Eugenia Maresch - Katyn 1940

TNA FO 371/100719, The Katyn Forest Massacre Hearings, Select Committee to conduct an investigation of the facts, evidence and circumstances of the Katyn Forest Massacre, second session Washington D. C., 4 February 1952, pp. 31–59.

TNA FO 916/827 and 828 British Legation in Berne despatch 6605, 20 August 1943 for the FO, under ref KW 2/4 Information concerning journey to Katyn of Captain Stanley B. Gilder, includes a two-page typed copy of Gilder’s report dated 30 May 1944 of the British and American PoW visit to Katyn, together with five photographs, which was delivered to the British Legation in Berne on 3 July 1944; FO 916/828 ref MI9/BM/973, another account of the same visit sent by Director of Prisoners of War, War Office dated 22 November 1944 to FO Political Intelligence Department as well as the South African Union Defence Force representative Lt Col C.H.S. Runge at South Africa House in London.

TNA FO 371/97632 ref U1661/22, minutes of the meeting between Mr Penfield and Mr R.C. Courtney both from the US Embassy and Mr Roderick Barclay of the FO 18 April 1952; PREM 11/311 record of conversation with the US Ambassador of Sir William Strang and Sir Roger Makins, 3 April 1952.

Adam Edward Schebesta (1893–NN) studied medicine in Lwów and Vienna, chief Medical Officer, Lieutenant Colonel during 1920 War of Independence. In 1930 became a member of the Executive Committee of the Polish Red Cross in Kraków.

PISM KOL 12/4/37, a full report was compiled and written in September 1947 in London.

TNA FO 916/828, MI 9/BM/973, ‘Top Secret’ under cover at WO BM 3420 (P.W 2) 22 November 1944, an account of the visit of Col Stevenson and Capt. Gilder to Katyn.

TNA HW 40/88, PWM/G/712, Lt Col Frank P Stevenson C.S.O. Senior British Officer of South Africa Division, captured at Tobruk in 1942 and taken to Oflag VI B, Dossel, near Warburg. Stevenson communicated with MI 9 in code through a correspondence officer (Captain, name kept secret) in the same camp location. Similar arrangements were made in other Oflags, for example Captain Gorrie was one such officer who used a secret radio transmitter for communication with London.

GPU Gluvnoye Politicheskoye Upravlenye , (State Political Administration between 1924–1934) afterwards a Security Service of the Comissariat of Internal Affairs, which became a precursor to NKVD – Narrodny Komissariat Vnutriennyh Diel – the Secret Police.

SPP ( Studium Polski Podziemnej ) The Polish Underground Movement Study Trust, Ref A.1.3. Typescript copies of diaries and notebooks found on bodies of officers were despatched to London by courier Roman Rudkowski on Wildhorn II operation 29/30 May 1944. Some pages were illegible and the person who typed them in Kraków’s Institute of Forensic Medicine, has parentheses to indicate a probable reading.

On the invasion of Poland in September 1939, the Germans abrogated the sovereignty of the Republic of Poland, and the Red Cross was not allowed to exercise its normal functions. Connected to the International Organisation, the Germans could not entirely liquidate it but confined its activities territorially to the area of the Generalgouvernment and only to the care of surviving soldiers of the September Campaign. An Information Bureau was set up, headed by Kazimierz Skarżyński to deal with PoW affairs.

Leon Kozłowski (1892–1944) archaeologist, politician of extreme right-wing convictions, Member of Sejm , Polish Parliament between 1928–1935; in charge of agricultural reforms and in the last two years Prime Minister. Not a popular figure. Imprisoned by the NKVD in 1939, exiled to Siberia, released in August 1941 with intensions of joining the Polish Army – decided to cross the war zones, heading for Berlin. His motives are still a mystery to many historians. The Germans used him for propaganda purposes by publishing his experience in Russian prison and labour camp. They also took him to Katyn. Sir Stafford Cripps, the British Ambassador in Kuibyshev informed the FO about Kozłowski’s death in Berlin during Allied bombing; see FO 371/26780 C 14255/7068/55 and FO 371/39451 C 6537/131/55. Left a diary Moje przeżycia (My experiences) edited by Bolesław Gogol and Jacek Tebinka, Warsaw 2001.

F. Goetel in his book Czasy wojny (Wartime) refers to the Koźliński family. In 1997 Vocatio published a biographical work Czas Wernyhory by Zbigniew Koźliński, grandson of Piotr Koźliński, who up to the Russian Revolution in 1917 owned Katyn wood.

PISM KOL 68/42, letter of 6 May 1943 signed by Honorary Secretary C. E. Fearn, to the Prime Minister, Government of Poland, Stratton House, W1. Chairman Rev. W. A. Oyler-Waterhouse.

TNA FO 371/39437 C1357, dated 31 January 1944; also newspaper cuttings.

Nikolai Burdenko (1876–1946) Academician, Head of the first surgical clinic at the Moscow Medical Institute in 1930. Appointed a Senior Surgeon of the Red Army 1937–1946. Chairman of the Extraordinary State Commission of the Katyn massacre 1943–1944. President of the Academy of Medical Science of the USSR 1944–1946.

Amtliches Material zum Massenmord von Katyn , Weiss Buche (White Book) published by the Deutschen Informationsstelle German Information Bureau, Berlin, September 1943. Reproduced collection of documents and photographs relating to the mass murder of Polish PoWs. It contains an incomplete list of names of the victims. A final list was to be published by the PCK, after completion of the exhumation. In June 1943, a Polish list of only 2916 names was published without giving the particulars of the publisher, author, or place of publication.

TNA HW 12/297 127832, decrypt of a signal 3 February 1944, No.103, dated 29.1.1944.

TNA HW 12/297 128672, decrypt of a signal 26 February 1944, No.199, dated 18.2.1944.

TNA GFM 33/2525 E 24331-2, photostat prints of captured archives of the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin in 1945–6, held jointly by the American and British Governments, amongst them correspondence relating to the Vinnitza and Katyn murders. Documents were kept at Whaddon Hall near Bletchley Park and copied for the British, American and French governments. According to the head of the American team at Whaddon Hall, Dr Paul Sweet, they were to be published as part of the German War Documents Project. The Katyn prints contain reports and correspondence between the Foreign Office in Berlin and the German Legation in Berne 1943. The head of the FO Library, Mr E.J. Passant, objected on security grounds to Paul Sweet’s appearance before the Madden Committee of the American Congress and to disclosure of the material held in joint custody, see FO 371/100719 N.P 1661/10, 17 4. 1952.

TNA FO 898/227, Political Warfare Executive view on Katyn and visit of USA party, 22 January 1944; FO 371/39388 C 1097/8/55, British and USA correspondents account on 25 January 1944 and C 1160 on 1 February 1944.

Guy Liddell’s Diaries 1942 – 1945 edited by Nigel West, Routledge, London-New York, 2005, Vol. II p.170.