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Germans in Katyn. Documents on the execution of Polish prisoners of war in the autumn of 1941.Compiled by: R. I., Kosolapov, V. E. Pershin, S. Yu. Rychenkov, V. A. Sakharov
Responsible for the issue: S. A. Lozhkin.
Moscow: ITRK Publishing House, 2010 - 280 p. ISBN 978-5-88010-266-2Report of the special commission for establishing and investigating the circumstances of the execution by the Nazi invaders in the Katyn forest of Polish officers of war. January 26, 1944
Pravda, January 26, 1944; Germans in Katyn. M.: ITRK. pp. 39-84
By a decree of the Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of the Atrocities of the Nazi Invaders and Their Accomplices, a Special Commission was created to establish and investigate the circumstances of the execution by the Nazi invaders in the Katyn Forest (near Smolensk) of Polish officers of war.
The Commission included: Member of the Extraordinary State Commission, Academician N.N. Burdenko (Chairman of the Commission), Member of the Extraordinary State Commission Academician Aleksey Tolstoy, Member of the Extraordinary State Commission Metropolitan Nikolai, Chairman of the All-Slavic Committee, Lieutenant-General Gundorov A.S., Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Union of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Kolesnikov S.A., People's Commissar Education of the RSFSR Academician Potemkin V.P., Head of the Main Military Sanitary Directorate of the Red Army, Colonel-General Smirnov E.I., Chairman of the Smolensk Regional Executive Committee Melnikov R.E.
To fulfill the task assigned to it, the Commission attracted the following forensic experts to participate in its work: the chief forensic expert of the People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR, the director of the Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Medicine Prozorovsky V.I., the head of the department of forensic medicine of the 2nd Moscow Medical Institute, Dr. Medical Sciences Smolyaninova V.M., Art. researcher of the State Research Institute of Forensic Medicine of the People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR Semenovsky PS, Art. researcher of the State Research Institute of Forensic Medicine of the People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR Associate Professor Shvaykov M.D., Ch. pathologist of the front, major of the medical service, professor Vyropaev D.N.
The Special Commission had at its disposal extensive material presented by a member of the Extraordinary State Commission, Academician N.N. Burdenko, his employees and forensic experts who arrived in the mountains. Smolensk on September 26, 1943, immediately after his release, and conducted a preliminary study and investigation of the circumstances of all the atrocities committed by the Germans.
The Special Commission checked and established on the spot that at the 15th kilometer from the mountains. Smolensk along the Vitebsk highway in the Katyn forest area, called "Kozy Gory", 200 meters from the highway to the south-west towards the Dnieper, there are graves in which Polish prisoners of war shot by German invaders are buried.
By order of the Special Commission and in the presence of all members of the Special Commission and forensic experts, the graves were opened. A large number of corpses in Polish military uniforms were found in the graves. The total number of corpses, according to the calculation of forensic experts, reaches 11 thousand.
Forensic medical experts made a detailed study of the recovered corpses and those documents and material evidence that were found on the corpses and in the graves.
Simultaneously with the opening of the graves and the examination of the corpses, the Special Commission interviewed numerous witnesses from the local population, whose testimony accurately established the time and circumstances of the crimes committed by the German invaders.
From the testimonies of the witnesses, the following emerges:
Katyn forest
Since ancient times, the Katyn forest has been a favorite place where the population of Smolensk usually spent their holidays. The local population grazed cattle in the Katyn forest and procured fuel for themselves. There were no prohibitions or restrictions on access to the Katyn Forest.
This situation in the Katyn Forest existed until the war itself. Even in the summer of 1941, the Promstrakhkassa pioneer camp was located in this forest, which was closed only in July 1941.
With the capture of Smolensk by the German invaders, a completely different regime was established in the Katyn forest. The forest began to be guarded by reinforced patrols; In many places, inscriptions appeared warning that persons entering the forest without a special pass were to be shot on the spot.
Particularly strictly guarded was that part of the Katyn forest, which was called "Kozy Gory", as well as the territory on the banks of the Dnieper, where, at a distance of 700 meters from the discovered graves of Polish prisoners of war, there was a dacha - a rest house of the Smolensk department of the NKVD. Upon the arrival of the Germans, a German institution was located in this dacha, called: "The headquarters of the 537th construction battalion."
Polish prisoners of war near Smolensk
The Special Commission established that before the capture of Smolensk by the German invaders in the western regions of the region, Polish prisoners of war officers and soldiers worked on the construction and repair of highways. These Polish prisoners of war were accommodated in three special purpose camps, called: camps No. 1-OH, No. 2-OH and No. 3-OH, at a distance of 25 to 45 km west of Smolensk.
Witness testimonies and documentary evidence established that after the outbreak of hostilities, due to the prevailing situation, the camps could not be evacuated in a timely manner, and all Polish prisoners of war, as well as part of the guards and camp staff, were captured by the Germans.
Interrogated by the Special Commission, ex. early Camp No. 1-OH Major of State Security Vetoshnikov V.M. showed:
... I was expecting an order to liquidate the camp, but communication with Smolensk was interrupted. Then I myself, with several employees, went to Smolensk to clarify the situation. In Smolensk, I found a tense situation. I turned to the beginning. movement of the Smolensk section of the Western Railway. d. t. Ivanov with a request to provide the camp with wagons for the removal of Polish prisoners of war. But Comrade Ivanov replied that I could not count on receiving wagons. I also tried to contact Moscow for permission to move on foot, but I did not succeed.
