE
31st January 1944
The version of the Katyn Commission's report published by Reuter did not contain any attack on the Polish Government. It was in fact, a great statement of the Soviet case.
After discussing the matter with the head of the Polish section of P.W.E. and on Sir O.Sargent's instructions, I told Mr Scarlett and Mr Ridsdale that insofar as any expression of view was required they should take the line that this statement was a welcome refutation of earlier German propaganda. I also asked Sir O.O'Malley to warn the Poles against any false publicity which would only spoil their present good position. This should be all the easier for them insofar as their own notorious Katyn statement last April specially included a phrase to show that they did not necessarily believe the German Story.
The above action seemed necessary to avoid giving colour to any suggestion that we were sceptical about the Russian report. The reserve attitude previously suggested to the News Department and P.W.E. was based upon the fact that we did not know whether the statement would include attacks on the Polish Government or not.
FROM MOSCOW TO FOREIGN OFFICE
1st Feb. 1944
Pravda of January 31st published four items on Polish affairs on Foreign News page.
First is article by P.Lidow on intercession service for victims of Katyn wood itself on Jan.30th. Service was attended by delegation from 1st Polish Corps headed by Major General Berling. A Polish artilleryman imprisoned by Rusians in 1939 is reported as saying that there were no shootings of Polish prisoners by Russians in Camp 2-ON or at Koze Gory. A similar denial is reported to have been made by Polish lieutenant who lived in Smolensk officers camp until March 1941. Writer states that communique published by special Commission has swept away all doubts which were at one time disseminated among Poles by base propaganda of "Fascist scoundrels". He repor-
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ted that a man recently arrived from Poland stated that in occupied Poland no one believed German version of Katyn graves. After memorial service speaches were made by Major General Berling and by Major General Zawadzki who said that "Katyn wood was a new German attack on Slavs". But this Nazi provocation did not succed. No one believed their forgery. The few Poles in London who supported bloody Nazi version in the hope of furthering their own intrigues have nothing in common with people of Poland. The Russian nation has helped us to find the truth and will help us to carry truth to Warsaw.
CHRONICLE
14th March 1944
The Committee for Cinematograph Affairs in Moscow is shortly to release for general exhibition the new documentary film The Tragedy of Katyn wood.
The picture deals with Nazi massacre of Polish officers, war prisoners at Katyn, with the work of the Extraordinary Commission, the arrival of foreign correspondents, the interrogation of witnesses and the scene during the visit to the graves by the delegation of the First Polish Corps in the USSR. It is to be hoped that this film which provides the answer to Goebbels's allegations against the Soviets will soon be shown here and that all members of the Polish Government in London will persuade themselves to see it.
The Katyn lie was one of Goebbels's great propaganda success. Not only was it an immediate cause of the braking off relations between Poland and Russia, but according to the testimony of a neutral diplomat recently permitted to leave the Reich it had so powerful an effect upon the minds of German Army officers in the mass as to stiffen their resolve never to be taken prisoner by the Red Army.
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THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE CRIME OF KATYN
I was fifteen years old in 1943 when I first read in the Polish Daily published in London, that the Germans had discovered the mass graves of Polish officers shot in the Katyn woods and blamed the Russians for these murders. I accepted this news as the truth as at that age one still believed in the honesty of the press. It was only several years later that I understood that, in time of war, the press and radio are under the tight control of the Government and give out information according to the political situation which is why, frequently, the truth is used economically and, if necessity arises, total lies are not uncommon. I am now of the opinion that the news given out by the Polish radio and press about the Katyn crime had very little to do with the truth and that those who upheld without verification the Nazi accusation and raised the whole case onto the international forum, must have recruited themselves from the pro-fascist circle for whom the Soviet Union was always enemy number one, as they saw in it the main threat to their likelihood of seizing power in Poland.
