Justice-4-Poland.com
Connecting true geography and detailed unfolding of wide variety of crimes perpetrated by German/Ukrainian Nazis and jewish bolsheviks of Soviet Union on the Polish nation.
Remembering Katyń
On this day in 1940, a decision was made that would condemn thousands of Polish citizens to death and leave a scar on the conscience of Europe for generations.
On March 5, 1940, Joseph Stalin and members of the Soviet Politburo approved a secret proposal submitted by Lavrentiy Beria, the head of the Soviet secret police (NKVD). The document authorized the execution of more than 22,000 Polish prisoners held by the Soviet Union following the joint German–Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, which had begun after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
These prisoners were not soldiers captured in battle, they were officers of the Polish Army, reserve officers drawn from the educated classes, police officers, border guards, doctors, professors, engineers, priests, lawyers, and civil servants, this included, roughly 700–1,000 Jewish victims. In other words, they were the backbone of Polish society. Many had already survived the collapse of their country and the trauma of Soviet imprisonment, believing they were simply being held as prisoners of war. Instead, their names were placed on execution lists.
Over the following weeks in the spring of 1940, Soviet NKVD units carried out mass executions at several locations, most famously in the forests near Katyń Forest, but also at sites near Kalinin (Tver), Kharkiv, and elsewhere. Prisoners were taken one by one, their hands bound, and shot in the back of the head. Their bodies were buried in mass graves in an attempt to erase the crime.
This atrocity became known to history as the Katyn massacre.
For decades the truth was buried along with the victims. After the graves were discovered during the war, the Soviet Union denied responsibility and falsely blamed Nazi Germany. Under communist rule in Poland, discussing the truth about Katyn was dangerous and often forbidden. Families of the murdered officers lived with uncertainty, silence, and official lies.
Only in 1990 did the Soviet government finally admit that the NKVD had carried out the executions under orders from Stalin and the Politburo.
The crime was not only an act of mass murder but an attempt to destroy the leadership and future of Poland itself. By eliminating thousands of officers and intellectuals, the Soviet regime sought to cripple the nation’s ability to resist domination.
Yet memory endured.
Today the victims of Katyn are remembered not simply as statistics but as fathers, sons, scholars, soldiers, and citizens who represented the spirit of a nation that refused to disappear. Their story remains one of the most powerful reminders of the human cost of totalitarian power and the importance of historical truth.
History can be suppressed for a time, but it cannot be erased…
Edward Reid on Facebook
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ENOUGH LIES
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DOSYĆ KŁAMSTW
Walczmy z przejawami antypolonizmu
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