Tag: Katyn

Events, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

Deportees, crimes, and historical recollection

From Polskie Radio: Deportee Day [September 17th] recalls forgotten WW II exodus

Saturday sees the 7th World Day of the Siberian, saluting the hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens who were deported to far-flung corners of the Soviet Union during World War II.

Following tradition, the event is held on 17 September, marking the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939.

Survivors from across the world are expected in Poland. Ceremonies will take place in the northern city of Gdansk, as well as in the nearby village of Szymbark, site of the extensive Siberian House Museum.

Deportees, including the elderly and children, were dispatched from Poland’s Eastern territories following the division of Poland between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939.

The four transports began in February 1940, primarily to Siberia and Kazakhstan. Many perished during the cramped train journeys, as more did while working in forced labour camps or on collective farms.

The deportations dealt a heavy blow to Poland’s professional elite, but the transports included citizens of all classes and ethnic backgrounds.

Historians are still divided as to the numbers of those deported. Contemporary Moscow figures cited 330,000, yet Poland’s wartime government-in-exile claimed over a million.

The matter became a source of embarrassment to the Soviet Union, after Hitler reneged on his non-aggression pact with Stalin and invaded Moscow-held territory in 1941, thus prompting Stalin to turn to Great Britain – and by default its Polish ally – for support.

An amnesty was declared, and General Wladyslaw Anders, one of the thousands of Polish internees in the Soviet Union, was allowed to raise an army from among the prisoners.
The so-called Polish Second Corps journeyed to Iran, where it regrouped and joined the fight against the Nazis, as part of the British 8th Army.

However, thousands did not make it out of Soviet territory. Historian Andrzej Paczkowski puts the mortality rate at 8-10 percent.

Noted deportees included the writer Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski, whose post-war book A World Apart was cited by historian Anne Applebaum as one of the finest accounts of life in the Soviet Gulag.

Likewise, Poland’s most celebrated pre-war film star, Eugeniusz Bodo, was among those who perished in the Soviet Union.

Oscar-nominated Polish-Jewish film-maker Jerzy Hoffman survived the ordeal as a child. He is currently preparing to release Poland’s first 3D film, The Battle for Warsaw, this month.

As it was, the vast majority of Anders’ Army did not return to the Soviet-dominated Poland that emerged after the war.

Ryszard Kaczorowski (1919-2010), the last president of the government-in-exile in London, was himself a survivor of both Siberia and the Italian campaign.

Although the wartime deportations were devastating in Poland, they were by no means unique. In May 1944, Moscow launched the deportation of the entire Tatar population of the Crimea. Activists are calling for the action, known as Surgun, to be classified as genocide.

From the Libra Institute: Report from the Capitol Hill Conference, “Katyń: Unfinished Inquiry”

On the eve of the 72nd anniversary of the Soviet aggression on Poland, an important conference took place on the Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. The conference entitled “Katyń – Unfinished Inquiry” was co-sponsored by fifteen civic and academic organizations from all over the United States, including organizations representing Katyń families and Siberian deportees such as the Katyń Forest Massacre Memorial Committee of New Jersey, Kresy-Siberia Foundation USA, National Katyń Memorial Foundation of Maryland, Polish Legacy Project of Buffalo, New York, Siberian Society USA, Siberian Society of Florida, the Poles of Santa Rosa in Chicago, the Polish Army Veterans Association in America and the Polish American Congress. The conference was co-organized by Libra Institute and the Institute of World Politics with the support of Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.

While commemorating the Polish victims of the Soviet aggression of September 17, 1939, the participants deliberated how to achieve healing of the wounds and genuine reconciliation between the people of Russia and Poland in the twenty first century. The participants acknowledged that the path to reconciliation leads through revealing the full truth.

Professor David Crane who served as Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone presented Expert Report from the Katyń Symposium that took place at Case Western Reserve School of Law in February 2011. Referring to the Expert Report, he pointed out that genuine reconciliation must be built on truthful accountability through full disclosure, atonement, contrition and compensation. He also stated that although various experts offer different classifications of the Katyń crime, according to him Katyń qualified as genocide. Prof. Crane also stated that the United States should consider forwarding the evidence, findings and recommendations of the Madden Committee to the General Assembly of the United Nations with the recommendations that the United Nations take appropriate steps to have the case forwarded to the International Court of Justice and/or seek the establishment of an international commission that will investigate this case. The other ways in which the United States could assist in seeking justice for the Katyń crime would be the full disclosure of documents related to Katyń that are in the possession of the US Government and adopting legislation that would recognize the wrong that has been done by the United States as a result of the suppression of evidence. The United States should also consider issuing an apology to the Katyń victims and the Polish people, providing compensation to the Katyń families who are US citizens either directly or through the establishment of the Katyń Truth and Reconciliation Institute, and should sponsor an educational outreach program on the Katyń crime and the cover-up.

Dr. John Lenczowski, President of the Institute of World Politics, in his opening remarks pointed out that the Katyń crime aimed at eliminating the leadership class of Poland. He criticized the Russian anti-Katyń strategy by pointing out that the Soviet soldiers taken as prisoners of war by Poland as a result of the 1920 Polish-Russian War represented the invading army and died of communicable diseases. He also elaborated on the role of the US Government in covering up the Katyń crime and suppressing all Katyń related information, including the destruction of the key eyewitness reports by the top US Military Intelligence Officer, in order not to upset Moscow. He pointed out that the key Katyń-related documents have never been released by the US Government. Apparently, there is never a good time to do so, especially when the USA aims at resetting relations with Russia.