By this time, Smolensk had already been cut off from the camp, and I don’t know what happened to the Polish prisoners of war and the guards who remained in the camp.
Replacing in July 1941 the head of the movement of the Smolensk section of the Western Railway. engineer Ivanov S.V. showed the Special Commission:
The administration of the camps for Polish prisoners of war contacted me at the department in order to get wagons for sending the Poles, but we did not have free wagons. In addition, we could not send wagons to the Gusino highway, where there were the most Polish prisoners of war, since this road was already under fire. Therefore, we could not comply with the request of the camp administration. Thus, the Polish prisoners of war remained in the Smolensk region.
The presence of Polish prisoners of war in the camps of the Smolensk region. is confirmed by the testimony of numerous witnesses who saw these Poles near Smolensk in the first months of the occupation until September 1941, inclusive.
Witness Maria Aleksandrovna Sashneva, teacher of the elementary school in the village of Zenkovo, told the Special Commission that in August 1941 she sheltered in her house in the village. Zeikovo, a Pole prisoner of war who escaped from the camp.
... The Pole was in a Polish military uniform, which I immediately recognized, since during 1940-41. I saw groups of Polish prisoners of war on the highway, who, under escort, were doing some work on the highway ... The Pole interested me because, as it turned out, he was an elementary school teacher in Poland before being drafted into military service. Since I myself graduated from a pedagogical college and was preparing to be a teacher, that's why I started a conversation with him. He told me that he graduated from a teacher's seminary in Poland, and then studied at some military school and was a second lieutenant in the reserve. From the beginning of hostilities between Poland and Germany, he was called up for active service, was in Brest-Litovsk, where he was captured by the Red Army ... For more than a year he was in a camp near Smolensk.
When the Germans arrived, they captured the Polish camp and established a strict regime in it. The Germans did not consider the Poles to be people, they oppressed and mocked them in every possible way. There were cases of Poles being shot for nothing. Then he decided to run. Talking about himself, he said that his wife was also a teacher, that he had two brothers and two sisters...
Leaving the next day, the Pole gave his last name, which Sashneva wrote down in the book. In Yagodovsky's book "Practical Studies in Natural Science" presented by Sashneva to the Special Commission, there is an entry on the last page:
Loek Jozef and Sophia. City of Zamostye, Ogrodnaya street, house No. 25.
In the lists published by the Germans under No. 3796, Loek Jozef, lieutenant, is listed as shot on the "Kozy Gory" in the Katyn forest in the spring of 1940.
Thus, according to the German report, it turns out that Loek Jozef was shot a year before the witness Sashneva saw him.
Witness Danilenkov N.V., a peasant of the Krasnaya Zarya collective farm of the Katyn village council, testified:
In August-September 1941, when the Germans arrived, I met Poles working on the highway in groups of 15-20 people.
Witnesses gave the same testimony: Soldatenkov - former headman of the village. Borok, Kolachev A.S. - doctor of Smolensk, Ogloblind A.P. - priest, Sergeev T.I. - road foreman, Smiryagin P.A. - engineer, Moscow AM - a resident of Smolensk, Alekseev AM - chairman of the collective farm vil. Borok, Kutsev I.V. - plumbing technician, Gorodetsky V.P. - priest, Bazekina A.T. - accountant, Vetrova E.V. - teacher, Savateev I.V. - officer on duty Gnezdovo and others.
Round-ups of Polish prisoners of war
The presence of Polish prisoners of war in the autumn of 1941 in the regions of Smolensk is also confirmed by the fact that the Germans carried out numerous raids on these prisoners of war who had fled from the camps.
Witness Kartoshkin I.M., a carpenter, testified:
In the autumn of 1941, the Germans searched for Polish prisoners of war not only in the forests, but the police were also involved in night searches in the villages.
Ex. headman of the village New Batek Zakharov M.D. showed that in the autumn of 1941 the Germans intensively "combed" villages and forests in search of Polish prisoners of war.
Witness Danilenkov N.V., a peasant of the Krasnaya Zarya collective farm, testified:
We carried out special round-ups to search for Poles who had escaped from custody. There were two or three such searches in my house. After one search, I asked the elder Sergeev Konstantin - who they were looking for in our village. Sergeev said that an order had arrived from the German commandant's office, according to which a search should be carried out in all houses without exception, since Polish prisoners of war who had fled from the camp were hiding in our village. After a while, the searches stopped.
Witness T. E. Fatkov, a collective farmer, testified:
Raids to search for captured Poles were carried out several times. This was in August - September 1941. After September 1941, such raids ceased and no one else saw Polish prisoners of war.
Executions of Polish prisoners of war
The "Headquarters of the 537th construction battalion" mentioned above, located in a dacha in "Kozy Gory", did not carry out any construction work. His activities were carefully kept secret.
What this “headquarters” actually did was shown by many witnesses, including witnesses: Alekseeva AM, Mikhailova O.A. and Konakhovskaya Z.P. - residents of the village Borok Katyn s / s.
