°

: ment the

'T TS indeed difficult to write

calmly about the Katyn mas-
Sacre. It is even more difficult
to find words strong enough
with which to stigmatize the
Combination of cynicism and
crime which characterise the
deeds of those who organised
this provocation, particularly its
final phase.

Let us try calmly to look at
the more substantial facts. Dur-
ing the war I was in Canada
and I would therefore like to
describe some of these ‘facts
from a personal viewpoint, as
I myself saw them in 1943-44.

In 1943 the Hitlerites brought
the charge against ‘the Soviet
fovernment that three years
Carlier, that is, in 1940, it had
murdered thousands of Polish
Officers in the Katyn forest not
far from Smolensk. Canadian
hewspapers published this re-
port among the many war com-
Tuniques which then filled the
press.

Everybody regarded it as a
Hitler provocation. At that time
beople in the West knew already
that millions of Poles had per-
ished at the hands of ‘the Hitler-
ites. They were also aware of
the Hitlerite methods of slaught-
ering people.

I, however, was eager to get
the reactions of my university
Colleagues and others. My talks
With them left no doubt what-
ever. that they were fully con-
Vineed that this was a Hitler
Provocation.

This was in 1943. The best
People in the West knew that
after Stalingrad ‘the Germans
Were fully conscious of the fact
that the war was already lost
and that they would have to an-
“wer for their crimes. Would
the German fascists ‘hesitate to
add a few more drops to their
®cean of wickedness if by so
Woing they could produce con-
Son, divert attention from

leir misdeeds and undermine
allied unity?

And there was another simple
question which was in every-
my "Ss mind: why after occupy-
ia the Smolensk area in 1941
es the fascists keep silent for
ee years during which they
jee rated crimes and atroci-
a On Soviet territory? It was
t Y When they realised that re-
Ga at was on the order of the
an that they slanderously .ac-

Sed the people who defeated
rae of the killing of war pris-

TS In Katyn.
ee the people with whom I

€ were of the same opinion.
e

ae Six months separate the
Hitle ates—the date when the
Sse s0vernment brought the
and = against the Soviet Union
Rover 1€ date when the Soviet
Sion nment set up the commis-
killin '0 investigate the Katyn

8S.

ie a fact that the Soviet
Miss} ‘ment formed this com-

°n immediately, the mo-
molenek Soviet Army liberated
Work v and its environs. The
Witnesseg he commission was
all over | by journalists from
i Pehatige world. And again,
Work of a, I learned about the
the dis the commission from
ists. “Patches of these journal-

pron of them, Jerome Davis,
ih Ya ¥ professor of divinity
known niversity, is well
hig re, (0 ME personally. I read
Stay, Ports in the Toronto Daily
Commicc; ficial report of the
tively “yatta attracted compara-
Case Barre attention, since the
as t, hs Clear and none doubted
he © actually had done the
Ports " Ut ithe newspaper re-
Which fe the personal touch
a much, aders in the West like
ero
himseir © Davis wrote that he
focumen Seven letters and
dated 1941, a far

Throughout Europe, wherever people have known the horrors of Nazi rule, the memory of Hitler's”
millions of victims is kept green by meetings such as this.

Among the victims were seven million Poles

(including three million Jews) and, as the Soviet conission which investigated the Katyn massacre re-
ported, ‘In shooting the Polishr war prisoners in Katyn Forest, the German-fascist invaders consistently
carried out their policy of physical extermination of the Slav people.” :
government commiltee provocatively revives -a slander which originated with the Nazis cynically seeking
to evade responsibility for their crimes.

Yet, nearly a decade later, a U.S.

The Katyn

provocation

Bt) ft Se .

later date than that given ‘by the
Germans for the murder of the
Poles. In another tent the
corpse of a_ second-lieutenant
was examined, wrote Davis. A
postcard found on the body dat-
ed June 12, 1941, was addressed
io a girl friend thanking ‘her for
a parcel. The writer begged her
not to forget that she was all
he had in the world, He asked
her to sell ‘hi$S belongings and
spend the money on food. His
thoughts, he wrote, were always
with her, she should write a
diary and send it to him since
that would occupy his time. The
author expressed his love, re-
ferring to his loneliness and
signed the postcard, Stef.

Frederick Stevens, Christian
Science Monitor corerspondent,
told the same story, and Alex-
ander Werth reported similarly
in the London Sunday Times
and London Daily Sketch. I
recall that even journals like
Time which sought to evoke, if
not hatred, at, least dislike for
the Soviet Union, did not counte-
nanee the version that the pris-
oners in Katyn forest had been
killed ‘by anybody other than
the Hitierites.

