America deliberately helped Russia cover up one of its most infamous Second World War atrocities to gain favour with Stalin, new documents suggest.More than 22,000 captured Polish officers and other prisoners were systematically murdered in the Katyn forest on the western edge of Russia in 1940. Read more: America 'hid Russia's WW2 massacre' - World news, News - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk Newly released army documents prove that two American POWs wrote encoded messages to Army intelligence after their 1943 visit to Katyn, pointing to Soviet guilt for the 1940 massacre Read more: Declassified documents prove U.S. DID help cover up 1940 Katyn massacre where Soviets slaughtered 22,000 Polish officers | Mail Online
America deliberately helped Russia cover up one of its most infamous Second World War atrocities to gain favour with Stalin, new documents suggest.More than 22,000 captured Polish officers and other prisoners were systematically murdered in the Katyn forest on the western edge of Russia in 1940. Read more: America 'hid Russia's WW2 massacre' - World news, News - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk Newly released army documents prove that two American POWs wrote encoded messages to Army intelligence after their 1943 visit to Katyn, pointing to Soviet guilt for the 1940 massacre Read more: Declassified documents prove U.S. DID help cover up 1940 Katyn massacre where Soviets slaughtered 22,000 Polish officers | Mail Online Very interesting Peter. I really hope to see as soon as possible a new book able to explain these new discoveries and to redefine what we know about this massacre.
I remember being at Glasgow's Polish Club (i cannot recall the correct title) in the mid-1980s. There was a plaque at the entrance that left you in no doubt as to who the Galswegian Poles believed were responsible for the Kaytn massacre. And it wasn't the Germans! This was before Glasnost etc. Roxy
From a paragraph in one of the above links. The long-held suspicion is that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not want to anger Russian leader Josef Stalin, an ally whom the Americans were counting on to defeat Germany and Japan during the war. Read more: America 'hid Russia's WW2 massacre' - World news, News - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk I had no idea that Russia and America were Allies prior to Pearl harbour in 1941. As Germany and Russia had a non aggression pact I do not think that the statement is correct and would like comments from forum members who may know more on the subject. Everything that I have read in the past places Russia as the guilty party for the atrocities commited soon after the carve up of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union. Regards Tom
I had no idea that Russia and America were Allies prior to Pearl harbour in 1941. They weren't. But the story of the massacre didn't reach the West until the Germans revealed it in spring 1943, by which time the Anglo-American-Soviet alliance was a reality. To be honest, I don't think this story really adds much to what we already knew about Katyn. It's already been long established that the British and Americans (a) suspected what had really happened and (b) suppressed that knowledge in the interests of the wartime alliance. Best, Alan
Alan, It was my futile attempt at being sarcastic regarding the Allies comment. I have a couple of books relating to Enigma and Ultra, but there is no mention of Katyn Forest. In the Film Enigma there was a section that showed the code broken and the communications made by the Germans on the discovery of the massacre. Perhaps this is pure artistic licence, but it makes you think that such interceptions could have been made and covered up due to Political pressure. Regards Tom
The press often presents things that are common knowledge among historians as 'shocking revelations.'
I despise these post-events, moral-highground grabbing headlines that profess shock and horror at "what our country is guilty of". I'm British and I'm proud of it, I tend to view the British Empire as a good thing and I point to our process of de-colonisation (by and large we generally left when we were asked to) that left countries in better conditions than we found them. With better systems of government, education and transport. I have always viewed Britain as a progressive nation and I find that no other nation can compare to us on our track record. Did we make mistakes yes of-course we did but we generally left the world in a better state than which we found it. As for charges of culpability against either the US or Britain in the Katyn Forest massacre all I have to say is poppycock! Neither the US nor Britian has any culpability in this, this is all Stalin. Whether the US/Britain condemned this, accepted Soviet culpability or even pressed for the Soviets to be held accountable in an international court would not have mattered one little bit. When it was done, it was done and nothing could undo it. After that the realpolitk insisted that we keep the Soviets onside until WWII was won! The big error the we made was in letting the Soviets get to Berlin first! Eisenhower was wrong, it wasn't just a place on the map...it was far more important than that! And the death of 22,000 Polish officers, whilst supremely tragic, is nothing in comparison to the veil of misery and tragedy that descended on Eastern Europe in the aftermath of WWII. Something that the West could do nothing about either! When it had happened it had happened and nothing short of Nuclear war was going to fix it! The Soviet secret police killed the 22,000 Poles with shots to the back of the head. Their aim was to eliminate a military and intellectual elite that would have put up stiff resistance to Soviet control. The men were among Poland's most accomplished — officers and reserve officers who in their civilian lives worked as doctors, lawyers, teachers, or as other professionals. Their loss has proven an enduring wound to the Polish nation. I have a great deal of respect for the Poles and I honour them for all they have endured throughout history. They have always been toyed with at the whim of either the Prussians or the Russians, and in this case both of them! Even Napoleon manipulated them to his own ends! Pity the poor Pole who never had a country of his own until the Berlin wall came down...but he has always fought with tenacity and bravery where ever he met his enemy. We should also remember that Stalin killed approximately 20 Million of his own countrymen, (possibly even more than that) including the officer class of the Soviet Army who were the first to suffer this fate and before WWII had started. Stalin was making sure that there was no-one around to challenge his dominance and this absence of an effective officer class is one reason why the Nazi's had such gains in the early days of the Soviet invasion. When the Soviets rolled over Eastern Poland in 1941 the NKVD simply extended this policy to the Polish army also. Stalin may not actually have said that the "Death of one man is a tragedy, but the death of a million is a statistic" but there are very good reasons why it has always, and almost exclusively, been attributed to him! The man was a monster and he shall go down in history as such!
Atrocities are committed by those who think they won't get caught or that the world won't care. When it came to what happened at Katyn, it could be argued that Josef Stalin was half right. I met one of the widows of Katyn in 2000. This is her story. https://ww2thebigone.com/2016/04/29/the-katyn-massacre/
BBC approx 9 min audio: Witness History - The Katyn Massacre - BBC Sounds "Tens of thousands of Polish officers were secretly executed in the USSR during World War 2. The German occupying forces reported the first mass grave, in the village of Katyn in 1943, but Moscow only admitted to the killings in 1990. Dina Newman speaks to the son of one of the murdered officers, Waclaw Gasiorowski." "Photo: Gasiorowski family in Warsaw in 1936. Credit: family archive"
Now a few years ago I discovered the Kaytn memorial @ Cannock Chase, Staffordshire and there are several web links to view. This is one: Katyn Memorial - Brendan Jackson There is an annual service on the 17th May. Looking at the images it has been restored since my last visit - when it looked rather forlorn.
I would recommend reading 'Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, The Nazis and The West' by Laurence Rees, which was published by the BBC in 2009. It accompanies a TV series, with six episodes, made by the BBC and PBS, and was first broadcast in 2008. It was repeated since my previous post in April 2019. It is available online for free on: BBC Two - World War II: Behind Closed Doors
Damage to Katyn Cemetery/Memorial: https://twitter.com/novayapolsha/status/1506642367247532037?s=20&t=MtXy5PLe2BNbVtVgGA79yg