By order of the German commandant of the village of Katyn, they were sent by the headman of the village of Borok - Soldatenkov V.I. - to work on servicing the personnel of the "headquarters" at the mentioned dacha.
Upon arrival at Kozy Gory, they were given a number of restrictions through an interpreter: it was forbidden to completely move away from the dacha and go into the forest, enter the dacha rooms without being called and accompanied by German soldiers, and stay at the dacha at night. It was allowed to come and go to work along a strictly defined path and only accompanied by soldiers.
This warning was made by Alekseeva, Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya through an interpreter directly by the head of the German institution, Oberst Lieutenant Arnes, who for this purpose summoned them one by one.
On the question of the personnel of the "headquarters" Alekseeva AM showed:
About 30 Germans were constantly at the dacha in Kozy Gory, their senior was Oberst Lieutenant Arnes, his adjutant was Oberst Lieutenant Rekst. There were also lieutenant Hott, sergeant-major Lumert, non-commissioned officer for economic affairs Rose, his assistant Isike, Oberfeldwebel Grenevsky, who was in charge of the power plant, a photographer chief corporal, whose last name I do not remember, a translator from the Volga Germans, his name, I think, Johann, but we called him Ivan, the German cook Gustav and a number of others, whose names and surnames are unknown to me.
Shortly after their arrival at work, Alekseeva, Mikhailova, and Konakhovskaya began to notice that "some kind of dark deeds" were being committed at the dacha.
Alekseeva AM showed:
... The translator Johann, on behalf of Arnes, warned us several times that we should "keep our mouths shut" and not talk about what we see and hear in the country.
In addition, I guessed from a number of points that the Germans were doing some kind of dark deeds at this dacha ...
At the end of August and most of September 1941, several trucks arrived almost daily at the dacha in Kozy Gory.
At first I didn’t pay attention to it, but then I noticed that every time these cars drove into the dacha, they stopped for half an hour, or even for an hour, somewhere on a country road leading from the highway to the dacha.
I made this conclusion because the noise of the cars subsided some time after they entered the territory of the dacha. Simultaneously with the cessation of the noise of the machines, a single shooting began. The shots followed one after another at short, but approximately equal intervals of time. Then the shooting subsided, and the cars drove up to the dacha itself.
German soldiers and non-commissioned officers got out of the cars. Talking noisily among themselves, they went to wash in the bathhouse, after which they drank. The bath was always heated these days.
On the days when cars arrived at the dacha, additional soldiers from some German military unit arrived. For them, beds were specially placed in the premises of a soldier's casino, organized in one of the halls of the dacha. These days, a large number of meals were prepared in the kitchen, and a double portion of alcoholic drinks was served at the table.
Shortly before the cars arrived at the dacha, these soldiers with weapons went into the forest, apparently to the place where the cars stopped, because after half an hour or an hour they returned in these cars along with the soldiers who permanently lived in the dacha.
I probably would not have watched and noticed how the noise of cars arriving at the dacha subsides and resumes, if every time cars arrived, we (me, Konakhovskaya and Mikhailova) were not driven into the kitchen if we were in this time in the yard at the dacha, or they didn’t let us out of the kitchen if we were in the kitchen.
This circumstance, as well as the fact that several times I noticed traces of fresh blood on the clothes of two corporals, forced me to carefully look at what was happening at the dacha. Then I noticed strange breaks in the movement of cars, their stops in the forest. I also noticed that there were traces of blood on the clothes of the same people - two corporals. One of them was tall, red-haired, the other was of medium height, blond.
From all this, I concluded that the Germans brought people to the dacha by car and shot them. I even roughly guessed where it was happening, because, coming and going from the dacha, I noticed freshly thrown earth in several places not far from the road. The area occupied by this freshly thrown earth increased daily in length. Over time, the land in these places took on its usual form.
To the question of the Special Commission, what kind of people were shot in the forest near the dacha, Alekseeva replied that Polish prisoners of war were shot, and in support of her words she told the following:
There were days when cars did not arrive at the dacha, but nevertheless the soldiers left the dacha for the forest, from there frequent single shooting was heard. Upon returning, the soldiers always went to the bathhouse and then got drunk.
And there was another case. I somehow stayed at the dacha a little later than usual. Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya have already left. I had not yet finished my work, for which I had stayed, when suddenly a soldier came and said that I could leave. At the same time, he referred to Rose's order. He walked me to the highway.
When I moved along the highway from the turn to the dacha about 150-200 meters, I saw a group of 30 Polish prisoners of war walking along the highway under a reinforced German escort.
I knew that they were Poles because even before the start of the war, and also some time after the arrival of the Germans, I met Poles on the highway dressed in the same uniform, with their characteristic square caps.
I stopped at the edge of the road, wanting to see where they were being led, and saw how they turned at the turn to our cottage in Kozy Gory.
Since by this time I had already carefully observed everything that was happening at the dacha, I became interested in this circumstance, returned along the highway a little back and, hiding in the bushes by the side of the road, began to wait. After about 20 or 30 minutes, I heard characteristic, already familiar to me, single shots.
Then everything became clear to me, and I quickly went home.
