If you have any books or other information source on Katyn you wish to add to the listings please Email details to me.
The United Kingdom Government has published [April 2003] a paper entitled "British reactions to the Katyn massacre, 1943-2003".
There apparently being no further hard-copies available for purchase at the moment, this paper is on-line at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office site.
"In the Shadow of Katyn", Stanislaw Swianiewicz, 266 pages, published in 2002 by Borealis Publishing, 3735 Frigate Road, Pender Island, B.C. VON 2M2, Canada, distributed by Bunker to Bunker Books, 4520 Crowchild Trail, S.W. Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2T 5J4. [ISBN 1-894255-16-X]
"In the Shadow of Katyn" can be ordered via Email from Bunker to Bunker Books. The price is $24.95 Canadian dollars plus shipping (approx. $8.00 Canadian).
"In the Shadow of Katyn" was first published in 1976 in the Polish language in Paris, France, under the title, "W Cieniu Katynia", and had several editions in Poland during and after Solidarity. The book is translated by Witold Swianiewicz, son of the author. Dr. Stanislaw Swianiewicz was an officer in the Polish Army during the Second World War, was captured by the Soviets and destined to be shot at Katyn. Three kilometres from the execution site he was removed from the transport train and send to Moscow for questioning regarding his expert knowledge on German economy, after which he was sentenced to forced labour in the Gulag where the dire circumstances almost caused his death. By outwitting the NKVD he was able to leave the Soviet Union in 1942.
When the gravesite of Katyn was discovered in April 1943, Swianiewicz realized he was now a circumstantial witness to the Katyn massacre. When the Soviet prosecution at the Nuremberg Trial accused the Germans of the Katyn massacre, no Polish representative was called to testify, even Dr. Swianiewicz who could have given the most pertinent testimony was not called.
A reprinting of "House Report No 2505, 82nd Congress- Concerning the Katyn Forest Massacre" is available here
"The Crime of Katyn: Facts and Documents" 5th edition. Polish Cultural Foundation, London 1989. ISBN 0 85065 190 5
The London Poles well presented account that helped keep the matter alive for so long in the face of so much opposition to the truth coming out.
"Death in the Forest- the story of the Katyn Forest Massacre", J K Zawodny, Macmillan, 1971, Copyright 1962 by University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana. sbn Boards: 333 12124 4.
A very complete account of the Katyn massacre, one of the best of the early works on Katyn, a first class detailed account.
"The Katyn Wood Murders", Joseph Mackiewicz, World Affairs Book Club, Member's Edition. London 1951?
One of the early works on Katyn, very well written and has stood the test of time as further information becomes available.
"The inhuman land", Joseph Czapski, Sheed & Ward Inc, New York, 1952.
One of the most powerful books about the Soviet Russia that I have ever read. An absolute "must read" if you are interested in understanding Soviet Russia as it was survived by the Poles.
Joseph Czapski survived Soviet incarceration and searched across the Soviet Union for the missing Polish prisoners from Starobelsk, Kozielsk and Ostashkov. The Soviets he was personally dealing with during his endeavours knew these Poles had been murdered and buried by the NKVD at Katyn and elsewhere.
The book's introduction by Edward Crankshaw contains a revealing "Duranty" type statement about Katyn [page 2]: "I was no longer in Russia when Goebbels announced his find; but I knew very well that the NKVD were also quite capable of shooting in the neck as many Polish officers as they did not know what else to do with. So, in default of evidence, I had no views on the subject. The Russians were perfectly capable of doing such a thing; the Germans were even more capable of it: and that seemed to me all that mattered. Evidence collected since then shows, to my mind conclusively, that the Russians were in fact responsible; and by the look of it, they committed the crime in the way I should have expected-not as the Germans would have committed it, with gloating and as part of a calculated, crack-pot scheme, but as the result of an administrative muddle in the flap of a retreat." Fortunately Mr Crankshaw only occupies five pages of this otherwise brilliant book.
"Time stopped at 6:30", Thaddeus Wittlin, Bobbs-Merrill Company Inc, New York, 1965. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 65-25653.
An early account of the Katyn massacre. A bit too much "reconstructed dialogue" for my taste, but otherwise a soundly written account with a useful index and bibliography.
The illustrations include the conjecture current at the time of writing that the missing Poles from the Katyn massacre had been transported to the White Sea and drowned there in barges sunk for the purpose.
"The murderers of Katyn", Vladimir Abarinov, Hippocrene Books Inc, New York, 1993. ISBN 9 7818 0032 3
This is an updated pretty accurate translation of "Katyn Labyrinth", the first Russian language book on Katyn to be written and published in Russia in Russian. The author has said that he does not know why he was given access to the information, or allowed to write the book.
