Eugenia Maresch - Katyn 1940

TNA KV 2/397 PF 65879, (personal file) MI5. Interrogation of ’Columbine’ by Major V.B. Caroe of B.1.D branch MI5 dated 3.2.1944.

TNA FO 371/ 39387 C939/8/55 secure signal from Moscow, Mr Balfour informs the FO of an impending public release of the Russian report on Katyn massacre. It includes statement from ‘The Special Commission to Establish and Investigate the Circumstances of the Shooting by German Fascists Invaders of Captive Polish Officers in the Katyn Woods’. Signed Smolensk 24 January 1944.

Katyn Dokumenty Zbrodni, Echa Katynia , Vol. IV (Katyn Documents of the Crime), NKVD documents: No. 42 dated 10/11 January 1944, and No.46 dated 13 January 1944.

TNA FO 371/39390 C2099/8/55G, despatch 25 from Sir Owen O’Malley, 11 February 1944 to the Secretary of State, Sir Anthony Eden. This file contains ‘enclosures’: Soviet War News , published by the Press Department at the Soviet Embassy in London, extracts from the Burdenko report and forensic conclusions of the Commission.

Disapproval about contacting Dr Naville is expressed in a hand-written note by Eden, ‘Certainly we should not do this’; ‘I agree’ signed ‘WC’ (Winston Churchill)

TNA FO 371/39393 C 2957/8/55G, hand-written notes by Sir Alexander Cadogan, dated 21.3.1944.

Ibid.

TNA FO 371/39419 C 17152, letter from Sir Reader Bullard, British Embassy Tehran to Sir Owen O’Malley, British Ambassador to Poland, 26 November 1944.

TNA FO 371/39390 C 2096/8/55G, Prime Minister Churchill’s Personal Minute, serial No M 51/4 to Sir Anthony Eden dated 30.1.1944. Also C 2099/8/55G, Sir Owen’s despatch 11 February 1944.

Bernard H. Spilsbury (1877–1947). Renowned pathologist who made forensic medical evidence acceptable to the British courts. He became known as the first great British crime scene investigator. Knighted 1923.

TNA FO 371/39398 C 5093/8/55G, typescript copy of a report by Sir Bernard Spilsbury dated April 18 1944.

William Malkin (1883–1945), barrister, diplomat, joined the Foreign Office in 1911, Senior Legal Adviser, 1929–1945. Knighted in 1930. Took part in Paris Peace Conference of 1919–20, Lausanne Conference in 1922–23, the United Nations Conference on International Organisation in San Francisco 1945.

PISM KOL 12/16 b ref 1168/ W Pol/43, typescript copy of a covering letter by Col S. Gano to General Kukiel, dated 3 VII 1943, enclosing a report by an unnamed Polish Intelligence officer working in Budapest, possibly Colonel Franciszek Matuszczak, ‘Dod’, who was in charge of Polish Intelligence Station ‘Romek’ from 1943 to 1945; or his Deputy Col Jan Korkozowicz ‘Barski’, describing a meeting with Professor Orsós on 16 June 1943. Translation by EM.

Bela Kun (1885–1939), leader of the Hungarian proletariat movement of 1919, member of the Comintern, imprisoned during Stalin’s purges (1936–8) was kept until 1940 in a special prison with better conditions. Nikolai Yezhov, chief of GPU (NKVD) before Beria, had the same treatment.

Benedict Humphrey Sumner (1893–1951) Historian, scholar of modern diplomacy and international relations, took part in the Paris Peace Conference as Assistant Secretary. Appointed to the International Labour Office, toured Poland and the Baltic States in 1921. Drawn to Russian history and literature, became an authority on the subject. Fellow and Tutor in Modern History, Balliol College, Oxford 1925–44, engaged in the Foreign Research and Press Department (Russian Section) of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Warden of All Souls College, Oxford 1945–51. Published: Russia and the Balkans 1870 – 1880 in 1937; War and History in 1945; Peter the Great and the Ottoman Empire in 1949.

TNA FO 371/39393 C 2957/8/G, FO ‘Green Print’, copy 8, ‘The Soviet Version of the Katyn Atrocities’, Foreign Office Research Department (Soviet Union Section) 17 February 1944. Contains copy of the Soviet Monitor, English language radio bulletin, of Burdenko report, published by TASS in London January 26 and 27, 1944.

Ibid.

TNA FO 371/39393 C 2957/8/55G, comments on FORD report by Sir Alexander Cadogan, 21 March 1944.

TNA FO 371/56476 N 5269/G, Skarżyński’s second part of his confidential report, with conclusions dated September 1945, cover note by Robin Hankey 23 April 1946. Skarżyński, who was removed from his PCK post on 1 May 1945, felt it was his duty to inform the British about the aftermath of Katyn, before his expected arrest by the NKVD . (Translation by EM)

It has always been accepted Polish practice to write monthly dates with Roman numerals. The Russians rarely if ever do this. As a forensic clue it was ignored by the British until Julian Bullard spoted it while analysing Katyn papers in 1972.

TNA WO 162 /265, notes of a meeting 31 August 1945, present: Sir Hartley Shawcross (UK); Justice Jackson, S. Alderman and Jackson Junior, all from USA; General Nikitchenko, Ivanov, Troyanovsky from USSR; and R. Malezieux from France.

Władysław Anders, Bez Ostatniego Rozdziału – literally translates as ‘without the last chapter’, English title An Army in Exile , Gryf Publication, London 1959 third edition. On Army List for 1945–6, there is a J.L. Tapping (W.S/Lt) of Emergency Commission, Queens Royal Regiment.

TNA FO 1019/ 95 and 96 L 3359/3043/G, Top Secret, P. Dean to Sir Hartley Shawcross, 3 November 1945; Shawcross to Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, 5 December 1945.

TNA FO 371/47734 N 13818/664/55, Foreign Office minutes 8 October 1945.

TNA FO 1019/ 95 and 96, correspondence between Colonel Robert Jackson Chief Prosecutor USA and Lt Gen. R. Rudenko, Chief Prosecutor of the USSR, 8–11 March 1946, with copies to Auguste Champetier de Ribes and Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, Chief Prosecutors for France and the UK.

TNA FO 1019 / 95 and 96, BWCN/N/30, Immediate Top Secret signal, Nov 29 1700 hours 1945 from BWCE [Patrick] Dean for [David] Scott Fox.

TNA WO 311/ 717, BWCE (ES) / N/ SIG/1-189 Nuremberg cipher ‘following for Scott Fox from Dean’. The folder also contains a folio No. 246, sent by Col Phillimore from Nuremberg to R. A. Beaumont at the FO, indicating inclusion of a copy of the second part of the Soviet case, in particular pages 97–100, which deal with Katyn. This copy and further folios 247–250 are missing from the folder.

PISM KOL 12/16/G and H , Oddział Kultury i Prasy 2 Korpusu, Biuro Studiów, Notatki służbowe w sprawie Akcji Koster (official notes regarding Action Koster from Department of Press and Culture of 2 Corps) signed by Capt. Zdzisław Stahl chief of the Analytical Office, to be used as briefing material for Minister Tarnowski, dated London 20 March and 15 April 1946.

Guy Lloyd (1890–1987) MP, served in 1914–18 war (mentioned in despatches, DSO), Major in WW II; MP for Renfrewshire, Scotland. Knighted 1953.