From this fact, I also concluded that the Germans shot the Poles, obviously, not only during the day when we worked at the dacha, but also at night in our absence. It then became clear to me also because I remembered the case when the entire staff of officers and soldiers who lived in the country, with the exception of sentries, woke up late, by 12 o'clock in the afternoon.
Several times we guessed about the arrival of the Poles in "Kozy Gory" from the tense situation that prevailed at that time in the country ...
The entire officer staff left the dacha, only a few guards remained in the building, and the sergeant-major constantly checked the posts by phone ...
Mikhailova O. A. testified:
In September 1941, in the forest "Kozy Gory" gunfire was very often heard. At first, I did not pay attention to the trucks that drove up to our dacha, covered from the sides and top, painted green, always accompanied by non-commissioned officers. Then I noticed that these cars never enter our garage and at the same time they are not unloaded. These trucks came very often, especially in September 1941.
Among the non-commissioned officers who always rode in cabs next to the drivers, I began to notice one tall one with a pale face and red hair. When these cars drove up to the dacha, then all non-commissioned officers, as if on command, went to the bathhouse and washed in it for a long time, after which they drank heavily at the dacha.
One day this tall red-haired German got out of the car and went to the kitchen and asked for water. When he drank water from a glass, I saw blood on the cuff of the right sleeve of his uniform.
Mikhailova O. A. and Konakhovskaya Z. P. once personally saw how two Polish prisoners of war were shot, apparently fleeing from the Germans and then caught.
Mikhailova testified about this:
Once, as usual, Konakhovskaya and I were working in the kitchen and heard a noise not far from the dacha. Going out the door, we saw two Polish prisoners of war surrounded by German soldiers, explaining something to non-commissioned officer Rosa, then Oberst Lieutenant Arnes approached them and said something to Rosa. We hid to the side, as we were afraid that Rose would beat us for showing curiosity. But they nevertheless noticed us, and the mechanic Glinevsky, at a sign from Rosa, drove us into the kitchen, and led the Poles away from the dacha. A few minutes later we heard shots. The German soldiers who soon returned and the non-commissioned officer Rose were talking animatedly. I and Konakhovskaya, wanting to find out what the Germans had done with the detained Poles, again went out into the street. Simultaneously with us, Arnes's adjutant, who came out through the main entrance of the dacha, asked Rose something in German, to which the latter also answered in German: "Everything is fine". I understood these words, because the Germans often used them in conversations among themselves. From everything that happened, I concluded that these two Poles were shot.
Z.P. Konakhovskaya also gave similar testimony on this issue.
Frightened by what was happening at the dacha, Alekseeva, Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya decided, under some convenient pretext, to leave work at the dacha. Taking advantage of the reduction of his "salary" from 9 marks to 3 marks per month in early January 1942, at the suggestion of Mikhailova, they did not go to work. They came for them on the same day in the evening in a car, brought them to the dacha and, as a punishment, put them in a cold one - Mikhailova for 8 days, and Alekseev and Konakhovskaya for 3 days.
After they served this term, they were all fired.
During their work at the dacha, Alekseeva, Mikhailova, and Konakhovskaya were afraid to share their observations with each other about everything that happened at the dacha. Only when they were arrested, sitting in a cold night, did they share this.
Mikhailova, during interrogation on December 24, 1943, testified:
Here, for the first time, we spoke frankly about what is being done at the dacha. I told everything I knew, but it turned out that both Konakhovskaya and Alekseeva also knew all these facts, but, like me, they were also afraid to tell me about it. I immediately learned that the Germans in Kozi Gory were shooting Polish prisoners of war, since Alekseeva said that one day in the fall of 1941 she was walking home from work and personally saw how the Germans drove a large group of Polish prisoners of war into the Kozi Gory forest , and then heard shooting in this place.
Alekseeva and Konakhovskaya also gave similar testimony about this.
Comparing their observations, Alekseeva, Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya came to the firm conviction that in August and September 1941, at the dacha in Kozy Gory, the Germans carried out mass executions of Polish prisoners of war.
The testimony of Alekseeva is confirmed by the testimony of her father, Mikhail Alekseev, to whom, during her work at the dacha in the autumn of 1941, she told about her observations about the things the Germans were doing at the dacha.
She didn’t say anything to me for a long time, Mikhail Alekseev showed, only when she came home she complained that it was scary to work at the dacha and she didn’t know how to get out of there. When I asked her why she was afraid, she said that shooting was often heard in the forest. One day, when she came home, she told me a secret that in the Kozi Gory forest the Germans were shooting Poles. After listening to my daughter, I very sternly warned her not to tell anyone else about this, otherwise the Germans would find out and our whole family would suffer.
Other witnesses interrogated by the Special Commission also testified about the bringing of Polish prisoners of war to Kozi Gory in small groups of 20-30 people, guarded by 5-7 German soldiers: Kiselev P. G. - a peasant of the Kozi Gory farm, Krivozertsev M G. - a carpenter of the Krasny Bor station in the Katyn forest, Ivanov S.V. - ex. early Art. Gnezdovo in the area of the Katyn forest, Savvateev I.V. - on duty at the same station, Alekseev A.M. - chairman of the collective farm of the village. Borok, Ogloblin A.P. - priest of the Kuprinskaya church, etc.
These witnesses also heard the shots that were heard from the forest on the "Kozy Gory".