I assume that I would never have questioned the hypothesis of the murder of those Polish officers by the Russians had I not, by chance, found myself in the Soviet Union in 1949, and a year later, in the labour camp in Vorkuta. Among the internees in that camp there were many German prisoners of war, Polish underground army members, some of Vlasov's men and Bendera's men along with the others who had taken an active part in the Second World War. Some of them were officers who had worked at headquarters in many special branches and knew many top secret matters which have never been made public.
I only became interested in the fate of the Polish officers when I was in the labour camps as this was a subject which was often discussed by the Poles, Germans, Russians and Ukrainians interned there. During the seven years I spent in various camps at Vorkuta, Norylsk and Irkutsk in the company of people one can only describe as a human archive of the past war I managed to collect a mass of information which helped me to view the murder of those Polish officers in a totally new light. However, before I present this information I would like to remind my readers of the political situation at that time and ask - who had the most to gain from the massacre of the Polish officers?
To be able reply to such a question one has to analyse, albeit superficially, the attitude of the Germans and Russians to the Poles. We know that Germans started the war with Poland because they needed Polish land and Polish workers and, from the first days of the occupation, they started to destroy the Polish intellectual elite. The Russians advance on the eastern part of Poland was of a different character as the Soviet note delivered to the Polish Ambassador in Moscow shows.
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The Soviet note
The Polish - German war revealed the bankruptcy of the Polish State. During the ten days of military occupation Poland lost all her industrial districts and cultural centres. Warsaw, as the capital of Poland, ceased to exist. The Polish Government disintegrated and showed no sign of life. This mean that the Polish State and its government effectively no longer existed. Therefore the treaties concluded between the USSR and Poland ceased to operate. Left to herself and without leadership, Poland become a convenient territory for any unexpected happenings which could create a menace to the USSR. Hence, having remained neutral until then the Soviet Government could no longer maintain a neutral attitude in face of those facts. Nor could the Soviet Government remain indifferent to the fact that the kindred Ukrainians and Byelo-Russians living on Poland territory and abandoned to their fate were left defenceless. In view of this situation the Soviet Government instructed the high command of the Red Army to order their troops to cross the frontier and to protect the lives and property of the population of western Ukraine and Byelo-Russia.
After this happened, the war which had existed between the two countries was officially over and Poland was no longer a threat to the Soviet Union. Those elements of the Polish population who still posed a threat were deported by the Soviet authorities to various parts of Siberia in 1940.
The situation with the Germans was very different. Despite the fact that the Germans were occupying Poland, a state of war still existed between the two countries because Polish soldiers were still fighting the Germans in France, and in England, therefore every Polish officer was for the Germans a potential danger. And it is known from the Polish army statistics that in September 1939 the Russians took into captivity about ten to twelve thousand Polish officers. It is also known that those officers were mainly placed at two camps. At Kozielsk there were about 4.500 people and at Starobielsk about 4.000. There was a third camp at Ostashkov. However, the Russians mainly kept police officers and K.O.P. there.
From the memoirs of the officers who were held at Kozielsk and Starobielsk, we know that from the beginning of 1940 Soviet Boards of Control visited the three camps. One of these, a medical one, vaccinated the prisoners against typhoid and cholera, while another listed every prisoner's personal details - birth, last home address, occupation before the war and where they would like to settle when released from captivity. When both boards of control had finished their work, the prisoners were separated according to the areas of their occupation zones and rumours spread that those from Central and Western Poland would soon be sent back to the places where they had lived. And indeed, from the beginning of April 1940, the camp authorities began to send groups of around 200-300 people towards Smolensk from where officers who lived in Central and Western Poland were directed to Brest, and the rest were sent to local camps near Smolensk. I could not establish how many thousand Polish officers were handed over to the Germans by the Soviet authorities from April 1940 to the time of the German -Russian war of 1941. One thing only is known, namely that once the Polish
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officers had crossed the German border all trace of them vanished until 13th of April 1943 when the German radio announced the sensational news to the world of the discovery of the mass graves of murdered Polish officers in the woods of Katyn. I have reason to believe that some, perhaps 2.000 or 3.000 of the officers found in the woods of Katyn, must have come from the region of Smolensk occupied by the Germans in 1941, and the rest must have been brought in from the places known only to the Germans. Knowing the history of Hitlerite atrocities, I have no doubt that the Germans planned the murders and carried them out with German precision. They knew that the sudden disappearance of several thousand Polish officers known by everybody to be in Soviet captivity, would awaken grave suspicions in their friends who were still in the Soviet Union and would become a bone of contention in Polish-Soviet relations. And indeed, after the signing of the Polish-Russian treaty, there was a friction in our relations because of the Polish officers who failed to register for the Polish army after the announcement of an amnesty.
