Katyn Commission

Last updated

International Katyn Commission
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J14110, Katyn, Offnung der Massengraber, Abschlussbericht.jpg
Leonardo Conti, Reich Health Leader, (right) holds the Report of the International Katyn Commission, 4 May 1943, in front of Dr. Ferenc Orsós from the University of Budapest. Centre, Professor Louis Speleers of the Ghent University in Belgium. Eduard Miloslavić, Croatian professor of pathology, is the 4th person from left
DateApril and May 1943
Location Katyn, Kalinin and Kharkiv
Also known asKatyn Commission
Cause Mass murder

The Katyn Commission or the International Katyn Commission was a committee formed in April 1943 under request by Germany to investigate the Katyn massacre of some 22,000 Polish nationals during the Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland, mostly prisoners of war from the invasion of Poland including Polish Army officers, intelligentsia, civil servants, priests, police officers and numerous other professionals. Their bodies were discovered in a series of large mass graves in the forest near Smolensk in Russia following Operation Barbarossa. [1]

Contents

An international commission of experts in anatomy and forensic pathology were brought in from 11 countries in Europe, predominantly from Nazi Germany's allied or occupied states. [2] [3] The Commission concluded that the Soviet Union had been responsible for the massacre. Consequently, the German government made extensive reference to the massacre in its own propaganda in an attempt to drive a political wedge between the Allies of World War II. [4] The severing of relations between the Polish government-in-exile and the Soviet Union was a direct result of Polish support for the investigation. [5]

The Soviets denied their responsibility for the crime immediately, and their Extraordinary State Commission was tasked with falsifying documents and forensic science in order to reverse the blame and charged Germany with the crime. [6] [7]

Members

Signatures of the members of the Commission Katyn-1943-04-30.jpg
Signatures of the members of the Commission

Russian admission of the Soviet crime

The Soviet documents pertaining to the massacre started being declassified only in 1990. They proved conclusively that 21,857 Polish internees and prisoners of war were executed by the Soviet Union after 3 April 1940 including 14,552 prisoners from three largest Soviet POW camps at this time. [8] [9] Of the total number of victims, 4,421 officers were executed by shooting at the Kozelsk Optina Monastery, 3,820 at the Starobelsk POW camp, and 6,311 at the Ostashkov facility, in addition to 7,305 Poles who were secretly executed in Byelorussian SSR and Ukrainian SSR prisons. [9] Among the victims were 14 Polish generals including Leon Billewicz, Bronisław Bohatyrewicz, Xawery Czernicki (admiral), Stanisław Haller, Aleksander Kowalewski, Henryk Minkiewicz, Kazimierz Orlik-Łukoski, Konstanty Plisowski, Rudolf Prich (murdered in Lviv), Franciszek Sikorski, Leonard Skierski, Piotr Skuratowicz, Mieczysław Smorawiński and Alojzy Wir-Konas (promoted posthumously). [10]

In November 2010, the Russian State Duma admitted in an official declaration that Joseph Stalin and Soviet officials ordered the Soviet NKVD secret police under Lavrentiy Beria to commit the massacres. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War crimes in occupied Poland during World War II</span> Nazi and Soviet WW II war crimes in Poland

Around six million Polish citizens are estimated to have perished during World War II. Most were civilians killed by the actions of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian Security Police, as well as the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its offshoots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Konstanty Plisowski</span> Polish general (1890–1940)

Konstanty Plisowski of Odrowąż was a Polish general and military commander. He was the Commander in the battle of Jazłowiec and the battle of Brześć Litewski. He was murdered on Stalin's orders in the Katyn massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanisław Haller</span> Polish politician and divisional general (1872–1940)

Stanisław Haller de Hallenburg was a Polish politician and general who was murdered in the Katyn massacre. He was the grandson of General Józef Haller von Hallenburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mieczysław Smorawiński</span> Polish brigadier general (1893–1940)

Brigadier General Mieczysław Makary Smorawiński (1893–1940), was a Polish military commander and officer of the Polish Army. He was one of the Polish generals identified by forensic scientists of the Katyn Commission as the victim of the Soviet Katyn massacre of 1940.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leon Billewicz</span> Polish brigadier general (1870–1940)