Of particular importance for clarifying what happened at the dacha in "Kozy Gory" in the autumn of 1941, are the testimony of the professor of astronomy, director of the observatory in Smolensk - Bazilevsky B.V.
Professor Bazilevsky in the first days of the occupation of Smolensk by the Germans was forcibly appointed by them as a deputy. the head of the city (burgomaster), and the lawyer Menypagin B. G. was appointed head of the city, who later left with them, a traitor who enjoyed special confidence in the German command and, in particular, in the commandant of Smolensk von Schwetz.
In early September 1941, Bazilevsky asked Menynagin to intercede with the commandant von Schwetz for the release of the teacher Zhiglinsky from prisoner of war camp No. 126. Fulfilling this request, Menyagin turned to von-Schwetz and then conveyed to Bazilevsky that his request could not be granted, since, according to von-Schwetz, “a directive has been received from Berlin ordering to strictly carry out the most cruel regime in relation to prisoners of war, without allowing any concessions in this matter.
I involuntarily objected, witness Bazilevsky testified: “What can be tougher than the regime that exists in the camp?” Menshagin looked at me strangely and, leaning towards me, answered quietly: “Maybe! The Russians, at least, will die themselves, but it was proposed to simply destroy the Polish prisoners of war.
“How so? What does it mean?" I exclaimed.
“You have to take it literally. There is such a directive from Berlin, ”Menshagin replied and immediately asked me“ for the sake of all that is holy ”to not tell anyone about this.
About two weeks after the above-described conversation with Menypagin, being again at his reception, I could not resist and asked: "What do you hear about the Poles?" Menshagin hesitated, and then nevertheless answered: “They are already finished. Fon-Shvets told me that they were shot somewhere not far from Smolensk.
Seeing my confusion, Menshagin again warned me about the need to keep this matter in the strictest confidence and then began to "explain" to me the line of behavior of the Germans in this matter. He said that the execution of the Poles was a link in the general chain of the anti-Polish policy pursued by Germany, which became especially aggravated in connection with the conclusion of the Russian-Polish treaty.
Bazilevsky also told the Special Commission about his conversation with the Sonder-Führer of the 7th department of the German commandant's office Girshfeld, a Baltic German who spoke Russian well:
Hirschfeld, with cynical frankness, told me that the harmfulness of the Poles and their inferiority had been historically proven, and therefore the decrease in the population of Poland would serve as fertilizer for the soil and create an opportunity for expanding the "living space of Germany." In this connection, Hirshfeld boasted that there were no intelligentsia left in Poland at all, since they had been hanged, shot and imprisoned in camps.
Bazilevsky's testimony was confirmed by a witness interviewed by the Special Commission - Professor of Physics Efimov I.E., to whom Bazilevsky then told in the autumn of 1941 about his conversation with Menyagin.
Documentary confirmation of the testimony of Bazilevsky and Efimov are Menshagin's own handwritten notes made by him in his notebook.
This notebook, containing 17 incomplete pages, was found in the files of the city government of Smolensk after it was liberated by the Red Army.
The belonging of the indicated notebook to Menynagin and his handwriting are certified both by the testimony of Bazilevsky, who knows Menypagin's handwriting well, and by graphological examination.
Judging by the dates in the notebook, its content refers to the period from the first days of August 1941 to November of the same year.
Among various notes on economic issues (on firewood, electricity, trade, etc.) there are a number of notes made by Menshagin, obviously for memory, as instructions from the German commandant's office of Smolensk.
From these records, the range of issues dealt with by the city administration, as a body that carried out all the instructions of the German command, clearly emerges.
The first three pages of the notebook detail the organization of the Jewish "ghetto" and the system of repression that should be applied to the Jews.
On page 10, marked August 15, 1941, it says:
"Detain all fleeing Poles and bring them to the commandant's office."
On page 15 (undated) it says:
“Are there rumors among the population about the execution of Polish prisoners of war in Koz. mountains (Umnov)".
From the first entry it is clear, firstly, that on August 15, 1941, Polish prisoners of war were still in the Smolensk region and, secondly, that they were arrested by the German authorities.
The second entry indicates that the German command, concerned about the possibility of rumors about the crime he had committed among the civilian population, specifically gave instructions to check this assumption.
Umnov, who is mentioned in the entry, was the chief of the Russian police of Smolensk during the first months of its occupation.
The emergence of the German provocation
In the winter of 1942-43. the general military situation changed dramatically not in favor of the Germans. The military power of the Soviet Union was growing stronger, the unity of the USSR with the allies was growing stronger. The Germans decided to go for a provocation, using for this purpose the atrocities committed by them in the Katyn forest, and attributing them to the organs of Soviet power. By this they hoped to quarrel the Russians with the Poles and cover up the traces of their crime.
Priest of the village of Kuprino, Smolensk district, A.P. Oglo- pancake showed:
... After the Stalingrad events, when the Germans felt insecure, they raised this matter. There was talk among the population that "the Germans are correcting their affairs."
Having started preparing the Katyn provocation, the Germans, first of all, began looking for "witnesses" who could, under the influence of persuasion, bribery or threats, give the evidence they needed.
The attention of the Germans was attracted by the peasant Kiselev Parfen Gavrilovich, born in 1870, who lived on his farm closest to the dacha in Kozy Gory.
