Hey guys! For those of you who wanted a bit more information or missed the part about Katyn Forest in class yesterday, here is some extra research that I found which expands a bit on what they said in the video.
As a bit of a debrief again, Katyn Forest in the home of mass graves of many Polish officers that are thought to have given the Russians trouble. About 4,300 bodies were dug up by the Germans who used this information to try to cause problems between the Allies. Like Mr. Stewart said in class however, even though the Germans had lots of legitimate evidence to prove that Russians had killed all these men, the Allies continued to ignore the proof as to not succumb to conflict amongst themselves. The Russians instead blamed the Germans for the murder of the officers which the rest of the Allies went along with.
The Germans found Katyn Forest mass graves in 1943. All the officers there were prisoners of war from the Soviet invasion into Poland into the Eastern Polish Provinces between 1939-1941. Many were kept in prison camps until they were eventually murdered in around 1940. The rest of the around 20,000 bodies are buried in other locations.
Until the 1990's Russia denied that it was the one to be the murderer behind the Katyn Forest mass graves. Around this time official documents were finally released from the Soviets which proved their involvement.
If you wanted to see parts of the documents released by the Soviets, here is a link which shows a confidential doc which proved their involvement. It's pretty interesting to see the proof!
http://www.warsawuprising.com/katyn.htm
Hey Christina!
ReplyDeleteI think this is really interesting because it shows the power of propaganda, especially during wartimes. There was concrete proof that the Germans could not have massacred these people. In doing my own research, I found that when the Germans did their own excavation, they used an "internationally-staffed medical commission." Though the people were probably being paid by the Germans, it is doubtful that they are completely loyal to the Germans. Additionally, the Polish themselves announced that the Soviets were at fault. But, the Russians did their own research and decided that the Germans were at fault. I found a quote from FDR to Churchill when he said that "the winning of the war is the paramount objective for all of us. For this unity is necessary."
The House of Representatives established the Madden Committee to record the events (as well as who was at fault).
Something that is related to us, now, is that beginning in September 2011, the National Archives has been processing and declassifying all the documents related to this event.
Also I would be interested to find the United States' and Britain's responses to Russia's admittance to Stalin's hand in the massacre (http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704008704575638990227283162).
http://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/katyn-massacre/