Leon Billewicz was a Polish officer and a General of the Polish Army. He was murdered during the Katyń massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bronisław Bohatyrewicz</span> Polish general

Bronisław Bohatyrewicz of Ostoja was a Polish military commander and a general of the Polish Army. Murdered during the Katyn massacre, Bohatyrewicz was one of the Generals whose bodies were identified by forensic scientists of the Katyn Commission during the 1943 exhumation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henryk Minkiewicz</span> Polish politician and general (1880–1940)

Henryk Minkiewicz was a Polish socialist politician and a general of the Polish Army. Former commander of the Border Defence Corps, he was among the Polish officers murdered in the Katyń massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kazimierz Orlik-Łukoski</span> Polish brigadier general (1890–1940)

Kazimierz Orlik-Łukoski was a Polish military commander and one of the Generals of the Polish Army murdered by the Soviet Union in the Katyń massacre of 1940.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alojzy Wir-Konas</span> Polish colonel (1894–1940)

Alojzy Wir-Konas was a military commander in the Polish Army, commanding the 38th Infantry Division during the Invasion of Poland. He was murdered in the Katyn massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudolf Prich</span> Polish general

Rudolf Prich was a Polish military officer and a major general of the Polish Army. He was among the Polish officers who were murdered by the Soviet Union during the Katyń massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piotr Skuratowicz</span> Polish general

Piotr Skuratowicz was a Polish military commander and a General of the Polish Army. A renowned cavalryman, he was arrested by the NKVD and murdered in the Katyn massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katyn massacre</span> Soviet massacre of Polish military officers and intelligentsia in 1940

The Katyn massacre was a series of mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish military officers and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by the Soviet Union, specifically the NKVD in April and May 1940. Though the killings also occurred in the Kalinin and Kharkiv prisons and elsewhere, the massacre is named after the Katyn forest, where some of the mass graves were first discovered by German Nazi forces.

As a result of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers became prisoners of war. Many of them were executed; 22,000 Polish military personnel and civilians perished in the Katyn massacre alone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gestapo–NKVD conferences</span> Police meetings organized by Germany and the Soviet Union

The Gestapo–NKVD conferences were a series of security police meetings organised in late 1939 and early 1940 by Germany and the Soviet Union, following the invasion of Poland in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The meetings enabled both parties to pursue specific goals and aims as outlined independently by Hitler and Stalin, with regard to the acquired, formerly Polish territories. The conferences were held by the Gestapo and the NKVD officials in several Polish cities. In spite of their differences on other issues, both Heinrich Himmler and Lavrentiy Beria had similar objectives as far as the fate of pre-war Poland was concerned. The objectives were agreed upon during signing of the German–Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty on 28 September 1939.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonard Skierski</span> Polish divisional general (1866–1940)

Leonard Wilhelm Skierski was a Polish military officer. He was a general of the Imperial Russian Army and then served in the Polish Army. He fought in World War I and in the Polish–Soviet War. He was one of fourteen Polish generals and one of the oldest military commanders to be murdered by the NKVD in the Katyn massacre of 1940.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Batoh massacre</span> 1652 mass execution of Polish captives

The Batoh (Batih) massacre was a mass execution of Polish captives after the Battle of Batih on 3–4 June 1652 near Ladyzhyn. It was carried out by Ukrainian Cossacks under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky.

The Select Committee to Conduct an Investigation and Study of the Facts, Evidence, and Circumstances of the Katyn Forest Massacre was established by United States House of Representatives in 1951, during the Korean War. At that time, there was concern that the Katyn Massacre could have served as a "blueprint" for the execution of U.S. troops by Communist forces.

Andrzej Leszek Szcześniak was a controversial Polish doctor of historical sciences, author of over thirty historical books and school textbooks. While he was praised for his research of the Katyn massacre, he was also accused of anti-Semitism.

Katyn list may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanisław Żurakowski</span> Polish war veteran and historian

Stanisław Żurakowski was a Polish war veteran and historian.