Kiselyov was summoned to the Gestapo at the end of 1942 and, threatening reprisals, demanded that he give fictitious testimonies that he allegedly knew how in the spring of 1940 the Bolsheviks shot Polish prisoners of war at the NKVD dacha in Kozy Gory.
Kiselev testified about this:
In the autumn of 1942, two policemen came to my house and offered to report to the Gestapo at the Gnezdovo station. On the same day I went to the Gestapo, which was located in a two-story house next to the railway station. In the room I went into, there was a German officer and an interpreter. A German officer, through an interpreter, began to ask me - how long have I been living in this area, what do I do and what is my financial situation.
I told him that I had been living on a farm in the Kozy Gory region since 1907 and working on my farm. About my financial situation, I said that I have to experience difficulties, since I myself am at an advanced age, and my sons are at war.
After a short conversation on this subject, the officer stated that, according to information available to the Gestapo, the NKVD officers shot Polish officers in the Katyn forest in 1940 in the Kozy Gory section, and asked me what evidence I could give on this issue. I replied that I had never heard that the NKVD carried out executions in Kozi Gory, and it was hardly possible, I explained to the officer, since Kozi Gory is a completely open crowded place and if they shot there, then about this would be known to the entire population of nearby villages.
The officer answered me that I still had to give such testimony, since this allegedly took place. For these testimonies I was promised a large reward.
I again told the officer that I knew nothing about executions and that this could not have happened at all before the war in our area. Despite this, the officer stubbornly insisted that I give false evidence.
After the first conversation, about which I have already shown, I was summoned to the Gestapo for the second time only in February 1943. By this time, I knew that other residents of the surrounding villages were also called to the Gestapo and that they were also required to testify like me.
In the Gestapo, the same officer and interpreter with whom I was at the first interrogation again demanded that I testify that I was an eyewitness to the execution of Polish officers allegedly carried out by the NKVD in 1940. I again told the Gestapo officer that this a lie, since before the war I had not heard anything about any executions and that I would not give false testimony. But the interpreter did not listen to me, took a handwritten document from the table and read it. It said that I, Kiselev, living on a farm in the Kozy Gory region, saw myself how in 1940 the NKVD officers shot Polish officers. After reading this document, the translator asked me to sign it. I refused to do so. Then the interpreter began to force me to do this with abuse and threats. In the end, he said: “Either you sign right now or we will destroy you. Choose!”
Frightened by the threats, I signed this document, deciding that this would be the end of the matter.
Later, after the Germans organized visits to the Katyn graves by various "delegations", Kiselyov was forced to speak to the arriving "Polish delegation".
Kiselyov, forgetting the contents of the protocol signed by the Gestapo, became confused and finally refused to speak.
Then the Gestapo arrested Kiselyov and, mercilessly beating him for a month and a half, again obtained his consent to "public speeches."
Kiselev testified about this:
In reality, it didn't work out that way.
In the spring of 1943, the Germans announced that they had discovered the graves of Polish officers allegedly shot by the NKVD in 1940 in the Katyn forest in the Kozy Gory area.
Shortly thereafter, a Gestapo interpreter came to my house and took me into the forest to the Kozy Gory area.
When we left the house and were left alone, the interpreter warned me that I must now tell the people present in the forest everything exactly as it was stated in the document I signed in the Gestapo.
Arriving in the forest, I saw dug up graves and a group of unknown persons. The interpreter told me that they were "Polish delegates" who had come to inspect the graves.
When we approached the graves, the "delegates" in Russian began to ask me various questions about the execution of the Poles. But since more than a month had passed since my call to the Gestapo, I forgot everything that was in the document I signed, and began to get confused, and in the end said that I knew nothing about the execution of Polish officers.
The German officer became very angry, and the interpreter roughly pulled me away from the “delegation” and drove me away.
The next day, in the morning, a car with a Gestapo officer drove up to my yard. Having found me in the yard, he announced that I had been arrested, put me in a car and took me to the Smolensk prison...
After my arrest, I was called for interrogation many times, but I was beaten more than interrogated. The first time they called me, they severely beat me and cursed me, saying that I let them down, and then they sent me to a cell.
At the next call, I was told that I should publicly declare that I was an eyewitness to the execution of Polish officers by the Bolsheviks and that until the Gestapo was convinced that I would do it in good faith, I would not be released from prison. I told the officer that I would rather be in jail than telling lies to the face of people. After that I was severely beaten.
There were several such interrogations, accompanied by beatings, as a result I was completely exhausted, I began to hear badly and could not move my right hand.
About a month after my arrest, a German officer called me and said: “You see, Kiselev, what your stubbornness has led to. We have decided to execute you. In the morning we will take you to the Katyn Forest and hang you.” I asked the officer not to do this, began to convince him that I was not suitable for the role of an “eyewitness” to the execution, since I didn’t know how to lie at all and therefore I would mess something up again. The officer insisted. A few minutes later, soldiers entered the office and started beating me with rubber truncheons.
Unable to bear the beatings and tortures, I agreed to speak publicly with a fictitious story about the execution of the Poles by the Bolsheviks. After that, I was released from prison on the condition that, at the first demand of the Germans, I should speak to the "delegations" in the Katyn forest...
