Common graves of Katyn forest, April 1943

[Drakan]

I've always felt anger at this particular episode in WWII. . The latest film on the matter has been Enigma, although only indirectly.

IIRC more than four thousand officers of the polish army were assassined by there fellow Allies the Russians. The Germans discovered the graves and took advantage dividing the Allies on the issue. The Russians blamed the Germans. Eventually it was found it was the Russians who had wipped off the best of the polish Army, the highest ranking officers so as to prevent any future dissidents and opposition once they took over Poland in the near future.

I wonder what other people think of it

 

[~Corsair#01~]

Ah, Katyn. One of Stalin's many paranoid butchering sessions. Not really much to say about it, really.

 

[Lonkut]

This goes to show the true side of stalin: lying and blaming every murder on the nazis.

 

[North King]

Just one of many horrible acts throughout that war. Most every participating country did them, even the glorified home of freedom, the USA.

 

[pkmink]

Katyn was part of Stalin's campaign to wipe out the Polish intelligentia (most of the officers shot there were reservists, i.e. they were doctors, engineers, teachers as civilian jobs), just like Hitler did it in 1939 with the "AB-Aktion" ("Extraordinary Pacification Campaign") in which thousands of prominent Poles were summarily shot.

The graves themselves were only discovered in 1943, although the Polish government-in-exile in London had reported that there were 15.000 Polish POW's (who had been taken prisoner by the Soviets in 1939) listed missing as of 1940. The Poles suspected Soviet ill-intent but couldn't prove anything until later. The Western Allies needed the Soviets on board and didn't want to make too much fuss about it (although privately they shared the suspicions of the Poles).

In hindsight, the Katyn killings can be seen as first act in the Cold War: The Soviet Union brutally pacifying one of its future satellite states.

 

[Vrylakas]

Katyn has become a symbol of Poland's general geo-strategic position, between East and West. The Nazis immediately began liquidating the Polish intelligentsia in September-October 1939 through mass executions, and the Soviets considered the (remnants of) the Polish army to be their most likely source of opposition in their half of conquered Poland.

My wife's grandfather, a Polish officer, just escaped being sent to the three camps surrounding Gniezdowo village (near Katyn forest) by being captured by Germans and, being a polyglot, he was sent instead to a camp in Austria where he survived the war by translating for the Germans. Here is a link to a decent website on the Katyn murders. The story has been told so many times I can't bare to go through it again, but I'll end with the lyrics (which I'll have to translate later from home) of a very popular 1980s song written/performed by a famous underground musician in Poland, Jacek Kaczmarski (who just died recently...). Kaczmarski used to perform with other similar musicians (Przemyslaw Gintrowski, etc.) with very political songs in the communist years. This song was written when the official (communist) government story was that the massacre was a Nazi crime (instead of the Soviets, who admitted to it only in 1989).

Katyn, by Jacek Kaczmarski

Ciśnie się do światła niby warstwy skóry.
Tłok patrzących twarzy spod ruszonej darni
Spoglądają jedna znad drugiej - do góry -
Ale nie ma ruin. To nie gród wymarły.

Raz odkryte - krzyczą zatęchłymi usty,
Lecą sobie przez ręce wypróchniałe w środku
W rów, co nigdy więcej nie będzie już pusty -
Ale nie ma krzyży. To nie groby przodków.

Sprzączki i guziki z orzełkiem ze rdzy,
Po miskach czerepów - robaków gonitwy,
Zgniłe zdjęcia, pamiątki, mapy miast i wsi
Ale nie ma broni. To nie pole bitwy.

Może wszyscy byli na to samo chorzy?
Te same nad karkiem okrągłe urazy
Przez które do ziemi dar odpynął Boży
Ale nie ma znaków, że to grób zarazy.

Jeszcze rosną drzewa, które to widziały.
Jeszcze ziemia pamięta kształt buta, smak krwi.
Niebo zna język, w którym komendy padały,
Nim padły wystrzały, którymi wciąż brzmi.

Ale to świadkowie żywi - więc stronniczy.
Zresztą, by ich słuchać - trzeba wejść do żony.
Na milczenie tych świadków może pan ich liczyć -
Pan powietrza i ziemi i drzew uwięzionych.

Oto świat bez śmierci. Świat śmierci bez mordu,
Świat mordu bez rozkazu, rozkazu bez głosu.
Świat głosu bez ciała i ciała bez Boga,
Świat Boga bez imienia, imienia - bez losu.

Jest tylko jedna taka świata strona,
Gdzie coś, co nie istnieje - wciąż o pomstę woła.
Gdzie już śmiechem nawet mogiła nie czczona,
Dół nieominięty - dla orła sokoła...