Sprawa mordu katynskiego: Ta ksiazka byla pierwsza

by Józef Mackiewicz

Dziela (The Collected Works of Jozef Mackiewicz), volume 19. In May 1943, having been invited by the Germans and having obtained the permission of the Polish underground (the Home Army) authorities, Jozef Mackiewicz travelled to Katyn in order to witness the exhumation of the bodies of Polish officers murdered there by the Soviets. In 1952, the U.S. Congress Select Committee to Conduct an Investigation of the Facts, Evidence, and Circumstances of the Katyn Forest Massacre heard Józef Mackiewicz in his dual capacity of witness and expert. An English translation of this first ever book on the subject, published by Hollis and Carter, London, in 1951 as The Katyn Wood Murders, was the basis of translations into other languages, including the German edition of 1949 (Katyn ungesühntes Verbrechen, Thomas Verlag, Zürich). Only the Russian translation (Zaria Publishing Inc., London, Ontario, 1988) was based on the original.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, True Crime

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Mackiewicz's prose is extremely realistic: he believed there were no untouchable subjects. In 1957, he published Kontra, a narrative account of the particularly brutal and treacherous handover of thousands of anti-Soviet Cossacks by British soldiers in Austria back to Soviets. His other works include Droga donikąd (The Road to Nowhere) - an account of life under Soviet occupation, Zwycięstwo prowokacji (Victory of provocation) - on communism, W cieniu krzyża (In the shadow of the cross) - on Catholicism.

His voluminous output as a writer of fiction and a publicist has been undergoing an unusual revival after many years of underground publishing and later marginal interest. His books are however hardly available in Poland due to legal issues.

Life:
Jozef Mackiewicz was born in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire on 1 April 1902 to a Polish family from Polish-Lithuanian gentry. In 1907 his family moved back to Vilnius (Wilno) (from 1918 till 1945 in Poland, now in Lithuania).
Mackiewicz studied natural sciences and before World War II he worked as a journalist for Słowo (The Word), a newspaper published in Vilnius, then within Poland's borders. On 17 of September 1939 Soviet troops invaded eastern Poland (Kresy) and gave Wilno to independent Lithuania. Between October 1939 and May 1940 he was a publisher and editor-in-chief of the Gazeta Codzienna, a Polish language daily in Lithuanian-controlled Vilnius. In his articles Mackiewicz attempted to initiate a dialogue between Lithuanians and Poles. After the annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union, he worked as a labourer. In 1942, he witnessed a of massacre of Jews by the Germans in Ponary, which he described in his book Nie trzeba głośno mówić (“One Is Not Supposed to Speak Aloud”[1]). At the end of 1942 / beginning of 1943 he was sentenced to death by the Home Army for his work at Gazeta Codzienna and Goniec Codzienny (see below). Sentence was then cancelled by the Home Army .[2] In June 1943, with consent of the Polish government-in-exile, he assisted in the first excavations of the mass graves of the Polish soldiers killed by Soviet NKVD in Katyn in 1940. Mackiewicz left Poland with his wife in 1945, never to return, and died in exile in Munich, in 1985.
His brother, Stanisław Mackiewicz, was a political publicist and Prime Minister of the Government of Poland in exile from 1954 to 1955.

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this was written over fifty years ago it is still as moving, infuriating and shocking as I'm sure it was then. The book tells the story of 15,000 Polish soldiers who were sent to concentration camps by the Soviet Russians in 1939 when they invaded the eastern half of Poland to 'help' fight the Nazis. It tells hows the Soviets used the Nazi invasion as an excuse to invade and control Poland and to disband and arrest its army and send them to forced labour camps throughout the USSR. When the Nazi's turned on the USSR and they began to flee back into the Soviet heartland they evacuated many of the camps and sent the prisoners north. But in a number of cases the prisoners were slaughtered, either in the camps or elsewhere, including many of the Polish soldiers who had been arrested for simply defending their country.