"Katyn Killings in the record" John H Lauck. The Kingston Press, Inc PO Box 2759, Clifton NJ 07015, USA ISBN 0 940670 30 5
For me the validity and accuracy of this otherwise competently constructed book is seriously called into question by the author's statement [p 131] that "Stalin is the literal translation of the name Dzhugashvili from Georgian into Russian." Otherwise, recalling that this work was published before the Soviet admissions relating to Katyn, it is an adequate record of the knowledge of this matter in 1988.
"The massacre at Katyn", Number 92 of "After the Battle", a quarterly magazine published by Battle of Britain Prints International Ltd, Church House, Church Street, London E15 3JA 1996
Katyn is the major theme for this issue with a very well researched and written article by Karle Margry extensively supported by many first class photos and illustrations.
"The Katyn Massacre; an assessment of its significance as a public and historical issue in the United States and Great Britain, 1940-1993", Louis Robert Coatney, 1993.
This is a thesis on Katyn that is well worth reading. There are other thesis on Katyn issues that I know of, but this is the only one I have the URL for.
"Katyn: an interpretation of aerial photographs considered with facts and documents." Waclaw Godziemba-Maliszewski, Polskie Towarzystwo Geograficzne, Klub Teledetekcji Srodowiska ul. Krakwskie Predmiescie 30, 00-927, Warszawa 1995 ISN 0071 8076
At US$60.00 including shipping within USA and US$68.00 incl. shipping internationaly,
copies are available from: W Godziemba-Maliszewski, 94 Dodgingtown Road, Bethel CT 06801, USA.
A dual language book with both Polish and English texts, extensively illustrated with aerial photos from the Nazi archives and other photos and diagrams.
"Katyn, an Examination of the Evidence", by Ray Cowdery & Josephine Cowdery (Translators). USM, 1995 ISBN: 0910667438
"Katyn. The untold story of Stalin's Polish Massacre", Allen Paul, Charles Scribner's Sons, Macmillan Publishing Company, 866 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10022, 1991, ISBN 0 684 19215 2
While Katyn is hardly an untold story, Paul's treatment brings a vibrant human face to the event. The Soviets/Russian and their Western sycophants have struggled for so long with their ludicrous denials of Soviet culpability for this crime, and so much has been written which is merely a rehash of the know facts, that it makes refreshing reading to find some new material well presented in a book on this subject that fellow-travellers will prefer to ignore.
"Katyn. Documents of Genocide". Documents and Materials from Soviet archives turned over to Poland on October 14, W. Materski ed., 1992.
"Katyn Massacre", Louis Fitzgibbon Corgi Illustrated 1977, [1971]0 552 10455 8.
"Katyn, triumph of evil", Louis Fitzgibbon, Anna Livia Books, The Dublin Magazine Press, Elstow, Knapton Road, Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, 1975.
From title page appears to be re-named version of "Katyn- a crime without parallel" 1971, and/or "The Katyn Cover-up", 1972. Called "combined second edition " of the two books in foreword.
"Memoirs of a prisoner of war in Kozielsk", Rev Msgr Zdzislaw Peszkowski, Polish Katyn Foundation, Warsaw, 1993.
The detailed account of his personal life in Kozielsk is set out between pages 12/26, and very effectively rebuts the crap written about Katyn/Kozielsk by people such as Shainberg. Additionally there is a listing of 432 of those selected to survive from the three camps by the NKVD; pages 64/75.
"The Road to Katyn - A Soldier's Story", Salomon W. Slowes, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers in association with the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies, 1992.
An autobiography of a Polish-Jewish officer who was one of the few survivors from Kozielsk and went on to train in the USSR with Ander's Army and fought in Italy.
"God's Eye: Aerial Photography and the Katyn Forest Massacre", Frank Fox, West Chester University Press.
A book about the work of Waclaw Godziemba-Maliszewski, who wrote "Katyn: an interpretation of aerial photographs considered with facts and documents".
More details of this book are here
Katyn in Danish with a summary in English. The title translated into English is:
The Katyn Affair And The Polish Government In Exile. An Investigation Of the Consequences Of A War Crime.
Katyn affćren og den polske eksilregering : en undersřgelse af en krigsforbrydelses konsekvenser / Tim Toftekćr ; [kortene i bogen er tegnet af forfatteren]
19 i serien Rapporter
. - Kbh. : [Křbenhavns Universitets Slaviske Institut] : distribution: C.A. Reitzel, 1989. - 273 sider
Med engelsk resumé.