Really it should not surprise anyone that the Germans did all in their power to sow the seed of discontent between the Poles and the Russians, because they feared their unity against them. The proof that such German conspiracy existed I quote the story entitled "Salus" written by Zdzislaw Bau and published in the "Paryska Kultura" No.4/367/1978 in which he states that at the beginning of December 1941 there reported to General Anders headquarters in Buzuluk four people of whom Lieutenant Szatkowski was in charge, and stated that they had come from Poland and belonged to the underground movement called "Mushketers". The above mentioned group brought with them microfilms and rumours that the missing Polish officers had been murdered somewhere near Smolensk. The contents of the microfilms have never been disclosed, probably because that group of people, when in Poland worked with the Gestapo and were sent simply to create discord within the Polish army and distrust toward the Russians. This kind of provocation on the part of Germans was common occurence and only went to prove that they would go to any length to fuel anger between the Poles and the Russians, and to prevent any kind of Slav unity. From this same point of view one must look at the discovery of the graves at Katyn by the Germans. It is well known that in the spring of 1943 the Germans were in retreat along the whole of the Eastern front and the discovery of the graves of those murdered (by them) was no accidental at all, as was said by the German press and propaganda, but a well planned and calculated move by the Gestapo headquarters, who wished to create in the Polish nation hostile feelings towards the advancing Red Army.
Of course if one looks at the situation from the German point of view one could not find fault with the whole procedure. In fact I would say that the Germans behaved as any country at war during which one is allowed to turn to all ways of creating discord within, or weakening ones enemies. One cannot also blame the Germans that the Poles allowed themselves to be taken in, which in this case means that they listened to and believed the Goebbels propaganda. In my opinion the Germans played the case of Katyn like experts. They placed the blame for the massacre at the Russians' door, thereby easing the road of their own retreat through Poland's territory. At the same
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time they caused grave arguments between the Poles and the Russians, and if we add to that the fact that they caused also disharmony in the camp of our allies one must admit that they attained a great deal, and for that one admires them.
There is not one element of doubt in my mind that the Germans knew that by uncovering the Katyn massacre they found their most profitable exit since in a very short time the area would be claimed by the Russians and then the cat would be out of the bag because the local people had seen the Polish prisoners before and after the German occupation, and they also knew that right after the occupation of Smolensk the Germans went hunting for the fugitives from the Polish camps.
It is also worthwhile to note that at place called Kosogory where one would find the summer residence of the NKVD was, until the war, open to the local population, and it was only when the Germans arrived that the whole place was fenced off and very carefully guarded, so that no one would enter.
Even the Russians labourers who were employed in the Germans' kitchens were not allowed to enter the local woods in which later the graves of the murdered officers were discovered. So from the very behaviour of the Germans one can deduce that right from their arrival in the area they had their murderous plans but worked hard to make sure there was no knowledge of them.
During my stay at Vorkuta I met in camp number 10 a German major who in 1941 was engaged in the occupation of Smolensk, and from him I know that the Germans did in fact take over several camps of the Polish prisoners of war in the area. Once during a conversation with him I asked his opinion about Katyn. He unreservedly told me that it was the Germans, because it had been in their interest to do this. He was in fact surprised by the outcry created by the Poles. The major was of the opinion that a good soldier and more so an officer should die if his homeland dies. He said that when taken into Soviet hands he was well aware of the fact that he may die and if this situation arose he would accept it with the dignity of the German officer. I also heard from him that the Germans knew about the attempts made by the General Sikorski in Moscow to free the Polish officers and soldiers which would lead to a Polish-Russian agreement. The major did not in the least see the killing of those Polish officers as a crime. He considered that, in the wake of what happened, those Polish officers were a grave threat to Germany. I heard this opinion repeated many times by other German prisoners of war.
