April 13, 1943 –
Given the current situation in Ukraine – this is an important historical reminder:
Katyn Forest is a wooded area near Gneizdovo village, a short distance from Smolensk in Russia where, in 1940 on Stalin’s orders, the Soviet secret police shot and buried over 4000 Polish service personnel that had been taken prisoner when the Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939 at the start of WWII in support of the Nazis.
On April 13, 1943 the Nazis having overtaken the area, exhumed the Polish dead and blamed the Soviets in an effort to sour the West’s relationship with the Kremlin. In 1944, having retaken the Katyn area from the Nazis, the Soviets exhumed the Polish dead again and blamed the Nazis. The rest of the world took its usual sides in such arguments.
In 1989, with the collapse of Soviet Power, Premier Gorbachev finally admitted that the Soviets had executed the Poles, and confirmed two other burial sites similar to the site at Katyn. Stalin’s order of March 1940 to execute by shooting some 25,700 Poles, including those found at the three sites, was also disclosed with the collapse of Soviet Power.
And so it goes
The Haus of Dcaligari 