Here is another massacre to explain away. Katyn. Webpage from a descendent of a survivor of the Katyn killings. His Father, " Leon was one of 448 who survived the murder of 27,000 Allied POW's by Stalin.
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/6764/intro.html A great myth developed that only the fascist enemy was capable of genocide, of mass crime. If the crimes of the Soviet Union were to be put into the same category as those of the Nazis, the whole moral story of why we fought the Second World War would have been ruined. We now know that during the war, Stalin actually killed more of his own people than Hitler killed during the Holocaust.
-- Norman Davies Poland's tragic fate during WW II, particularly the Holocaust, is well known, including the fact that 6.5 million Polish citizens perished, of whom 3 million were Jews. This Web Site documents the horrors of Nazism, but as importantly it is a study of a chapter of History long misunderstood and even denied: Poland's suffering under Stalinism and Communism.
Hitler and Stalin divided Poland between themselves in 1939, subjecting Poles to a double reign of terror. Under the Soviet occupation of Poland (Sept. 1939 to June 1941) over 100,000 Poles were killed, including 27,000 Polish officers at Katyn and other camps.
During WW II, between 1 million and 2 million Poles were deported to Siberia and other points in the USSR, half of whom died. Between 1945-1955, tens of thousands more were imprisoned and executed by the Communist regime in Poland installed by Moscow.
I combine family history with evidence that has surfaced since the fall of Communism to bring to light previously censored topics such as Stalinism and Soviet crimes, the West's collusion in the denial of Katyn, Jewish/Ukrainian collaboration with occupying forces, and the abandonement of Poland by the Allies. The fate of my parents is one shared by many Poles, but it is a story still misunderstood in the West.
I hope the material presented here will expand knowledge and interest in Poland and Poles during the Second World War, serving as an educational tool for layman and historian--and that it will counteract deniers of the holocausts perpetrated by both Hitler and Stalin.
I dedicate this project to my parents and to Poles everywhere, as well as to Ukrainians, Balts, Russians, Jews and countless others who suffered under Nazism and Communism. --- Christopher Jacek Gladun
My mother Janina joined the Polish underground in 1939 to fight the Soviets and Nazis, for which she was tortured by the NKVD and deported to the Gulag, as were her family and friends--some of whom were murdered. Miraculously she survived the Gulag only to face permanent exile and separation from loved ones. She dedicated her life to their memory.
My father Leon was one of the few survivors of Katyn where all of his comrades were murdered on Stalin's orders in one of the greatest crimes of history. He went on to fight the Germans in Italy, but he could not return to a Poland that was handed over to the Soviets by the very Allies he fought for.
I have spent years translating and researching my family dairies, letters, documents, as well as conducting interviews with relatives and survivors. My mother left an extensive memoir of her Gulag odyssey including award-winning writing, while my father started a POW diary which he kept through the entire war.
The family letters written amid terror and deprivation, in prisons, camps and exile, ranging from Soviet and Nazi-occupied Poland, to Siberia, India and England, provide a victim's testimony and eyewitness account that no historian can match...
http://www.prometheusbooks.com/site/catalog/book_647.html Out of the Red Shadows Russian History Anti-Semitism in Stalin's Russia
.... Gennadi V. Kostyrchenko .... Stalinist policy toward Jews is assessed for the first time in this groundbreaking book.
Sifting through thousands of recently declassified documents in the archives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the KGB, Kostyrchenko reveals in dispassionate documentary fashion the suppression of free expression of Jewish life, the forced assimilation of Soviet Jews, and the purging of Jews from official positions. The Soviet Jews fought valiantly against fascism in World War II, and the Soviet Union battled to end the Holocaust. Yet Soviet Jews found that a most ominous page in their history had been opened just after the war.
Kostyrchenko documents the famous "Doctor's plot" launched by Stalin just prior to his death, revealing never-before published secret documents. He also reveals the effort by Stalin to weed out Jews from prominent positions in the arts, sciences, and professional life. A devastating exposŽ.
"A disturbing, significant contribution to our knowledge of official Soviet anti-Semitism, based on recently declassified Communist Party and KGB archives." Kirkus Reviews
"A solid work of research. . . serious, objective and valuable study. . ."Fraternally Yours
". . . simultaneously a rich and depressing book to read." Europe-Asia Studies
". . . a valuable source of information for students of Jewish history and late Stalinism alike. . . . by far the most carefully documented text on Stalin's anti-Semitism in the last years of his rule." The Russian Review
"This is an excellent presentation and we heartily recommend it to those concerned with that vital phase of Jewish history." Jewish Currents
Jews in Russia, the Countries of the Former Soviet Union, ... ... Jews: the Doctors' Plot and the Soviet Solution. NY: Free Press, 1990. 318p. [DS135.R92R360 1990 Gen and Harper]. Redlich, Shimon. War, Holocaust and Stalinism ... www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/slavic/jbib/jbibrus.html
Joseph Stalin ... Vaksberg, Arkady. Stalin Against the Jews. Translated by Antonia W. Bouis. New York: Vintage, 1995. ... Description: Images of Stalin and a Stalin bibliography. Category: Society > Politics > Socialism > Marxism > Communism > People > Stalin, Josef www.history.ucr.edu/seaman/stalin.html http://www.google.com/search?q=Stalin+Against+the+Jews+by+Arkady+Vaksberg&bt nG=Google+Search http://www.google.com/search?q=Stalinism+Soviet+Jews http://www.google.com/search?q=Stalinist+Anti-Semitism
Michael Pugliese, these should give those that haven't made up their minds decades ago something to chew on... P.S. Related political culture suffused with xenophobia among more reactionary sectors, not all on the right.>Serbia http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010728/wl/exhuming_the_evidence_1.html http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/31/international/europe/31SERB.html (L.A. Times had a, "Column One, " story Monday or Tuesday on Serbian political mythology and Milosevic supporters . http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-000062339jul31.story?coll=l a%2Dheadlines%2Dworld (and Macedonian right-wing nationalist rioters chanting, "Death Chambers For Albanians!" about 6 weeks ago.Look up that chant in quotes on yahoo news, numerous stories.)
Nationalism, Anti-Semitism, and Anti-Feminism in Eastern Europe Publication (Journal) New German Critique 57 (fall 1992): 51-65 Published in USA, 1992 Language English Abstract The emergence of nationalism, anti-Semitism, and antifeminism as a consequence of the dissolution of communist ideology in Eastern Europe is examined, showing that Serbian authoritarian populism has engendered a mythology about the struggle against external and internal enemies. Drawing on psychoanalysis, it is contended that Serbians fantasize about Albanians as evil incarnate, bureaucrats as effeminate traitors, and Croats as the heirs of Nazi repression. It is noted that the mythology of Serbian populism invokes the heroic deed through the enactment of certain symbolic rituals, and that Serbian populism has succeeded in uniting two seemingly disparate elements; neo-Stalinist party politics and the concept of civil society. Discipline(s) political sociology , anthropology Source(s) Michael Pugliese