There are two important events on this date that happened during WW2. One is probably better known here - it is the airborne invasion of Netherlans in 1944 (Operation Market Garden)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/17/newsid_3662000/3662264.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Market_Garden
made by joint airborne forces of USA, UK and Poland (Army that was formed in UK). It's nice to know that in Netherlands people remember - I saw that people from cities that were liberated by Polish paratroopers (Gen. Sosabowski's division) and later by armoured division of Gen. Maczek (read: Matchek) even today recognize it. Example: city Breda http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breda
This operation was described in a movie "A bridge too far" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bridge_Too_Far_(novel)
Second anniversary is not so cheerful. It's the 1939 invasion of Poland by USSR. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland_(1939)
As a consequence of Ribbentrop-Molotov pact joint Nazi-Soviet forces torn Polish Second Republic in half. Today 1999 Oscar winner Andrzej Wajda presented his last movie "Katyń 1940". Last because he is retiring and will not be a director any more because of age.
The movie tells a story very important to Poles. It describes the murder of 20.000-25.000 Polish Army officers in forest of Katyń, Charków, Miednoje, Kozielsk and other unknown places. The massacre took place in 1940, in 1943 Nazis discovered the mass graves and informed public opinion. However until 1990 (yes 1990) USSR and then Russia denied that it was made by them and accused Nazis for this genocide. In 1990 Russia finally admitted that this massacre was done by NKVD (Soviet Internal Police) but even today they deny to classify it as genocide. NKVD murderers shot in head 20.000-25.000 of Polish Army officers without any reason, without any guilt and without any trial - only basing on an order written by Lawrentij Beria and signed by Stalin, Molotov, Mikoyan, Voroshylov.
The fact that Russia today denies to consider it genocide is intentional - genocide never obsoletes. They classify it as normal murder to make it obsolete and do not try to find those of NKVD officers who are still alive to judge them.
It's important to say that only 8.000 of those soldiers were taken in prison during 1939 Soviet invasion. In Poland before war each student that graduated from an university was granted an officer's rank, but he was not drafted. Only in case of war those educated people would be commanders. Soviets used this fact to arrest ~16.000 of intelligentsia (which makes the total number of ~25.000).
The movie is quite personal - Wajda's father was one of the murdered. However it does not focus on the massacre only on the fate of women and children in Poland that waited for their fathers. Wajda's mother died in 1950 still not knowing if her husband is alive somewhere in Siberia, killed by Germans or killed by Russians. This "Kłamstwo Katyńskie" (Katyń Lie) is an important issue in Poland as our imposed by Red Army government was trying to make Nazis guilt for this massacre. It was forbidden to say anything else than the official, Russian, version. It took exactly 50 years (1940-1990) to make the truth see the daylight. I hope that Russia today will have enough courage to admit that it was genocide and will not make any more problems, as Russia is doing now, to let our historians work on it. Today Putin has no will to consider Katyń massacre a genocide and Russian prosecutors are working hard to hide all they can. In 1992-1993 president Yeltsin handed part of the Soviet documents to president Wałęsa, later cooperation ceased...
Movie webiste: http://katyn.netino.pl/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/17/newsid_3662000/3662264.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Market_Garden
made by joint airborne forces of USA, UK and Poland (Army that was formed in UK). It's nice to know that in Netherlands people remember - I saw that people from cities that were liberated by Polish paratroopers (Gen. Sosabowski's division) and later by armoured division of Gen. Maczek (read: Matchek) even today recognize it. Example: city Breda http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breda
This operation was described in a movie "A bridge too far" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bridge_Too_Far_(novel)
Second anniversary is not so cheerful. It's the 1939 invasion of Poland by USSR. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland_(1939)
As a consequence of Ribbentrop-Molotov pact joint Nazi-Soviet forces torn Polish Second Republic in half. Today 1999 Oscar winner Andrzej Wajda presented his last movie "Katyń 1940". Last because he is retiring and will not be a director any more because of age.
The movie tells a story very important to Poles. It describes the murder of 20.000-25.000 Polish Army officers in forest of Katyń, Charków, Miednoje, Kozielsk and other unknown places. The massacre took place in 1940, in 1943 Nazis discovered the mass graves and informed public opinion. However until 1990 (yes 1990) USSR and then Russia denied that it was made by them and accused Nazis for this genocide. In 1990 Russia finally admitted that this massacre was done by NKVD (Soviet Internal Police) but even today they deny to classify it as genocide. NKVD murderers shot in head 20.000-25.000 of Polish Army officers without any reason, without any guilt and without any trial - only basing on an order written by Lawrentij Beria and signed by Stalin, Molotov, Mikoyan, Voroshylov.
The fact that Russia today denies to consider it genocide is intentional - genocide never obsoletes. They classify it as normal murder to make it obsolete and do not try to find those of NKVD officers who are still alive to judge them.
It's important to say that only 8.000 of those soldiers were taken in prison during 1939 Soviet invasion. In Poland before war each student that graduated from an university was granted an officer's rank, but he was not drafted. Only in case of war those educated people would be commanders. Soviets used this fact to arrest ~16.000 of intelligentsia (which makes the total number of ~25.000).
The movie is quite personal - Wajda's father was one of the murdered. However it does not focus on the massacre only on the fate of women and children in Poland that waited for their fathers. Wajda's mother died in 1950 still not knowing if her husband is alive somewhere in Siberia, killed by Germans or killed by Russians. This "Kłamstwo Katyńskie" (Katyń Lie) is an important issue in Poland as our imposed by Red Army government was trying to make Nazis guilt for this massacre. It was forbidden to say anything else than the official, Russian, version. It took exactly 50 years (1940-1990) to make the truth see the daylight. I hope that Russia today will have enough courage to admit that it was genocide and will not make any more problems, as Russia is doing now, to let our historians work on it. Today Putin has no will to consider Katyń massacre a genocide and Russian prosecutors are working hard to hide all they can. In 1992-1993 president Yeltsin handed part of the Soviet documents to president Wałęsa, later cooperation ceased...
Movie webiste: http://katyn.netino.pl/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre
