Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 20 hours ago
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In April and May of 1940, thousands of Polish prisoners of war were taken far from their homeland to a secret police prison and a nearby slaughterhouse and shot in the back of the head. The killing was done in an organized and meticulous fashion: most people were taken into a cell that had been padded to prevent sound from escaping, shot in the back of the head, and their bodies taken out through a door in the opposite wall and loaded onto trucks. Whether the cells were hosed down between killings is unknown, but they likely were; dozens of bodies per day per cell means a lot of blood and brains – and last-minute panic when seen. Still, it seems unlikely that the victims didn't know what was in store for them.
It sounds like a description of the horrors the Germans inflicted on and in Poland throughout their occupation of that unfortunate country, but in this case, it wasn't the Germans doing the killing. It was the Soviets, and the killings of the Polish POWs near Katyn in Belorussia were part of Stalin's larger plan to control his portion of Poland with an iron fist.
Ironically, the slaughter was discovered and announced to the world by the Nazis in 1943, who tried to use the massacre of Polish soldiers and a large number of civilians as a wedge to cause friction between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies of the United States and Great Britain.
#katyn #sovietunion #ww2 #history
Sources:
United States. Congress. House. Select Committee to Conduct an Investigation and Study of the Facts; Evidence; and Circumstances on the Katyn Forest Massacre. The Katyn Forest Massacre: Hearings Before the Select Committee to Conduct an Investigation of the Facts, Evidence and Circumstances of the Katyn Forest Massacre, Eighty-second Congress, First[-second] Session, on Investigation of the Murder of Thousands of Polish Officers in the Katyn Forest Near Smolensk, Russia. 1952.
Urban, Thomas. The Katyn Massacre 1940: History of a Crime. Pen and Sword Military, 2022.
Zawodny, J. K. Death in the Forest: The Story of the Katyn Forest Massacre. Literary Licensing, LLC, 2011.
Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved.
DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com
Get the “big picture” with Ground News. Go to https://ground.news/adayinhistory and subscribe for 40% off their unlimited access Vantage plan this month only.
In April and May of 1940, thousands of Polish prisoners of war were taken far from their homeland to a secret police prison and a nearby slaughterhouse and shot in the back of the head. The killing was done in an organized and meticulous fashion: most people were taken into a cell that had been padded to prevent sound from escaping, shot in the back of the head, and their bodies taken out through a door in the opposite wall and loaded onto trucks. Whether the cells were hosed down between killings is unknown, but they likely were; dozens of bodies per day per cell means a lot of blood and brains – and last-minute panic when seen. Still, it seems unlikely that the victims didn't know what was in store for them.
It sounds like a description of the horrors the Germans inflicted on and in Poland throughout their occupation of that unfortunate country, but in this case, it wasn't the Germans doing the killing. It was the Soviets, and the killings of the Polish POWs near Katyn in Belorussia were part of Stalin's larger plan to control his portion of Poland with an iron fist.
Ironically, the slaughter was discovered and announced to the world by the Nazis in 1943, who tried to use the massacre of Polish soldiers and a large number of civilians as a wedge to cause friction between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies of the United States and Great Britain.
#katyn #sovietunion #ww2 #history
Sources:
United States. Congress. House. Select Committee to Conduct an Investigation and Study of the Facts; Evidence; and Circumstances on the Katyn Forest Massacre. The Katyn Forest Massacre: Hearings Before the Select Committee to Conduct an Investigation of the Facts, Evidence and Circumstances of the Katyn Forest Massacre, Eighty-second Congress, First[-second] Session, on Investigation of the Murder of Thousands of Polish Officers in the Katyn Forest Near Smolensk, Russia. 1952.
Urban, Thomas. The Katyn Massacre 1940: History of a Crime. Pen and Sword Military, 2022.
Zawodny, J. K. Death in the Forest: The Story of the Katyn Forest Massacre. Literary Licensing, LLC, 2011.
Copyright © 2023 A Day In History. All rights reserved.
DISCLAIMER: All materials in these videos are used for entertainment purposes and fall within the guidelines of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If you are, or represent, the copyright owner of materials used in this video, and have an issue with the use of said material, please send an email to adayinhistory2021@gmail.com