References

  1. International Katyn Commission (30 April 1943). "Commission Findings". Transcript, Smolensk 30 April 1943. Warsaw Uprising by Project InPosterum. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  2. Amtliches Material zum Massenmord von Winniza, p.103. Archiv-Edition 1999 (Faksimile der 1944 erschienenen Ausgabe).
  3. "Vinnytsia 1943. From the materials of an international commission of forensic medical experts working on the excavation". memorial.kiev.ua. Archived from the original on 15 February 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  4. Kużniar-Plota, Małgorzata (30 November 2004). "Decision to commence investigation into Katyn Massacre". Departmental Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  5. Leslie, Roy Francis (1983). The History of Poland since 1863. Cambridge University Press. p. 244. ISBN   978-0-521-27501-9.
  6. Fischer, Benjamin B., "The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field". "Studies in Intelligence", Winter 1999–2000. Retrieved on 10 December 2005.
  7. Anna M. Cienciala; Wojciech Materski (2007). Katyn: a crime without punishment. Yale University Press. pp. 226–229. ISBN   978-0-300-10851-4.
  8. Aleksandr Shelepin (3 March 1959) note to Khrushchev, with information about the execution of 21,857 Poles including new secret proposal to destroy their personal files."Записка председателя КГБ при СМ СССР А.Н. Шелепина Н.С. Хрущеву о ликвидации всех учетных дел на польских граждан, расстрелянных в 1940 г. с приложением проекта постановления Президиума ЦК КПСС." 3 марта 1959 г. Рукопись. РГАСПИ. Ф.17. Оп.166. Д.621. Л.138–139. (in Russian) Retrieved 23 November 2013. English translation available at Katyń Justice Delayed or Justice Denied? Law.case.edu.
  9. 1 2 Łojek, Bożena (2000). Muzeum Katyńskie w Warszawie. Agencja Wydawm. CB Andrzej Zasieczny. p. 174. ISBN   978-83-86245-85-7.
  10. Andrzej Leszek Szcześniak, ed. (1989). Katyń; lista ofiar i zaginionych jeńców obozów Kozielsk, Ostaszków, Starobielsk. Warsaw, Alfa. p. 366. ISBN   978-83-7001-294-6.; Moszyński, Adam, ed. (1989). Lista katyńska; jeńcy obozów Kozielsk, Ostaszków, Starobielsk i zaginieni w Rosji Sowieckiej. Warsaw, Polskie Towarzystwo Historyczne. p. 336. ISBN   978-83-85028-81-9.; Tucholski, Jędrzej (1991). Mord w Katyniu; Kozielsk, Ostaszków, Starobielsk: lista ofiar. Warsaw, Pax. p. 987. ISBN   978-83-211-1408-8.; Banaszek, Kazimierz (2000). Kawalerowie Orderu Virtuti Militari w mogiłach katyńskich. Roman, Wanda Krystyna; Sawicki, Zdzisław. Warsaw, Chapter of the Virtuti Militari War Medal & RYTM. p. 351. ISBN   978-83-87893-79-8.; Maria Skrzyńska-Pławińska, ed. (1995). Rozstrzelani w Katyniu; alfabetyczny spis 4410 jeńców polskich z Kozielska rozstrzelanych w kwietniu-maju 1940, według źródeł sowieckich, polskich i niemieckich. Stanisław Maria Jankowski. Warsaw, Karta. p. 286. ISBN   978-83-86713-11-0.; Skrzyńska-Pławińska, Maria, ed. (1996). Rozstrzelani w Charkowie; alfabetyczny spis 3739 jeńców polskich ze Starobielska rozstrzelanych w kwietniu-maju 1940, według źródeł sowieckich i polskich. Porytskaya, Ileana. Warsaw, Karta. p. 245. ISBN   978-83-86713-12-7.; Skrzyńska-Pławińska, Maria, ed. (1997). Rozstrzelani w Twerze; alfabetyczny spis 6314 jeńców polskich z Ostaszkowa rozstrzelanych w kwietniu-maju 1940 i pogrzebanych w Miednoje, według źródeł sowieckich i polskich. Porytskaya, Ileana. Warsaw, Karta. p. 344. ISBN   978-83-86713-18-9.
  11. "Russian parliament condemns Stalin for Katyn massacre". BBC News. 26 November 2010. Retrieved 3 August 2011.