In each case, before leading me into the woods to excavate the graves, the interpreter came to my house, called me into the yard, took me aside so that no one would hear, and for half an hour made me memorize everything that I would need to say about allegedly the shooting of Polish officers by the NKVD in 1940.
I remember that the interpreter told me something like this: “I live on a farm in the Kozy Gory area, not far from the NKVD dacha. In the spring of 1940, I saw how Poles were taken to the forest and shot there at night.” And it was necessary to state verbatim that "this is the work of the NKVD."
After I memorized what the interpreter told me, he took me into the woods to the open graves and made me repeat all this in the presence of the arriving "delegations". My stories were strictly controlled and directed by the Gestapo interpreter.
Once I spoke to some "delegation" and they asked me the question: "Did I personally see these Poles before they were shot by the Bolsheviks." I was not prepared for such a question and answered as it was in reality, that is, that I saw Polish prisoners of war before the start of the war, as they worked on the roads. Then the interpreter roughly pulled me aside and drove me home.
I ask you to believe that my conscience was tormenting me all the time, since I knew that in reality the execution of Polish officers was carried out by the Germans in 1941, but I had no other choice, since I was constantly under the threat of re-arrest and torture.
Testimony of Kiseleva P.G. about his summons to the Gestapo, subsequent arrest and beatings are confirmed by his wife Aksinya Kiseleva, born in 1870, living with him, his son Vasily Kiselev, born in 1911, and daughter-in-law Maria Kiseleva, born in 1918, and also occupying a room with Kiselev on the farm road foreman Sergeev Timofey Ivanovich, born in 1901.
The injuries inflicted on Kiselev in the Gestapo (shoulder injury, significant hearing loss) were confirmed by a medical examination report.
In search of "witnesses", the Germans later became interested in the employees of the Gnezdovo railway station, located two and a half kilometers from Kozy Gory.
In the spring of 1940, Polish prisoners of war arrived at this station, and the Germans, obviously, wanted to get the corresponding testimony from the railway workers. For these purposes, in the spring of 1943, the Germans summoned to the Gestapo the former head of the Gnezdovo station - Ivanov S.V., the station duty officer Savateev I.V. other.
Ivanov S.V., born in 1882, testified about the circumstances of his call to the Gestapo:
... It was in March 1943. I was interrogated by a German officer in the presence of an interpreter. After asking me through an interpreter about who I was and what position I held at the Gnezdovo station before the occupation of the area by the Germans, the officer asked me if I knew that in the spring of 1940, Polish officers of war had arrived at the Gnezdovo station in several trains, in large batches. .
I said that I know about it.
Then the officer asked me if I knew that the Bolsheviks in the same spring of 1940, shortly after the arrival of the Polish officers, shot them all in the Katyn forest.
I replied that I knew nothing about this and that this could not be because I met the Polish officers who arrived at the Gnezdovo station in the spring of 1940 during 1940-1941, right up to the occupation of Smolensk by the Germans, at road construction work.
The officer then told me that if the German officer claims that the Poles were shot by the Bolsheviks, it means that this was actually the case. “Therefore,” the officer continued, “you have nothing to fear, and you can sign a protocol with a clear conscience that Polish officers of war were shot by the Bolsheviks and that you were an eyewitness to this.”
I answered him that I am an old man, I am already 61 years old and in my old age I do not want to take sin into my soul. I can only show that Polish prisoners of war actually arrived at the Gnezdovo station in the spring of 1940.
Then the German officer began to persuade me to give the required testimony, promising, in a positive case, to transfer me from the post of watchman at the crossing and appoint me to the post of head of the Gnezdovo station, which I held under Soviet power, and provide me financially.
The interpreter emphasized that my testimony, as a former railway employee of the Gnezdovo station, located closest to the Katyn Forest, was extremely important for the German command and that I would not regret if I gave such testimony.
I realized that I was in an extremely difficult situation and that a sad fate awaited me, but nevertheless I again refused to give a fictitious testimony to the German officer.
After that, the officer started shouting at me, threatening to beat me and shoot me, declaring that I did not understand my own benefit. However, I stood my ground.
Then the translator made a short protocol in German on one page and told its content in his own words.
This protocol recorded, as the translator told me, only the fact of the arrival of Polish prisoners of war at the Gnezdovo station. When I began to ask that my testimony be recorded not only in German, but also in Russian, the officer completely lost his temper, beat me with a rubber stick and drove me out of the room ...
Savateev I.V., born in 1880, testified:
... In the Gestapo, I showed that indeed in the spring of 1940 at st. Polish prisoners of war arrived in Gnezdovo in several trains and that they proceeded further in cars, but I don’t know where. I also added that I later met these Poles more than once on the Moscow-Minsk highway, carrying out repairs in small batches.
The officer told me that I was confused, that I could not meet the Poles on the highway, since they were shot by the Bolsheviks, and demanded that I show exactly this. I refused.
After lengthy threats and persuasion, the officer consulted a German interpreter about something, and the interpreter then wrote a short protocol and gave it to me to sign, explaining that the content of my testimony was set out here. I asked the interpreter to give me the opportunity to read the protocol myself, but he cut me off with abuse and ordered me to sign it immediately and get out. I hesitated for a minute, the interpreter grabbed a rubber club hanging on the wall and swung at me. After that I signed the protocol slipped to me. The interpreter told me to go home and not talk to anyone, otherwise they would shoot me...