In camp number 11 at Vorkuta I met Wlodzimierz Mandryk who until the war and during the occupation worked in the main post office at Smolensk. Mr.Mandryk with all certainity claims that from 1940 there had been camps with Polish prisoners of war in them near Smolensk. He was even prepared to state when they were liquidated by the Germans. According to his story it happened between August and October 1941, as at that time the post office stopped receiving letters written in the camps, and any correspondence addressed to the camps, on German instruction, was destroyed. Mr.Mandryk remembered also that it was about this time that the Germans let it be known that Polish prisoners of war had been sent back to Poland.
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In the autumn of 1952 I was transfered to Norylsk and there in camp number 4 met Captain Wladyslaw Zak who in September 1939 was taken into Soviet captivity. We lived in the same barrack for nearly a year and I was a witness to many discussions and arguments on the subject of Katyn amongst the Poles, but Captain Zak always used to be in charge during these discussions and he claimed that he had no doubt whatsoever that Katyn was a German affair and that he would have shared the fate of his murdered comrades had fate not decreed otherwise. For two weeks before the German invasion of the Soviet Union he was taken from the camp near Smolensk and transported to a prison in Moscow where he was accused of spying and sabotage, and was sentenced to ten years. To the camp near Smolensk, Captain Zak was transported with a group of Polish officers towards the end of April 1940. All the other Poles that I met at Norylsk were prepared to believe that the Polish officers had died from the hand of the Russians, these were mostly from the Polish underground army and simply repeated, without thought, what had been put forward by Nazi propaganda and reactionary Polish groups in London.
In my opinion Captain Zak was an important witness in the Katyn case because his story in the greater part corresponded with stories of other Polish officers who in 1942 left with the Polish army for the Middle East.
From the memoirs I have read about Katyn amongst others was a book by Stanislaw Swianiewicz called "In the Shadow of Katyn", also a book by Juzef Czapski called "On an Inhuman Land". I learned that Polish prisoners of war in Soviet captivity were not too badly off and were in fact treated quite well. For instance Juzef Czapski writes in his book about a camp for officers in which in 1940 the Russian authorities kept three Polish generals: H.Minkiewicz, M.Smorowinski and B.Bohaterewicz, and on the day that they were to leave, the camp authorities organised a farewell dinner. For someone who does not know the Soviet Union this gesture would not have any deeper meaning. However for me and others like me who spent quite a few years in the Soviet Union it clearly indicates that the camp authorities in this way showed their respect for those high ranking officers. For me, even the mention of the fact that the officers leaving the camp at Kozielsk received herrings not wrapped traditionally in newspaper but in brand new gray paper also indicates that those leaving the camp were returning to Poland and the Russians wished to show off in front of the Germans that they were also a civilised country. Only people who have spent many years in Russia would understand the meaning of such small gestures. I am sure that the authorities of the camp from which the Polish officers were leaving had no other way of creating a good impression. To those who, without thought, accuse the Russians of murdering the Polish officers I suggest that they should concern themselves more with the small details of every day life for the Poles in Russia because those small details led to the signing of a Polish-Russian Treaty in 1941 and led to the release of many thousand Polish prisoners from labour camps and the formation of the Polish army in the USSR.
In July 1953 I was sent with a group of invalids to Irkutsk district, to camp number 233 which was near Nova Czunka. In that camp I met Father Kozera who was very interested in the case of Katyn. During his stay in many camps
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over a period of eight years, Father Kozera had collected many interesting materials which led him to the final conclusion that the murder at Katyn had been committed by the Germans. However, of all the people that I have met, the most convincing evidence was held by the Russian major, who before the war worked in the Smolensk Forestry Commission, and after the entry of Germans took up work on the railways and in the resistance. That major told me that his interest in the murdered officers happened by pure chance, when one of his men informed him that the Germans had surrounded the area of Kosogory with the barbed wire and erected notices that the entry to the area was forbidden.
