Katyn

by Paul, Allen

• ISBN13: 9780875806341
• ISBN10: 0875806341
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-20
• Publisher: Northern Illinois Univ Pr

Summary

Twenty years ago, Allen Paul wrote the first post-communist account of one of the greatest but least-known tragedies of the 20th century: Stalinrs"s annihilation of Polandrs"s officer corps and massive deportation of so-called "bourgeoisie elements" to Siberia. Today, these brutal events are symbolized by one word, Katyn-a crime that still bitterly divides Poles and Russians. Paulrs"s richly updated account covers Russian attempts to recant their admission of guilt for the murders in Katyn Forest and includes recently translated documents from Russian military archives, eyewitness accounts of two perpetrators, and secret official minutes published here for the first time that confirm that U.S. government cover-up of the crime continued long after the war ended. Paulrs"s masterful narrative recreates what daily life was like for three Polish families amid momentous events of World War II-from the treacherous Nazi-Soviet invasion in 1939 to a rigged election in 1947 that sealed Polandrs"s doom. The patriarch of each family was among the Polish officers personally ordered by Stalin to be shot. One of the families suffered daily repression under the German General Government. Like thousands of other Poles, two of the families were deported to Siberia, where they nearly died from forced labor, starvation, and neglect. Through painstaking research, the author reconstructs the lives of these families including such stories as a miraculous escape on the last transport of Poles leaving Russia and a motherrs"s daring ski trek over the Carpathian Mountains to rescue a daughter she had not seen in six years. At the heart of the drama is the Polesrs" uncommon belief in "victory in defeat"-that their struggles made them strong and that freedom and independence, inevitably, would be regained.

Author Biography

 

Allen Paul is a former Associated Press reporter and political speechwriter. In April 2009, the President of Poland awarded Allen Paul the Order of Merit for Katyn.

 

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Note on Sources	p. xxi
Prologue	p. 3
The Interlude	p. 5
Hitler's Command	p. 18
A Failed Escape	p. 24
Case White	p. 30
Capture	p. 40
Diabolical Schemes	p. 52
Camp Life	p. 72
House Calls	p. 88
The Liquidations	p. 103
Trains to the East	p. 116
The Remnant	p. 124
Life on the Steppes	p. 148
Bad-Faith Agreements	p. 160
Crumbling Hopes	p. 177
Exodus	p. 193
Wolf's Find	p. 210
The Rupture	p. 223
Death Knell	p. 238
The Whitewash	p. 257
Clandestine Designs	p. 273
Moments of Truth	p. 285
The Allies' Blind Eye	p. 304
Rescue	p. 319
Echoes of O'Malley	p. 334
The Quest for Truth	p. 344
Epilogue	p. 356
Appendix-Katyń Forest Execution Order	p. 361
Notes	p. 365
Bibliography	p. 393
Chronology	p. 401
Index	p. 411
About the Author	p. 423
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