Volume II of “Katyn Forest Massacre 1940. A Selection of Declassified U.S. Government Documents” now available
The long-awaited 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” is now available for purchase.
The volume was edited by David A. Stewart and includes forewords by Lieutenant Colonel John H. Van Vliet Jr. and David A. Stewart, as well as by Sebastian Karwat, Director of the Katyn Museum, the publication’s publisher, and Dr Bartłomiej Bydoń, Head of the Museum’s Research Department, which supported the editorial work.
Like the first volume, this publication is dedicated to the memory of the officers of the Polish Army 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 of the United States Army. Following their visit to Katyn during the 1943 exhumations, these officers submitted reports to Washington identifying the Soviet Union as the perpetrator of the massacre.
The second volume contains documents produced during the initial stage of the Allied governments’ examination of the German reports on the discovery of the mass graves of Polish officers and their own assessments of responsibility for the crime. The collected sources demonstrate how, despite mounting evidence pointing to Soviet responsibility, these findings gradually began to be questioned, partly on the basis of the fabricated report of the Burdenko Commission.
The documents also reveal how political considerations increasingly took precedence over establishing the truth about the Katyn Massacre. Correspondence between American government officials and military officers reflects a growing belief that determining responsibility for the murder of the Polish officers should give way to wartime priorities and the need to preserve Allied unity. By the second half of 1944, concerns had emerged that publicly accusing the Soviet Union could undermine cooperation with Moscow and jeopardise its participation in the planned United Nations. At the same time, the Polish Government-in-Exile was increasingly marginalised.
The second volume is an invaluable resource for research into the history of the Katyn Massacre, Allied policy towards the Soviet Union, and the decision-making processes at the highest levels of the United States administration during the Second World War. It offers readers a deeper understanding of how geopolitical considerations influenced both the assessment and the presentation of one of the twentieth century’s greatest crimes.
This publication, comprising more than 950 pages, is available from the Katyn Museum ticket office. Price: PLN 100 (gross).
