Radecki. “One of the first things Anders discovered was that he had practically no senior officers. He was one of sixteen generals captured by the Russians, but only oneother general was accounted for. According to our estimates, we were missing, from one camp alone, one hundred colonels, three hundred majors, one thousand captains, twenty-five hundred lieutenants, and hundreds of cadets, doctors, teachers, engineers, and so on.”
“This was the camp at Kozielsk,” Kaz said. “These were the victims who were shot in the back of the head and buried in mass graves. There were thousands of others, killed in other locations.”
“But the Germans found the graves from Kozielsk?”
“Yes. In the Katyn Forest, outside of Smolensk. In April of last year, the locals told them what had happened. They unearthed the bodies, and revealed the crime to the world.”
“But the Nazis,” Radecki said, “being murderers themselves, were not believed by many. Not the press, certainly. But we knew that, for once, they told the truth. We asked the Red Cross to investigate, and for this crime, Stalin cut off relations with the Polish Government in Exile.”
“And formed his own puppet regime,” put in Horak.
“So where does all this leave us?” I asked.
“For now, we will go on fighting wherever we can. But we must prove Russian guilt beyond all doubt, so that when Germany is defeated, we can go home to a free country, not one dominated by the Soviet Union,” Horak said.
Radecki opened the file and tossed a stack of photographs on the table between us. An open pit with layers of bodies, the army greatcoats and boots marking each man an officer. Close-ups. A neat hole in the back of each head. Hands tied behind the back with rough twine.
“Is this how they were all killed? Hands tied, and a bullet in the back of the head, I mean.”
“For the most part, yes. Reports from the Red Cross indicated that some had their hands tied with barbed wire. There were some with stab wounds from bayonets, but those were in the minority, likely those who resisted at the last minute,” Radecki said, lightinganother cigarette. “It appears they were driven into the woods, then forced to walk to the pits. Each man saw, and heard, what was done to those who went before him.”
It was a horrible vision, but what I was seeing was not a forest outside of Smolensk. It was a London neighborhood near the Liverpool Street Tube Station, where a dead Russian was found, his hands bound behind his back with string, and a single bullet hole to the back of the head. I looked at Kaz and wondered.
“It is a terrible sight, isn’t it?” Radecki asked.
“Can you be certain this wasn’t done by the Germans and then blamed on the Russians, as a propaganda ploy?”
“Yes, we are certain, and so is the International Red Cross. The bodies were all heavily clothed, which points to the date of the killings as being April of 1940, when the temperature was still quite cold. The Russian story is that the Germans captured the Poles in August 1941, when they were performing roadwork as part of a labor detail. The clothing does not make sense for hot, dusty summer work.”
“And there is the matter of the letters,” Horak said. “Both the letters that were returned, and the fact that many letters and other documents were recovered with the bodies. None had a date after April 1940.”
“This is a Russian crime, Billy. A mass murder. And no one wants to hear about it,” Kaz said. “The British government worries that a split over this might move the Russians to make a separate peace with the Germans. They are quite willing to let us die to defend England, but they will not seek justice for our murdered dead.”
“Look at this,” Radecki said, handing me a memo on the stationery of His Majesty’s Government. It was from Anthony Eden, British foreign secretary, to Winston Churchill, on the Katyn revelations. One line stood out: His Majesty’s
“This was the camp at Kozielsk,” Kaz said. “These were the victims who were shot in the back of the head and buried in mass graves. There were thousands of others, killed in other locations.”
“But the Germans found the graves from Kozielsk?”
“Yes. In the Katyn Forest, outside of Smolensk. In April of last year, the locals told them what had happened. They unearthed the bodies, and revealed the crime to the world.”
“But the Nazis,” Radecki said, “being murderers themselves, were not believed by many. Not the press, certainly. But we knew that, for once, they told the truth. We asked the Red Cross to investigate, and for this crime, Stalin cut off relations with the Polish Government in Exile.”
“And formed his own puppet regime,” put in Horak.
“So where does all this leave us?” I asked.
“For now, we will go on fighting wherever we can. But we must prove Russian guilt beyond all doubt, so that when Germany is defeated, we can go home to a free country, not one dominated by the Soviet Union,” Horak said.
Radecki opened the file and tossed a stack of photographs on the table between us. An open pit with layers of bodies, the army greatcoats and boots marking each man an officer. Close-ups. A neat hole in the back of each head. Hands tied behind the back with rough twine.
“Is this how they were all killed? Hands tied, and a bullet in the back of the head, I mean.”
“For the most part, yes. Reports from the Red Cross indicated that some had their hands tied with barbed wire. There were some with stab wounds from bayonets, but those were in the minority, likely those who resisted at the last minute,” Radecki said, lightinganother cigarette. “It appears they were driven into the woods, then forced to walk to the pits. Each man saw, and heard, what was done to those who went before him.”
It was a horrible vision, but what I was seeing was not a forest outside of Smolensk. It was a London neighborhood near the Liverpool Street Tube Station, where a dead Russian was found, his hands bound behind his back with string, and a single bullet hole to the back of the head. I looked at Kaz and wondered.
“It is a terrible sight, isn’t it?” Radecki asked.
“Can you be certain this wasn’t done by the Germans and then blamed on the Russians, as a propaganda ploy?”
“Yes, we are certain, and so is the International Red Cross. The bodies were all heavily clothed, which points to the date of the killings as being April of 1940, when the temperature was still quite cold. The Russian story is that the Germans captured the Poles in August 1941, when they were performing roadwork as part of a labor detail. The clothing does not make sense for hot, dusty summer work.”
“And there is the matter of the letters,” Horak said. “Both the letters that were returned, and the fact that many letters and other documents were recovered with the bodies. None had a date after April 1940.”
“This is a Russian crime, Billy. A mass murder. And no one wants to hear about it,” Kaz said. “The British government worries that a split over this might move the Russians to make a separate peace with the Germans. They are quite willing to let us die to defend England, but they will not seek justice for our murdered dead.”
“Look at this,” Radecki said, handing me a memo on the stationery of His Majesty’s Government. It was from Anthony Eden, British foreign secretary, to Winston Churchill, on the Katyn revelations. One line stood out: His Majesty’s
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