The New York Times pub-
lished the findings of the Soviet
commission which investigated
the circumstances of the shoot:
ing of Polish officers in Katyn
forest by the German-fascist In-

vaders. This commission, cine
Chairman N. Burdenko, mem -
of the Academy of Sciences re)
the USSR, opened the graves

and questioned numerous wit-

Dr. LEOPOLD
INFELD

DT att Ot Oe er 00

nesses. The report of the com-
mission ends with the following
words:

«|. The conclusions drawn
from the testimony of witnes-
ses and the forensic-medical
examination of the shooting of
Polish war, prisoners by the
Germans in the autumn of 1941
are fully corroborated by the
material evidence and docu-
ments -extracted from the
Katyn graves.

“In shooting the Polish war
prisoners in Katyn Forest, the
Germian-fascist invaders con-
sistently carried out \their

CEES CERES R NER ROR RR ROR EOR EVEL

policy ‘of physical extermina-
tion of the Slav peoples.”

I would like to stress once
again that even before this com-
mission began its work, honest
people of independent thought
in the West were convinced that
this was a Hitler provocation.
When the experts announced
their findings and the view of
the journalists became known,
these people were surprised by
one thing—the crudeness with
which this provocation had been
carried out and how low its or-
ganisers had fallen.

But was this really the lowest
cepths of baseness and crime?

No. It is possible to sink even
lower.
e

Eight years have passed since
the report of the Soviet commis-
sion was published and the
world press featured Katyn, and
nearly seven years since the war
ended.

People’s Poland—the Poland
of the working penple—arose.
This Poland is growing, it is be-
coming stronger and is building
a new social system. based on
the practical realisation of the
idea of socialism, on friendship\
and cooperation with our great
neighbor—the Soviet Union. The
main things in which we are
now absorbed are rehabilitation
and reconstruction, fulfilment of
the Six-Year Plan—and peace,
peace and again peace.

And all of a sudden the word
“Katyn”: appears once again in
the newspapers. Why Because
parallel with the great changes

ART eee re ONT TTA TRY

in our tniry changes have
also taken place in America.
The point is, however, that there
the changes are developing in
the opposite direction to those
in our country.

Those who exterminated sev-
en million Polish citizens, in-
cluding three million Jews;
those responsible for the Katyn
‘massacre, are now the best al-
lies of the U.S.. magnates. The
Hitler butchers of Europe have

. become the friends of the U.S.

government. They constitute

. the crack elements of the At-

lantic army now being formed.

Trying to surpass the former
Hitler army, the U.S army is
practising killings in Korea,
while the U.S. government de-
monstrates that it is capable of
even worse crimes than those
committed by its. former ene-
mies and present friends.

And as was the case formerly
with the German fascists, the
U.S. government seeks to divest
the attention of world public
opinion from its own crimes.
After a lapse of nine years it
resurrected the _ provocation
which every honest citizen in the
U.S. regarded as being clear and
done with.

For the rulers of the US.
truth and facts mean nothing.
They dig up a provocateur with
a hood over his face, who gets
muddled with his own idiotic evi-
dence, accuses the Soviet gov-
ernment before the US. Con-
gress. The old Hitler’ propa-
ganda is trotted out. Only the
side-scenes have changed. To de-
light the idlers, the liars and
provocateurs wear masks.

I know tthe names of the pro-
ducers of this paltry perform-
ance from my days in America.
One of them, O’Konski, ‘is an
old pro-Hitler jade, stoolpigeon,
thief and blackmailer. TI re-
member reading articles in the
old New York PM about the vile
financial manipulations of this
worthy who never dared ‘bring
a libel case against the author
of the articles. Bliss Lane is
known to every citizen of Po-
land. I read and even reviewed
his book about Poland, a book
filled with slender and lies. And
these are the peopie who pose
as champions of “human dignity
and freedom.”

The Hitler provocation failed
on a world scale in 1943, al-
though the Polish emigre gov-
ernment, having forgotten all
about the seven million Polish
citizens slaughtered by the Ger-
man fascists, cynically —partici-
pated in this provocation.

The Polish people indignantly
and scornfully turn from those
who are preparing another ag-
gression, who are forming a
common front with the butchers

@of seven million Polish citizens,

who nearly ten years later re-
surrect the hoary provocation
and try to sow confusion in our
minds and hearts. But the Po-
lish people, who experienced all
the horrors of war and who for
seven years have been busy
buijding their future by means
of peaceful labor, know who are
their friends and who their ene-
mies,

Day by day consciousness of
our strength and understanding
of the goal towards which we
are striving are growing in our
country. We are no longer
alone, we are a part of the
great camp of peace. The Katyn
frame-up in the U.S. evokes only
contempt for its producers and
strengthens our confidence that
their foul provocations will not
undermine the alliance of the
Polish and the Soviet peoples
fighting for world peace.

@ Professor Leopold Infeld, who
is well known in this country,
is vice-chairman of the World
Peace Council.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 4, 1952 — PAGE 9