"I thought", says the major, "that the Germans were building there some secret army installations or an ammunition damp, so I ordered my men to check. However when I was informed that the local people had seen German transport lorries full of Polish prisoners of war entering the area I decided that the Germans must have built a camp to hold the Poles there. At the beginning of 1943 I was transported to Germany as a part of a labour force, and when I heard that the Germans had discovered in Katyn woods the graves of murdered Polish officers and hung the blame on the Soviet Union, it was then that I became aware of the whole perfidy of Nazi propaganda".
That major from Smolensk was a person met only by chance and that is why his declaration convinces me that only the Germans are responsible for the death of those Polish officers at Katyn.
In all I spent nine years in the Soviet Union, two as a deportee and seven in labour camps. During that time I went through a lot, saw many things, and met thousands of interesting people, and I am of the opinion that, if the Soviet authorities had wanted to rid themselves of those Polish officers they would turned to their well tried methods of sending them to Nova Zemlya, Kolyma or Norylsk, as they had already done with millions of Russians and Ukrainians political opponents and there at least half would die within the year of cold, hanger and illness.
As an ex political prisoner sentenced by the Soviet Military Tribunal in Lvov to twenty five years in a labour camp, I am far from trying to exonorate the Soviet system. I was myself an innocent victim and it is only due to the death of a tyrant that I was saved. I also got to know the whole of the criminal history of the Stalin times, and know that many hundreds of thousands were shot and many millions were sent to Siberian labour camps from which only small numbers returned. And if I stand in their defence it is only to correct false opinions in the case of Katyn as I know that the information spread was done so in bad faith and by irresponsible people.
I have to admit that despite its unfairness and its atrocities the communist system differs from that of the Nazi one as it always tried to keep up appearance of low and order. Soviet courts, right from the beginning of their existence, sentenced people to death by shooting. However, those sentences were carried out in prisons and only after confirmation by the Soviet Supreme Courts or the Supreme Soviet.
By this I wish to say that during the time of Stalin the communist system existed in a very degenerate way but its jurisdiction never allowed for the mass killing of people without trial as happened in the Katyn wood. This kind
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of killing only happened in Russia during the revolution. So therefore the findings of the International Commission gathered from countries under German occupation cannot be taken into account as they had to work under supervision of the Gestapo. Professor Buhtz who was from the University of Wroclaw and helped in the process of exhumation may have known the truth but he was later shot by the Germans. On the basis of the materials that I have gathered I have all the proofs necessary to say that the accusations of the Polish Government in London had wholly political motives. I have to say the same of General Anders who, on hearing the news about the Katyn Massacre, started to display unhealthy psychic symptoms - ordering to form at the headquarters of the Polish Army in Russia an Office of Documentation and searching party for the missing Polish officers. He also ordered Captain J.Czapski to gather slanderous material against the Soviet Union from which after he left Russia Captain J.Czapski wrote and published a book entitled "On an Inhumane Land" with the intention to poison Polish-Russian relations. Here I must add that the appointment of General Anders as commander in chief of the Polish Army in Russia was one of the greater mistakes and incapability of picking the right person for the right job shown by General Sikorski. Had General Boruta-Spiechowicz been appointed commander in chief, I am sure that he would not have been afraid to fight on the Eastern front. He would not have bothered by Russian rye bread or sleeping on the straw matrass. He would have known how to look to the future, and would have been at the head of the Polish Army entering a free Warsaw. We know that General Anders could not forget the humiliating times he spent in prison, and breathed hatred and contempt for Russia and Russian people and right from the start did everything in his power to create the worst possible relations between the Russian and Polish commands. With every step he showed great reluctance bordering on fear whenever the question of the Polish Army fighting on Soviet front come to a head.
