A Note of History...

By Father Janusz

       As many of you have heard, on April 10th, a plane crash in Russia took the lives of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 96 others on board.

       Like everyone knows from history, on September 1, 1939 Hitler began the second world war by attacking Poland. Early in the morning, Germany attacked from the west and from the North via the Baltic Sea. They crossed the land. Polish soldiers fought against Germany in the north for almost 2 weeks. They also protected the west side of Poland and fought with bravery. But something unexpected happened. Civilians were moving to the east and south part of Poland. They found themselves trapped. Why? Before Hitler attacked Poland his representative signed a secret pact between Russia and Nazi Germany about a common collaboration between these two countries during the war. This document was signed by Foreign Ministers Ribbentrop and Molotov. It was signed in Moscow on August 23, 1939. This document included an international agreement , a secret, formal nonaggression pact with an additional protocol annexed to the official document of the territorial Polish, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Romania.

      On September 17, 1939 Russia crossed the border and attacked Poland. Between 1939 and 1960, into the hand of the Soviets flowed around 250,000 Polish combatants. In this number were 8,000 officers, 10,000 junior officers, 12,000 police officers. This was the top Polish intelligence. Polish clergy were also added to Russian slavery.

      The prisoners of war were sent to three different camps - Kozielsk, and Starobelsk, and on the island Ilowaja. By March the number of prisoners of war reached 15,000. From these camps came the first letter on Christmas and the last one received before Easter 1940. Russia decided to move the prisoners from their camps. On April 3, 1940 the first  transports from Kozelsk went out to a deserted place, and after April 4th from Starobelsk and on April 5th from Ilowaja. A command was signed by Joseph Stalin. These intelligence were shot in the woods of Katyn.  The train with the prisoners of war stopped in the station at Griazdowo beside Katyn. Prisoners were put into prisoner buses with black windows and driven to the forest. After being emptied the buses returned to pick up the next transport of prisoners. They were all killed in this forest. Stalin thought this was the end of the story and the truth would be buried. In 1942 when General Sikorski and General Anders began to complete the creation of the new army of Poland, they were looking for the missing soldiers, but they couldn’t find them (15,000 soldiers). When the pact was broken between Russia and Germany, when the army of Germany was moving toward Moscow, they discovered this huge cemetery with thousands killed in it. In 1943 when this common grave was discovered, Germans accused Russia of these murders.

      After World War II Poland had a communist government and the truth about Katyn was hidden. Secretly, people in Poland were talking about this, but publicly it was prohibited. If people talked about this information they faced jail and persecution of members of their family. In 1989 these facts and the truth about Katyn saw the light of day.

      President Kaczynski wanted to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Katyn, he fought for this truth all of his life with others.  One day before the 10th Anniversary, his plane crashed and he, the first lady, and others were killed. This is a very sad time for Poland and it’s people. The blood of martyrs is the seed of new believers.