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Background history
The Museum houses an important memento connected with the discovery of mass graves in the Forest of Katyn. The poster presented on the exhibition was made several dozen days after the announcement of the information about this horrendous crime had been revealed to the world. The Nazi rightly accused the Soviet Union of perpetrating it. This information drew a great state of agitation among Poles both in the occupied country and in exile. General Władysław Sikorski immediately turned to the International Committee of the Red Cross with the request to investigate and explain all the circumstances of the crime, yet Joseph Stalin blocked the participation of the organization in the exhumation works. In response to that move, the German authorities formed the International Medical Commission consisting of 12 experts representing countries dependent on the Third Reich and one specialist from Switzerland. The leaders of the USSR took advantage of that fact to break the diplomatic relations with Poland and to accuse Sikorski’s government of collaboration with the Third Reich. Unfortunately, the British and American authorities, in order to save the good relations with Stalin, did not engage to explain all the circumstances of the crime, and – first of all – they did not believe in the Germans’ reports saying that it was the Soviets who were to blame. A commission composed of several representatives of Poland went to Katyn to examine the scene of crime. It consisted of, among others, Ferdynand Goetel – a writer, Józef Mackiewicz, the Rev. Stanisław Jasiński, being an emissary of Archbishop Adam Sapieha, Leon Kozłowski – former Prime Minister of the Second Republic of Poland, representatives of the General Government, Journalists, also POWs of oflags. During the works there were 4,243 bodies found, 2,730 being identified, though initially, the Germans maintained that there were 11 thousand Polish officers buried in the Katyn forest. Actually, there were in total 15 thousand officers detained in the special NKVD-run camps in Kozelsk, Starobilsk and Ostashkov. We were able to learn about the fate of the others nearly 50 years after the discovery of the mass graves in Katyn. The Germans did their best to convince the world that it should blame the Soviet Union. They were also convincing the officers in Oflag VI B Dössel, where the presented poster comes from. Obviously, this news provoked extreme agitation among the officers. The poster was put up in the oflag. It included photos showing the exhumation works with accompanying captions underneath, in which the Soviets were accused of the crime. The texts are telling and clearly and firmly expressive. It follows from them that the Germans tried to prove that the Soviet Union was the biggest evil to Europe, trampling on – in contrast to the Germans – all rights and values. The poster was meant to make the POWs realize that Germans were not as criminal as the Soviets were, since they respected international laws. At first, the Polish officers did not want to believe in what the Germans said, thinking that it was provocation. They treated the reports on the crime with great caution, as a figment of Goebbels’ propaganda. Part of the POWs did not fall for the revelations which only augmented hatred towards the Germans. Still, the Polish officers interned in Dössel had lost many friends and acquaintances in the Katyn forest – soldiers they had known since the time of their service in the pre-war Polish Army. The initial shock and disbelief changed into sadness and pain, cementing the growing inner solidarity even more. The putting up of the poster in the camp was one of the most tragic events during the six-year captivity of the Polish officers.
Prepared by: Bartosz Janczak
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Echoes of the Katyn Crime in a POW poster
Source of acquisition
Gift of Józef Kobylański, a POW of VI B Dössel.
Description of the item
A poster made on thick paper of 60cm x 84cm, presenting black-and-white photographs from the exhumation works carried out on the site of murdering Polish officers in 1943; the heading: “Bolsheviks’ bestiality”. Under the photos, propaganda descriptions of the crime, together with results of the works of the commission.
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