Right from the beginning he maneuvered so as to take the Polish Army out of Russia to the Middle East. Together with Polish Ambassador Kot they failed to realise that they held office of great importance in an unique system, and acted very selfishly as if they were in their own yard, and created by their own behaviour great harm to Poles and Poland.
Between the diplomatic correspondence in the Archive of Polish Institute in London, and in the British Public Record Office I discovered that some answers given by the Soviet authorities to the question of the missing Polish officers have been concealed from the public.
Soviet answers were as follows:
On the 8 September 1941 Molotov declared in accordance with the announced amnesty on 13 August that year: As ordered by the President of the Supreme Council of the USSR, all citizens of Poland who had been deprived of their freedom, such as prisoners of war or other good reason are freed, and within the stated categories the freed prisoners the Soviet authorities will allocate financial help.
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* * *
Stalin in his talks with Polish Ambassador Kot on 18 March 1942 said: I have ordered that all Polish people be freed. Why should I keep them? It could be they found themselves in German territory, dispersed or escaped.
* * *
Minister of Security Beria replied: We made a great mistake in giving the greater part to the Germans.
Commissar Wyshynski said: We have returned all the people we have - we cannot return those that we do not have.
* * *
In the above mentioned statements it clearly shows that both Ambassador Kot and General Anders received adequate information about the fate of the missing Polish officers and one can only show surprise that both misled Polish Government in London and supported Germans in the Katyn affair.
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AUTHOR'S CONCLUSIONS
To end this sad story I would like to advise Poles that they should once and for all, stop nursing grievance towards their Eastern neighbour because of Poland's changed geography and frontiers after the war.
In fact every true Pole should not only be satisfied with the result but also be grateful to those who were its creators. When I returned from the labour camp in 1956 and visited our western territories, I realised the economic significance of the new Polish frontiers and, in my heart, even forgave Stalin for the suffering inflicted on me and my family as he had been the main force behind the creation of the Polish frontiers.
To all those who still obstinately dream of a Poland streaching from the Baltic to the Black Sea, I include a letter from Winston Churchill which is well worth reading. It leads one to ponder over the character of Poles who often do not know what they want, nor what they possess and do not want to know that the Soviet Union sacrificed many millions of Soviet soldiers so that Poles could have their own independent state, something which they would never have been able to achieve on their own.
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PRIME MINISTER TO FOREIGN OFFICE
7th January 1944
1. I do not think the Poles need come but I will let you know in 48 hours.
2. I rather contemplate telling the world that we declared war for Poland and that the Polish nation shall have a proper land to live in but we have never undertaken to defend existing Polish frontiers, and that 20 or 30 millions of Russians lives has a right to the inexpungable security of her Western frontiers.
3. Moreover without the Russians armies Poland would have been destroyed or liquidated to a servile condition and the very existence of the Polish nation blotted out. But the valour and prowess of the Russian armies are liberating Poland and no other forces in the world could have done it. Poland is now assigned a position as a great independent nation in the heart of Europe with the fine seaboard an a better territory than she had before. If she does not accept this, Britain had discharged to the full her obligations and the Poles can make their own arrangements with the Soviets.
4. I do not think we should give the slightest hope of further help or recognition unless they cordially support the decision which we and our Soviet ally have reached. They must be very silly if they imagine we are going to begin a new war with Russia for the sake of the Polish Eastern frontier. Nations who are found incapable of defending their country must accept a responsible measure of guidance from those who have rescued them and who offer them the prospect of the sure freedom and independence.
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POLISH PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC
Government Representative
of Repatriation Centre
in Grabanov.
REPATRIATION CERTIFICATE No 22393
Citizen SWIATEK Romuald, the son of Franciszek
born on 20.3.1928 in Woronie.
Come to Poland from the U.S.S.R. on 8.11.1956.
In accordance with Polish Government Decree
No 739/55 of 10.8.1955 all state institutions
are requested to provide as much help as possible
to the bearer of this certificate.
Director of the Repatriation Centre
Attention: The bearer of this cetificate should register
within 24 hours after his/her arrival to his/her place of abode.
The repatriation document of author.
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