Kilder og litteratur: side 242-252.
ISBN 87-7421-622-8.
"Amtliches Material zum Massenmord von Katyn", Gedruckt im Deutschen Verlag, Berlin, 1943.
The original Nazi report on the Katyn massacre.
The text of the Protocol of the International Commission dated at Smolensk, 30 April 1943, is reproduced complete with facsimile signatures between page 114 and 118.
Pages 167 to 272 list the 4130 bodies as they were exhumed and identified by the Nazis.
Pages 99 to 103, 107 to 113, and 274 to 331 are the main source for Katyn photos one sees around the net.
"Katynskii labirint", Valdimir Abarinov, 1991.
The first book on Katyn in Russian published in Russia. Abarinov was at the time a special correspondent of the Literaturnaya Gazeta. I made the fatal never to be repeated mistake of loaning out my copy so it has disappeared and I cannot give you any further publication details.
This book is now available on the net at this site. To read it your browser should be set to Cyrillic KO18R.
"Katyn. Prestuplenie protiv chelovechstva", Natalya S. Lebedeva, lst ed. Moscow,"Kultura" 1994.
"Katyn. Plenniki nieb'iavelnnoi voiny", R.G.Pikhoia, Natalya S. Lebedeva, A.Gieysztor, W.Materski and others, eds., Moscow, 1997. ISBN 5 89511 002 9
The article [in Russian], "The fourth partition of Poland and the Katyn tragedy", by Natalya S. Lebedeva is available on the net at this site. To read it your browser should be set to Cyrillic KO18R.
"Katyn: an interpretation of aerial photographs considered with facts and documents." Waclaw Godziemba-Maliszewski, Polskie Towarzystwo Geograficzne, Klub Teledetekcji Srodowiska ul. Krakwskie Predmiescie 30, 00-927, Warszawa 1995 ISN 0071 8076
A dual language book with both Polish and English texts, extensively illustrated with aerial photos from the Nazi archives and other photos and diagrams.
KATYN. Dokumenty Zbrodni. Tom I. Jency niewypowiedzianej wojny, sierpien 1939 - marzec 1940 (Katyn. Documents of the Crime. Vols. 1 & 2, The prisoners of an undeclared war, August 1939 - March 1940), Wojciech Materski and Rudolf Pikhoia, eds., Warsaw, 1995.
Katyn in Danish with a summary in English. The title translated into English is:
The Katyn Affair And The Polish Government In Exile. An Investigation Of the Consequences Of A War Crime.
Katyn affćren og den polske eksilregering : en undersřgelse af en krigsforbrydelses konsekvenser / Tim Toftekćr ; [kortene i bogen er tegnet af forfatteren]
19 i serien Rapporter
. - Kbh. : [Křbenhavns Universitets Slaviske Institut] : distribution: C.A. Reitzel, 1989. - 273 sider
Med engelsk resumé.
Kilder og litteratur: side 242-252.
ISBN 87-7421-622-8.
Reminiscencje o Katyniu... Film dokumentalny zrealizowany przez Fundacje im.Konstantego Piekarskiego
Aby obejrzec film prosimy kliknac myszka na obrazek kamery. Przypominamy, ze program moze byc odbierany wylacznie przez uzytkowników szybkiego internetu, czyli polaczen DSL/CABLE, jak równiez wylacznie za pomoca odtwarzacza video Windows Media Player.
Video clips in Polish published on radio Foka ( Polish) from Canada.
150kbps - w systemie Windows Media.
GOLGOTA WSCHODU (czas audycji: 33 min.)
Film dokumentalny zrealizowany przez Fundacje im. Konstantego Piekarskiego z Calgary. Wypowiedz ks. Zdzislawa Peszkowskiego zostala zarejestrowana w Warszawie w czerwcu 2002r. przez Andrzeja Bukowickiego. Premiera filmu odbyla sie podczas akademii z okazji 60 rocznicy odkrycia grobów katynskich w siedzibie Stowarzyszenia Polskich Kombatantów Kola nr 18 w Calgary, w niedziele 27 kwietnia 2003r. Ks. Peszkowski jest kapelanem Rodzin Katynskich i Sybiraków, oraz jednym z tych, którzy nie podzielili losu tysiecy swoich kolegów bestialsko zamordowanych przez NKWD.
Film dostepny jest w formacie: DVCAM, miniDV, Digital-8, DVD, VCD, MPEG, VHS, oraz S-VHS.
