The 1940 Massacre in Katryn Forest

We are all aware of the tragic crash of Polish President Lech Kaczynski's Tu-154 airliner in a fog filled forest near Smolensk, Russia, in which President Kaczynski, many Polish national leaders, a total of 97 individuals, perished. The pilot of the plane is now believed to have ignored an order to fly to an alternate airport, in his effort to remain on schedule; on schedule that is to arrive on time at the important memorial service and investigation of the 1940 massacre in Katyn. Vladimir Putin and Donald Tusk the Russian and Polish prime ministers were to meet at that service. It was hoped that the results of that meeting and that investigation would influence the course of future relations between those two countries. Russia it was indicated would reveal new documents to shed light on the massacre, and a "cover up". The "cover up" related to this: At the onset, Russia blamed Germany for the Katyn Massacre. The U.S. and Russia were allies against Germany. At that point the U.S. remained silent. On April 13, 1943, during WW11, the Germans denied responsibility. The Soviets it is said were blaming Hermann Goering at Nuremberg.

The Germans first uncovered the corpses in Katyn Forest. They said they had found 11,000. The Soviets also used the 11,000 figure as the deaths at Nuremberg. It is said they used that figure to hide the truth and disinclude other victims from Starobielsk and Ostashkow. In the final judgment of the Nuremberg trials there is no mention of Katyn.

In 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev admitted that it was the Soviet Secret Police who executed the officers. We now know that, In March, 1940, Joseph Stalin signed an order for the mass execution of more than 22,000 Polish officers being held as prisoners of war. The April,1940 executions and burials of over 4000 Polish Army officers, at Stalin's orders, were carried out by the NKVD Secret Police: each officer's hands were tied behind his back, and each was shot with a single bullet through the base of the skull. These officers had been taken prisoner when the Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939 in support of the Nazis.

It is tragic that the Polish Government has been reduced by the air crash as they hurried to further resolve this issue. We have no doubt that the inquest will continue.