The second volume of the bilingual source publication Katyn Forest Massacre 1940. A Selection of Declassified U.S. Government Documents / Zbrodnia w Lesie Katyńskim 1940 roku. Wybór odtajnionych dokumentów rządu Stanów Zjednoczonych, edited by David A. Stewart, has been published by the Katyn Museum. The volume includes a foreword by Lieutenant Colonel John H. Van Vliet Jr. and David A. Stewart, as well as by Sebastian Karwat, Head of the Katyn Museum – the publisher of the volume – and Dr Bartłomiej Bydoń, Head of the Museum’s Research Section, which supported the editorial work.
Like the first volume, this publication is dedicated to the memory of the Polish Army officers murdered in the Katyn Forest, as well as Captain Donald B. Stewart, Lieutenant Colonel John H. Van Vliet Jr. and Lieutenant Colonel Henry I. Szymanski – U.S. Army officers who, in 1943, after visiting Katyn during the exhumations taking place there, submitted reports to Washington identifying the Soviet Union as responsible for the massacre.
The second volume contains documents produced during the initial period in which the governments of the Allied states, including the United States, analysed German materials concerning the discovery of the mass graves of Polish officers and formulated their own assessments of responsibility for the massacre. The sources gathered here show how, despite the increasing flow of information pointing to Soviet responsibility, these findings gradually began to be questioned, partly on the basis of the fabricated report of the Burdenko Commission. The published documents also demonstrate how political considerations began to take precedence over establishing the truth about the Katyn massacre. Correspondence between American officials and military officers reveals a growing conviction that the question of responsibility for the murder of the Polish officers should give way to wartime priorities and the preservation of Allied unity. In the second half of 1944, concerns emerged that publicly accusing the Soviet Union could hinder cooperation with Moscow and jeopardise its participation in the organisation of the future United Nations. At the same time, the Polish Government-in-Exile was increasingly marginalised.
The second volume is a valuable source for research into the history of the Katyn massacre, Allied policy towards the Soviet Union, and the mechanisms of decision-making at the highest levels of the U.S. administration during the Second World War. The publication provides a better understanding of how geopolitical considerations influenced the assessment of, and the way in which, one of the most significant crimes of the twentieth century was presented.

Product details

---

Editor: David A. Stewart
Academic consultation: Bartłomiej Bydoń, Jakub Zielonka
Translation: Jakub Zielonka ; with the assistance of Anastazja Pindor, Paulina Mazur
Publisher: Polish Army Museum in Warsaw
ISBN: 978-83-96903-06-8
Language: English, Polish
Format: B5, hardback
Extent: 946, [10] pages
Year of publication: 2025
Retail price: 100 PLN