Books which include Katyn information, again in no particular order
"Special Tasks", Pavel Sudoplatov and Anatoli Sudoplatov with Jerrold L and Leona P Schecter, Little Brown and Company [UK] Ltd, Brettenham House, Lancaster Place, London, WC2E 7EN, 1994, ISBN 0 316 91217 4
"Lenin's Tomb-the last days of the Soviet empire", David Remnick, Random House, New York 1993 ISBN 0-679-42376-1
"Stalin's Secret War" Nikolai Tolstoy, Jonathan Cape, Thirty Bedford Square, London,
1981, ISBN 0 224 01665 2.
"Hymn to Janina Lewandowska", Kendall Merriam, Dancing Bear Press, 4 Church Street, Richmond, Maine, 04357-1308, USA. 1981, 2001.
"For this one hour- a historical novel", E Lee North, The William-Frederick Press, New York, 1968. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number : 68-25325
"The KGB Solution at Katyn", Maurice Shainberg, Lincoln Springs Press, 1989.
"Katynskii Detektiv", Iuri Mukhin, Moscow, 1995.
"Night never ending", E A Komorowski with Joseph L Gilmore, Avon Books, Hearst Corporation, 959 Eighth Ave, New York, NY 10019 1975 ISBN 0 380 00355 4
"Archangel 006", Raymond Hitchcock, Constable and Company Ltd, 10 Orange Street, London WC2H 7EG, 1984, ISBN 0 09 465350 X
"When fish begin to smell", Matthew Heald Cooper, Panther Books, Granada Publishing Ltd, London, 1985 ISBN 0-586-06326-9
"Rendevous at Katyn", Foster Furcolo, Marlboro House, 1973.
"Katyn, a whisper in the trees", Antony Jakubowski, Kuma Publishing, USA 1991 ISBN #0 9629363 0 8.
Other interesting books
"Gulag- a history", Anne Applebaum. Introduction and 677 pages, 2003, Doubleday. [ISBN 0-7679-0056-1]
"When God looked the other way- an odyssey of war, exile and redemption." Wesley Adamczyk. Foreword by Norman Davies.
"Faithful Ruslan: the story of a guard dog", Vladimov, Georgi (Translated From the Russian By Michael Glenny) Introduction By Richard Adams, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979 ISBN: 0-671-24633-X.
"Shallow graves in Siberia", Michael Krupa. Minerva Press 1997, ISBN 186 1067305
"Sudoplatov is the surviving institutional memory of the Russian intelligence service's covert operations from the 1920's to 1953." So state the Schecters in their introduction to this work; the detailed recollections of a paragon of amorality from the Soviet period.
Some individuals always make their way through the chaos of periods such as Stalinism and bring a wealth of details with them; some speak Russian and get involved in writing books.
This tale of destruction and mayhem, the use of lies, deception, fellow travellers and the fawning hubris that denied Stalinism's realities in the West for so long makes interesting reading.
It would pay us to constantly recall that the successors to those who created, controlled and directed the "Sudoplatovs" of the Soviet period have yet to fade from the halls of power in the "new" Russia.
Try these sites for various opinions about this book.
Chapter one starts with a description of the KGB's unsuccessful efforts in August 1991 to stop work at "a series of mass graves in a birch forest twenty miles outside the city of Kalinin". This is one of the sites where Poles shot by the NKVD were buried, and their existence denied by the Soviets for fifty years as part of the Katyn massacre.
Puts the Katyn massacre in context with the war Stalin endlessly fought with the Russian people, and details the resources he diverted from fighting the Nazis to oppress the gulag population.
"The interrogation of Janina Lewandowska", a play by Kendall Merriam, Dancing Bear Press, 4 Church Street, Richmond, Maine, 04357-1308, USA. 1981.
Quote from an editorial in the NY Daily News (at the time,
with the largest circulation in the Americas): ...historical thriller turning on the Russian slaughter of thousands of Polish army officers in the Katyn Forest early in World War II... one of history's most hideous crimes."
Written in the 1960s this Katyn based tale exhibits a good grasp of the
complexities of Katyn. I think the book also captures Polish experiences and
sentiments about the events in that period very well. As much historical as
it is a novel the book portrays a gratifyingly realistic attitude to the
Soviet perfidy that others gloss over, remarkably prescient for a book of
that period.
While at times necessarily stretching credulity to link the story line which
involves such a horrendous event, I am sure the book would have the happy
distinction of not offending anyone involved in Katyn.
Our hero experiences the subjugation of Poland, is captured, later escapes
from the graves at Katyn with artistic license, and, after various intricate
adventures, lives to fight another day.
A very weird book. Could well have been written by Mr Putin, except that he probably would have produced a more plausible effort.
The jacket blurb includes a review supposedly quoted from the N Y Times which includes the word "Unbelievable!". I certainly agree with that.
