The Katyn Forest Massacre

[StefanM]

This morning I found in one of the US National Archive Katyn records finding aid published 1 Aug 2012 a possible clue to the addition of the "JUDE-NKVD" heading on Tony's Katyn poster:

Defense Exhibits in Case No. 11, U.S. v. Ernst von Weizsaecker, et al., 1947-1949 (ARC 6220231; Microfilm M-897 “Records of the United States Nuernberg War Crimes Trials: 'United States of America v. Ernst von Weizsaecker et al.' (Case XI), Dec. 20, 1947-Apr. 14, 1949) – There is a folder among exhibits for Otto Dietrich titled “Dietrich Exh. 126” that contains excerpts from “Oberheitman Material” and “Voelkischer Beobachter” dated 1943 showing directives for anti-Semitic propaganda and propaganda on the Katyn affair emphasizing the Jewish connection to the Katyn Massacre.

[slados28]

Isn't the layout of this poster just a pretty obvious case of the Nazi propaganda machine combining well known key words like "Jude" and "NKVD" with evocative and quite telling imagery of a well documented atrocity (at the very least in Germany/other occupied territories)?

Regardless, it's nice to see some documentation regarding the Nazi's handling and way of using this discovery to their advantage.

[Cenowski]

Its hard to draw a line between truth and propaganda. The fact is that the nkvd did have a major number of jews, so it is possible this poster was as much as a warning to their own population to up the fight against the soviets and to know what to expect. Im sure not just Katyń but anywork by the nkvd involved jews who were at all levels in the nkvd structure.

[Krakow1]

The " Katyn " Massacre was horrible, but in "brutal" reality we are forgetting that Stalin was responsible for (and here is where numbers differ) major deportations of Polish Citizens from Kresy, by some accounts a million plus people, depending on whom one believes : conservative estimates range from 400.000 FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND up to 1.4000. ONE MILLION FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND...... Most of whom lost their lives.

[Cenowski]

It it is not forgotten or unknown to Polacy, but most most of Western Europe and the world yes. Like i said before, most Western European countries teach history that isnt full in content or true, as if they are scared to upset certain countries or create a political row. Katyń is only one part of mass of crimes committed by the soviets against the Polish people. Unfortunately the knowledge of these crimes are little known. It is the same in the way people outside of Poland don't really know about the Polish-ukranian ethnic conflict during from WW2 onwards. The yugo wars which were one sided on the media, was widespread televised and covered by 100 of films, books and so on, however much of what happened in most of Eastern Europe is hard come by outside of Poland, ukraine, russia and so on.

[Scout]

+ what the loon did to his own countrymen.

[Cenowski]

True, Russia did suffer too, and to be honest continues to. Germany also and the mass soviet rapes, something else that i think is a sickening crime that rarely talked about or exposed.

[TrondK]

Scary reading.

Last year i saw a big red commie flag in the street where i live, i stopped by the stand and talked to these loonies who were uniformed with black boots and military clothes etc. I asked questions regarding how they can love a dictator who killed millions of his own people? The "leader" of these evil commies slowly streched his head towards my ear and wispered slowly with a serpents smile: "If i had my NKVD uniform on, you would not dare to ask such questions".

So sadly, Young people has not learned anything of the horrors of Katyn and other evil acts from dictators and their hangmans.

[Cenowski]

They sounded like a bunch of people that would learn from a severe beating

[StefanM]

Isn't the layout of this poster just a pretty obvious case of the Nazi propaganda machine combining well known key words like "Jude" and "NKVD" with evocative and quite telling imagery of a well documented atrocity (at the very least in Germany/other occupied territories)?

For a Polish audience that would be a case for using this poster image and the key words given similar anti-semitic propaganda about "Jewish-Bolshevism" that was produced in pre-WWII Poland, however as mentioned in earlier posts it would been typeset in the Polish language not just German or it would have been bilingual as many posters and proclamations were in occupied Poland.

Again if it was supposed to be motivational for German troops to fight harder why use this weak "Katyn" imagery when the Red Army was busy raping and pillaging its way across Eastern Europe and heading into Germany... where it was ready to likewise rape your grandmother, mother, wife and daughters? IMO this would more likely have been the propaganda or motivational message for German troops not the murder of enemy Polish PoWs by another enemy.

I have probably been guilty, although quite unintentionally, of subverting this thread for which I duly apologise and will bow out what has been a most enjoyable conversation