Once the USSR switched sides following the Nazi invasion into Soviet held areas, the Polish government started trying to locate their missing men and so began over a year and half of lies and deceit by some within the USSR. It wasn't until the Nazi's took over the area of Katyn Wood that the graves in which the soldiers had been buried were found and excavated and the truth began to come to light. However even after this and the huge body of evidence showing that the bodies were some of those missing and that they had obviously been slaughtered en mass in the spring of 1940, the USSR continued to deny involvement and blame the Nazis. Even during the Nuremburg Trials where this case was heard it wasn't resolved. It wasn't until 1990 that the Russian authorities finally admitted that the massacre was committed by the Russian Secret Police (the NKVD) and that the locations of the remaining Polish soldiers murdered at the time came to light (at Mednoye and Piatykhatky)

There were two things that really surprised and angered me when reading this book. The first was the even though it was obvious that the Nazis hadn't committed this crime (for a change) and that it could only have been committed by the USSR the Allied Governments did not push for justice as they should have done. Many have put this down to the fact that it was war time and the USSR was an important ally and they wanted to avoid the possibility of an alliance between Germany and the USSR, which is understandable. But when the war had been won, I don't understand why then the Allies didn't push for a full independent inquiry and bring a proper full balanced case against the USSR during the Nuremburg Trials. In the end it was the USSR themselves that tried the case, how this was allowed is beyond me.

The second is that during the war, requests were put into the International Red Cross by both the Polish and German Governments for them to conduct a full independent and unbiased investigation into what happened. It should be noted that it was actually the German Government who requested one first. However these requests were denied on the basis that the USSR didn't want an investigation despite the fact that the two requests would normally be enough to start an investigation. This decision resulted in the Nazis trying to conduct an independent investigation in full view of many different people as possible, but this would never be accepted by the USSR. This attitude from the International Red Cross greatly surprised angered and sickened me as they are built on the promise of independent unbiased justice in situations such as these and yet they failed those soldiers at Katyn, Mednoye and Piatykhatky. Had they got involved how different would things have been? How much sooner would the families of those killed known what had happened?

This is a very emotive, moving and infuriating tale that shows how the might of the former USSR controlled and influenced many decisions and actions (or the lack thereof) during and after the Second World War. I find it incredibly sad that it was the Nazis who brought this massacre to light and worked with the Polish Government to try and get it investigated and the guilty brought to justice, even if it was for their own propaganda. This is one of the lesser known stories of the War and should be brought much further into the public domain. Even today this book is very much worth a read, it is easy to read and clear and easy to follow and provides enough background to the events so even those without much knowledge can follow what happened. A story that shows the best, worst and most damnable sides of human nature.

[Grazyna Nawrocka · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I left Poland, in 1990s the Russians still haven't owned to this killing. I was sure that there was lack of evidence. The gossip about the crime was circulating among our people since I remember. The discovery that there was a book, published in 1951, which documented this piece of our history objectively and thoroughly shocked me.

It is a very sad part of Polish history. Not only Germans, but also Russians exterminated most of Polish intelligentsia. It brings to my mind Cultural Revolution. You just cannot enslave nation who has enlightened and educated representation.

[Kevin Keating · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a heavy book, written in 1951 by a guy who had been part of the investigation, and at a time when the Soviets had claimed that the Nazis had committed the massacre of 15000 officers from the Polish Army - an attempt to wipe out the culture and any possible leadership of the Poles, to make integration of Poland into USSR easier. US and England knew the truth but deliberately covered it up to keep the Alliance against Germany intact. I grew up thinking it was the Nazis, thanks to the coverup, and only since the breakup of USSR and thanks to Gorbachev, we know for sure that it was Beria and Stalin who personally ordered the executions, prior to Germany invading USSR. Anyway, the book is pretty well written and explains everything clearly, with very poignant excerpts from letters and postcards left on the bodies by the Russians. Why'd they leave them? Because they never thought they'd be invaded and outed by the Nazis, who were SHOCKED by the brutality. (Sarcasm).

[Ana-Maria Bujor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A unique account of someone who actually saw the gravesite itself while being investigated by the Germans. Besides this aspect, the writing is very good and the author manages to set the case for what actually happened in an articulated, evidence-based, almost literary manner. One can feel the frustration of it all as it seemed quite likely that the guilty ones would get away with it. And they did.

For anyone willing to understand what happened, this is the book.