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]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] SOVIETS MURDER THE TRUTH IN [[[[[[[[[[[
MEMORIAL TO KATYN MASSACRE (1/7/1988)
By Zdzislaw M. Rurarz
Mr. Rurarz is former Polish ambassador to Japan. He was
granted political asylum in the U.S. in 1981.
(From The Wall Street Journal, 6 January 1989, p. A10:3)
[Kindly uploaded by Freeman 10602PANC]
Anyone who believes glasnost has opened the way for truth in
the Soviet Union should be disabused of his opinion by a new
Soviet lie that almost outclasses even the lies of the Stalin
era.
On Nov. 6, Izvestia reported that the Soviet government plans
to erect a memorial at Katyn, in Russia, where ``Polish officers
together with Soviet prisoners ... were shot by the fascists in
1943 as our army approached.'' Moscow World Service confirmed
the memorial plans, saying the slaughter took place ``during the
offensive of Soviet troops in 1943.''
These reports have the audacity to attach new dates to an
atrocity that has never been acknowledged by its perpetrators:
the massacre of 4,134 Polish officers taken prisoner by the Red
Army. Many people in the West are unaware that the massacre ever
took place.
Poland was attacked by Germany on Sept. 1, 1939, and on Sept.
17 by the Red Army, which took about 200,000 Polish troops
prisoner, even though Poland had not declared war on the Soviet
Union. Among the POWs were 15,000 army officers and state
functionaries. Most of them were interned in three POW camps at
Kozielsk, Starobielsk and Ostashkov, in the western part of the
Soviet Union. They were permitted to write to their relatives in
German-occupied Poland, but in April 1940, all such letters
abruptly ceased.
When Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations were re-established in
July 1941, and the Soviets agreed to form the Polish army on
their territory, almost no officers could be found among the
freed Polish POWs. Asked what had happened to them, Stalin told
the Poles that perhaps they had escaped to Manchuria!
On April 13, 1943, German radio reported the discovery in the
Katyn forests near Smolensk of mass graves containing the bodies
of Polish officers who the Germans said were killed by the
Soviets in the spring of 1940.
In response, the Soviets turned the tables and accused the
Germans of the crime, suddenly ``remembering'' that while
retreating from the Germans they had left behind the Polish
officers, who, they said, were then caught by the Germans and
shot ``in the fall of 1941.''
When the Polish government-in-exile in London asked the
International Red Cross to investigate, the Soviet Union broke
diplomatic relations with the exiles and objected to any
investigation. Britain and the U.S. took the Soviet side in the
issue.
But other international experts, including the one from
neutral Switzerland, as well as the Polish Red Cross, established
beyond any doubt the time of the execution -- between April 4 and
May 13, 1940. Evidence found in the pockets of the victims --
such as diaries, unsent letters and Soviet newspapers -- and
forensic tests confirmed the date. In all, 4,143 bodies were
positively identified.
The Soviets recaptured Katyn on Sept. 25, 1943, and formed a
commission to ``investigate the crime.'' On Jan. 24, 1944, the
commission issued a statement, again blaming the Germans. Soviet
forensic experts again ruled that the execution had taken place
``in the fall of 1941.'' Later, during the Nuremberg trial, the
Soviets attempted to accuse the Germans of this crime but were
unsuccessful in proving it and the case was dropped. On Dec. 22,
1952, the U.S. Congress, following an investigation by its Select
Committee on the Katyn Forest Massacre, unanimously ruled that it
was the Soviets who were guilty.
Last year, in the National Archives, I found wartime
photographs -- covering the period Sept. 26, 1943, to June 10,
1944 -- taken by German reconnaissance aircraft of the
Smolensk-Katyn area after it was recaptured by the Red Army. The
photos leave no doubt the cemetery at Katyn -- as it was left by
the Germans -- had been destroyed. The Germans had marked six
mass graves in the shape of squares and put up crosses.
Since World War II the Katyn massacre slipped into
near-oblivion, except in Poland. But it has resurfaced as a
result of a joint declaration by Mikhail Gorbachev and Polish
leader Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski in April 21, 1987. The two
agreed that ``blank spots'' is Soviet-Polish relations would be
removed. Although the Soviets committed many crimes against the
Poles during and after World War II, Katyn remains high on the
agenda, and the joint Soviet-Polish commission of historians has
addressed it. The Polish side has no doubt who is guilty, but
the Soviets keep repeating the old claim to have ``no evidence to
the contrary'' in their archives. The issue remains deadlocked.
Meanwhile, the Katyn cemetery has been opened to the public --
and the Germans are still blamed for the crime. However, the
Soviets have added a twist: They now claim about 500 Soviet POWs
perished with the Polish officers. If that weren't enough, on
Nov. 6, Soviet officials announced a ``new'' date of the
massacre, putting it in 1943, although no details concerning the
month are mentioned.
This new and ridiculous story is a bad omen, and not only for
Soviet-Polish relations: The U.S. agreed Tuesday to a Soviet
proposal that a human-rights conference be held in Moscow in
1991. Mr. Gorbachev has very much wanted the rights talks, and
such a meeting would represent a significant achievement for him.
U.S. officials say they had observed broad improvements in the
Soviets' handling of human rights. But even if under glasnost
the Soviets cannot admit the truth, and instead produce new lies,
can their assertions on human rights be trusted? Is it possible
that by not admitting old crimes the Soviet Union is posed to
commit new ones?
We must be vigilant when we can see such things actually
unfolding before our eyes.
* * *
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