The Rape of Poland: Pattern of Soviet Aggression

THE bare announcement by the German radio--on April 13, 1943--that the mass graves of "about ten thousand" Polish officers had been discovered near Katyń on April 12, 1943, was followed by a press conference at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin. It was a revolting story as outlined by the Germans, and though we in London were by nature skeptical of all German statements, their account of the Katyń atrocities tied up many of the loose ends of our own ceaseless search for our men.

It took the Russians three days to retort, during which time we dispatched underground units to the scene and confirmed at least the fact that the graves had been found. Our men reported that about four thousand bodies had been unearthed.

On April 15, 1943, the Moscow radio described the German charges as "vile fabrications." It added:

"In the last two or three days the Goebbels' liars have been distributing false stories about the mass murders of Polish officers by the Soviets in the spring of 1940 in the area of Smolensk.

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