Those of you who have listened to my recent podcast on the infamous Cannock Chase will have heard me mention a memorial to something which happened hundreds of miles east, affecting Poland to be accurate.
Most people are aware of the murders which occured in places like Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor etc, but what knowledge do you have of the killings that were perpetuated against the Poles themselves? In August of 1939, the non-aggression agreement was signed between the Soviet Union and Germany, neighbours of Poland to the East and West, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The failure of this is what partially led Stalin to swap sides and to move across to the allies, but that was not before ordering the deaths of thousands beforehand.
When the Soviets started to invade their “half” of Poland, they decided to round up and imprison all those they thought to be a threat to their rule, that included Military officers, Police, Intelligence and Counterintelligence…these were placed into prison camps such as Kozelsk, Starobielsk and Ostashkow - all in Soviet Russia, and all NKVD sites, then the executions began. The chief of the NKVD, Lavrentiy Beria proposed to Stalin that they rid themselves of the problem of Polish Officer Corp, and the leader of the Soviet Union agreed to it, signing what is believed to be around twenty thousand people’s death warrants. There was to be no trials for these individuals, no assessments to find out if they were a threat to Soviet leadership, they would be shot without any due process whatsoever.
The prisons were overcrowded, with a lack of water and food, lists of those held there would be released daily for those who were being moved on (the Soviet internal documents called it “unloading”), what they did not realise is that they were not being set free, they would be taken somewhere and shot in the back of the head.
When on 14th August 1941, General Anders formed the Polish Army (known as Anders’ Army) from Poles who had been either incarcerated or forced into exile, he was also able to start investigating those who were missing, but received little help from the Soviet authorities, not surprising really with hindsight.
On the 13th April 1943, German radio announced the discovery of a mass grave in the Katyn Forrest which contained the bodies of over three thousand Polish Officers. A couple of days later, Pravda (the Soviet media) came up with the theory that it had obviously been committed by the Nazi forces who had murdered anyone they found in Soviet Prisoner of War camps when they invaded the USSR. What Stalin and his cronies did not know at the time was that the Germans had actually discovered this site nearly a year before making it public, so they knew these poor souls had not been killed under their authority.
Overall, it is believed that this series of murders took the lives of around twenty two thousand Poles, whilst not all were buried at Katyn, the name has become the symbol for this horrific time. There is also a belief that all the victims were men, this is not true as it has been confirmed that at least one was a woman, a pilot in the Polish air force, 2nd Lieutenant Janina Lewandowska. Researchers into the genocide believe that there are at least fifty four other women whose names were on the kill list who have yet to be identified (przystanekhistoria.pl). Adults may seem fair game whether male or female, but there were also sixty five minors between the ages of 8 and 17 held prisoner, and whilst many were released, there are a number unaccounted for.
What is even more disgusting is that it was not until April 1990 that Moscow admitted involvement, but to date, no criminal charges have been brought, partly because those who still survive are reluctant to say anything and also because the Russian federation does not recognise what happened in Katyn and the other areas as genocide.
But what happened to the man behind it all? Beria himself was exposed as a sexual predator and rapist - even Stalin would not allow him to be alone with his daughter - and was shot in 1953, through the forehead by General Pavel Batistky, apparently on his knees begging for his life...
I cannot begin to convey the entire history that led to this, there is so much you can read, not least the lists of names of those who have been given their identities back after their discovery, but I would suggest if you are ever in Warsaw, you visit muzeumkatynskie.pl to learn more about this horrendous mass murder.