Another quoted reviewer is "Former President Nixon". Remember him? The man who went to Khatyn for the Soviets, but never got just down the road to Katyn for the Poles.
He is quoted as saying the book is "A riveting account of the horror perpetrated by the Russians on Polish Jews during World War II."
As we came to expect with Nixon's pronouncements this one does not even come close to the truth.
Readers who know anything much about Katyn will however agree with the review quoted as being from Publishers Weekly; "There are astonishments in store for readers.....".
A KGB inspired fairytale. According to Mukhin the Nazis did it; Russian documents handed over to Poland in October 1992 are fakes.
This book claims to be a "true story".
If you are able to swallow "Komorowski's" fairytale as far as page 180, and perhaps you remain a true believer of this crap, can you please explain to me how the thirteen bodies we are supposed to believe were carted around by the NKVD and buried at Katyn seem to have been overlooked during both the Nazi and Soviet exhumations?
"Komorowski", if we are to believe his dramatic fantasy, was one of fourteen Poles shot indiscriminately with machine guns during a riot in a convoy enroute to Katyn from Kozielsk. On page 185 they are supposedly thrown into the top layers of a twenty by ten metre mass grave. No shot body was ever exhumed from Katyn by either Nazis or Soviets with other than pistol shots in the head as the cause of death.
I think nobody "escaped from Katyn", except in so far as some 448 were
selected out and not shot by the NKVD but were transferred to
other camps.
The politest view I can take of the Komorowski matter is that it
was a case of self aggrandizement by a disturbed person.
I think that Komorowski committed one of the lowest of crimes, he
stole the laurels properly due to a dead man.
My opinion is that the author based his tale on the experiences of Ivan Gregorovich Krivozertsov, who was often referred to as "the main witness to
Katyn". His testimony is extensively recorded in "The Katyn wood
murders", Joseph Mackiewicz, London 1951, Hollis and Carter. pages 176-195. It makes fascinating reading and is refer to in later writing on
Katyn also. For instance in "Death in the Forest", J K Zawodny,
Macmillan 1962, [with various later reprints], and in "Time stopped at 6:30", Thaddeus Wittlin, 1965, pages 276 to 284 of which quote Krivosertsov's testimony as recorded in the record of the Hearings before the Select Committee of the US House of Representatives 82nd Congress, part 4.
Krivozertsov made his way out of Russia with the retreating Nazis and then,
via Germany, on to England.
In one of my articles on my site I refer to the fact he was found
hanging in a shed on a farm in October 1947.
His "best friend" at the time, a Russian, had also disappeared.
Officially it was listed as suicide, but few with knowledge of
either Krivozertsov or Katyn accept that version. It is a pity Krivozertsov is not still around to give his opinion on
the book.
In these days of DNA testing "Komorowski's" would be an interesting
one to see the results of, but my pick is that you would be
wasting your money.
I have noted a very enthusiastic review of the book on the Amazon
site, but that cuts no ice with me. There was an awful lot around about
Katyn in the public arena by the time the book was written, long before
in fact.
An interesting spy novel that weaves the Katyn massacre into the plot.
A very good novel written by someone who knows quite a lot about Katyn and can weave a plausible tale around the event.
The author accepts this is a work of fiction. It is certainly that and I wish others who have contacted me could understand that.
The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-00443-0. Cloth. US$25.00. 288 pages, 21 halftones, 3 maps. 2004.
"Adamczyk recounts the story of his own wartime childhood with exemplary precision and immense emotional sensitivity, presenting the ordeal of one family with the clarity and insight of a skilled novelist. ...I have read many descriptions of the Siberian odyssey and of other forgotten wartime episodes. But none of them is more informative, more moving, or more beautifully written than 'When God looked the other way.'"
From the foreword by Norman Davies, author of "Europe: a history" and "Rising '44: the battle for Warsaw".
A wonderful book about the gulags, that is not really about a guard dog at all.
Information on this book about one Pole's experiences in Soviet Russia is on this site.
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Artykuły o zbrodnia Katynska w tej witrynie (po polsku i angielsku).
Articles on this site about the Katyn Forest Massacre [in English and Polish]. "Doing justice to the dead." "Sprawiedliwość dla zmarłych." "Lost Souls." "Zagubione dusze." "Separate memories, separate sorrows." "Odrębne wspomnienia. Odrębne smutki." "The Soviet memory hole." "Podróż w Sowiecką Dziurę w Pamięci." |
"KATYŃ. MODUS OPERANDI" Michał Synoradzki, Jacek Grodecki, Victoria Plewak. [po polsku]" |