Frank Spula, President of the Polish-American Congress, spoke about the significance of the Katyń crime for the Polish-American community. He stated that he was honored to be in this congressional office building and participate in such a historical event, especially considering that this building was named after Sam Rayburn who initiated the original investigation into the Katyń crime sixty years ago. Back then Roman Pucinski, the Chief Investigator of the Madden Committee led the struggle for truth and justice. Today his daughter, Aurelia Pucinski, came to this congressional building to continue her father’s struggle for justice. Katyń has a special significance to the Americans of Polish heritage.

The closing remarks belonged to Wesley Adamczyk, Son of the Polish Officer imprisoned in Starobelsk, murdered in Kharkov and buried in the Piatichatki forest. Having searched for his father’s burial site for six decades, finally in June of 1998, while accompanied by his American-born son, Mr. Adamczyk had an opportunity to pay last respects to his father at the Piatichatki cemetery. Upon leaving, he appealed to his son never to forget that even the grinding of the bones and planting of the trees over the graves does not stop the truth from coming to the surface. Mr. Adamczyk stressed that today, nearly seventy years later, there still exist a “universal cover-up” of the Katyń crime in its entirety. He also explained that the origin of the cover-up of the Katyń crime, referred to as “conspiracy of silence”, began by the Big Four during the London meeting in the summer of 1945. The purpose of that meeting was to establish procedures for prosecution of major war criminals during the upcoming trials by the International Military Tribunal to be held in Nuremberg. It was there that the Big Four agreed that the Soviets would handle the indictment and prosecution of the Katyń crime, even though the Western Allies knew that all arrows pointed to the Soviet guilt. The Western Allies won the war against Nazi Germany but justice for the victims of the Katyń crime was never sought. In closing, Mr. Adamczyk appealed to the Government of the United States to undertake pro-active steps towards full disclosure and dissemination of all documents related to the Katyń atrocity in the possession of the US Government because without revealing full truth justice cannot be served.

More from the Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law: Katyń Conference Papers.

Kresy-Siberia Group and Foundation Resources:

Research, Remembrance and Recognition of Polish citizens’ struggles in the Eastern Borderlands and in Exile during World War 2. Kresy-Siberia is the premiere “one-stop” location on the internet providing information sources on the Kresy, the persecutions and deportations of Poles, and Polonian life in exile during and after World War II.

Their resources include:

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Maps and Shadows

A two part interview on Zita Christian’s show “Full Bloom” with Krysia Jopek. Ms. Jopek discusses her book “Maps and Shadows” and the story of two of the four survivors of the Polish deportation to Siberia in 1940, her father and aunt.

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Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, , ,

One honest statement

As the Young Fogey might point out, politics is about playing a game for influence and votes. It is rare to find politicos doing things for right and proper reason. He might also rightly point out that we should be careful so that we “don’t get played” in their political process.

Today’s vote by Congress on the Armenian Genocide was one of those rare moments when politicians (and yes I understand that some come from districts with large Armenian immigrant populations) did the right thing in the face of pressure.

They basically said to heck with lobbyists (paid for by the Turkish government), President Bush (it will hurt the “war on terror”), and tons of other politicos who pander to Turkey because they act as an errand boy between the Arabs and Israelis/Arabs and NATO.

Of course everyone realizes that Turkish “democracy” is a carefully contrived facade at best. Free speech – eh, no. Freedom of religion – eh, no. But for Mr. Bush at least, a half friend and untruth are more important than the truth – the ends justify the means.

From the NY Times: House Panel Raises Furor on Armenian Genocide

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 —” A House committee voted on Wednesday to condemn the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in World War I as an act of genocide, rebuffing an intense campaign by the White House and warnings from Turkey’s government that the vote would gravely strain its relations with the United States.

The vote by the House Foreign Relations Committee was nonbinding and so largely symbolic, but its consequences could reach far beyond bilateral relations and spill into the war in Iraq.

Turkish officials and lawmakers warned that if the resolution was approved by the full House, they would reconsider supporting the American war effort, which includes permission to ship essential supplies through Turkey and northern Iraq.

President Bush appeared on the South Lawn of the White House before the vote and implored the House not to take up the issue, only to have a majority of the committee disregard his warning at the end of the day, by a vote of 27 to 21.

—We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began in 1915,— Mr. Bush said in remarks that, reflecting official American policy, carefully avoided the use of the word genocide. —This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror.—

The resolution, which was introduced early in the current session of Congress and which has quietly moved forward over the last few weeks, provoked a fierce lobbying fight that pitted the politically influential Armenian-American population against the Turkish government, which hired equally influential former lawmakers like Robert L. Livingston, Republican of Louisiana, and Richard A. Gephardt, the former Democratic House majority leader who backed a similar resolution when he was in Congress.

Backers of the resolution said Congressional action was overdue.

—Despite President George Bush twisting arms and making deals, justice prevailed,— said Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat of California and a sponsor of the resolution. —For if we hope to stop future genocides we need to admit to those horrific acts of the past…—

In a similar vein, Polish-Americans and Poles recall that in 1951-52 a Congressional investigation (the Madden Committee) into the Katyn Massacre (also here), documented much of the truth surrounding the enormity of the Katyn crimes committed by the Russians after the coordinated Nazi German – Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939I realize that this was at the start of the Cold War, and served a purpose in rallying Polish-Americans to the Cold War cause, after they had been kicked around by Truman and company at Yalta. Still, it did recognize the fact that the massacres occurred and laid the blame on the perpetrators..

Sometimes Congress finds the wherewithal to shed some light on historic events.

Oh, and let the Turks react. What will they do? Kill more Christians, close more churches, invade Iraq, stop pretending to be a democracy…? They will bow because we can choke off those huge foreign aid payments that keep them quiet.