Thursday, April 15, 2010

Forest of the dead at Katyn


70 years ago the paternal grandfather of one of our directors was murdered by the Soviets in the infamous Katyn massacre of 23,000 Polish army officers and intelligensia, ordered by communist dictator Stalin a few months after he invaded the eastern half of Poland in 1939. His 19 year old son, our director's father, was arrested, imprisoned, beaten and sent to a Siberian gulag to work to his death. Obviously he was later released to tell the tale, which we are soon publishing in book form.

Both Hitler and Stalin massacred their respective "enemies of the people" - for Hitler these were the Jews, for Stalin they were better off peasants, industrialists, priests and leaders as per Marxist dogma, plus anyone his paranoid mind considered to be a possible threat - millions of them.

It is ironic that more deaths of the Polish elite occured this week on their way to commemorate the anniversary together with the leaders of the now non-communist Russia.

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