Katyń : the untold story of Stalin's Polish massacre
In April 1943, the Germans announced some grisly news: near Smolensk they had discovered the corpses of thousands of Polish army officers whose last known custodians had been Soviet guards as a result of the partition of Poland in 1939. The pots called the kettles black, though there was little doubt then--and none now that the Soviets recently apologized for the crime--that Stalin authorized the mass murder. Why he did remains conjectural, but the odium attached to his German accuser furnished him the pretext to impose his preferred government and borders on postwar Poland. Although Paul alludes to these pivotal diplomatic consequences of the incident, his book mainly concentrates on proving the forensic case that the N.K.V.D., not the Gestapo, was indeed responsible. He further etches the human impact of the crime by interviewing relatives of the victims, and evenhandedly discusses the hands-off British and American reaction to their ally's discomfiture. Soaking up these details takes perseverance and a strong stomach, but here's another sordid memorial to Stalin's rule
Print Book, English, ©1991
C. Scribner's Sons ; Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; Maxwell Macmillan International, New York, Toronto, New York, ©1991
xxi, 390 pages : maps ; 25 cm
9780684192154, 0684192152
23048428
The interlude
Hitler's command
A failed escape
Case white
Capture
Diabolical schemes
Camp life
House calls
The liquidations
Trains to the east
The remnant
Life on the steppes
Bad-faith agreements
Crumbling hopes
Exodus
Wolf's find
The rupture
Death knell
The whitewash
Clandestine designs
Moments of truth
The Allies' blind eye
Rescue
Quest for justice