The search for "witnesses" was not limited to the named persons. The Germans persistently tried to find the former employees of the NKVD and force them to give the false testimony they needed.
Having accidentally arrested the former worker of the UNKVD garage of the Smolensk region, E.L.
On this issue, Ignatyuk E. L., born in 1903, testified:
When I was interrogated for the first time by the chief of police Alferchik, he, accusing me of agitating against the German authorities, asked who I was in the NKVD. I answered him that I worked in the garage of the NKVD department of the Smolensk region as a worker. Alferchik at the same interrogation began to demand that I give him evidence that I worked in the NKVD administration not as a garage worker, but as a driver.
Alferchik, not having received the necessary testimony from me, was very annoyed and, together with his adjutant, whom he called Georges, tied up my head and mouth with some kind of rag, took off my trousers, laid me on a table and began to beat me with rubber sticks.
After that, I was again summoned for interrogation, and Alferchik demanded that I give him false testimony that the Polish officers in the Katyn forest were shot by the NKVD in 1940, about which I was allegedly told as a driver who participated in the transportation of Polish officers to Katyn forest and who was present at their execution, is known. With my consent to give such testimony, Alferchik promised to release me from prison and get me a job with the police, where I would be given good living conditions, otherwise they would shoot me...
The last time I was interrogated at the police station by investigator Alexandrov, who demanded from me the same false testimony about the execution of Polish officers as Alferchik did, but during his interrogation I refused to give fictitious testimony.
After this interrogation, I was beaten again and sent to the Gestapo...
... In the Gestapo, just as in the police, they demanded from me false testimony about the execution of Polish officers in the Katyn forest in 1940 by the Soviet authorities, which I, as a driver, supposedly know about.
In the book published by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in which the materials fabricated by the Germans on the “Katyn case” were placed, in addition to the above-mentioned Kiselev P.G., Godezov (aka Godunov), born in 1877, Grigory Silverstov, were named as “witnesses” , born in 1891, Andreev Ivan, born in 1917, Zhigulev Mikhail, born in 1915, Krivozertsev Ivan, born in 1915, and Zakharov Matvey, born in 1893.
The audit established that the first two of those listed above (Godezov and Silverstov) died in 1943 before the liberation of the Smolensk region by the Red Army; the next three (Andreev, Zhigulev and Krivozertsev) left with the Germans, or maybe they were taken away by force, and the last - Zakharov Matvey - a former coupler at the Smolensk station, who worked under the Germans as a headman in the village. New Bateki, was tracked down and interrogated by the Special Commission.
Zakharov told how the Germans obtained from him the false testimony they needed in the Katyn case:
At the beginning of March 1943, Zakharov testified, an employee of the Gnezdovsky Gestapo came to my apartment, I don’t know his last name, and said that an officer was calling me.
When I came to the Gestapo, a German officer told me through an interpreter: “We know that you worked as a coupler at st. Smolensk-central and should show that in 1940 wagons with Polish prisoners of war were sent through Smolensk to the Gnezdovo station, after which the Poles were shot in the forest near Kozy Gory.
In response to this, I stated that the wagons with the Poles in 1940 really passed through Smolensk in the direction to the west, but I don’t know where the destination station was ...
The officer told me that if I didn’t want to testify in a good way, he would force me to do it under duress. After these words, he took a rubber truncheon and started beating me. Then they put me on a bench, and the officer, along with the interpreter, beat me. I do not remember how many blows were inflicted, because I soon lost consciousness.
When I came to my senses, the officer demanded that I sign the protocol of interrogation, and I, having lost heart under the influence of beatings and threats of execution, gave false testimony and signed the protocol. After signing the protocol, I was released from the Gestapo ...
A few days after my call to the Gestapo, around mid-March 1943, an interpreter came to my apartment and said that I should go to a German general and confirm my testimony there.
When we came to the general, he asked me if I confirmed my testimony. I said that I confirmed it, because even on the way I was warned by an interpreter that if I refused to confirm my testimony, I would experience much worse than I experienced the first time in the Gestapo.
Fearing a repetition of torture, I replied that I confirmed my testimony. Then the interpreter ordered me to raise my right hand and told me that I had taken the oath and could go home.
It was established that the Germans tried to get the testimony they needed, using persuasion, threats and torture, from other persons, in particular from the former assistant head of the Smolensk prison Kaverznev N.S., the former employee of the same prison Kovalev V.G. and others.
Since the search for the required number of witnesses was unsuccessful, the Germans posted the following leaflet in the city of Smolensk and the surrounding villages, the original copy of which is in the materials of the Special Commission:
APPEAL TO THE POPULATION
Who can give information about the mass murder committed by the Bolsheviks in 1940 over captured Polish officers, priests in the forest of Kozy Gory near the Gnezdovo-Katyn highway?
Who watched the vehicles from Gnezdovo to Kozy Gory, or who saw or heard executions? Who knows the inhabitants who can tell about it?
Every post is rewarded.
Send messages to the German police in Smolensk, Museum street 6, in Gnezdovo, to the German police house number 105 near the station.
Foss
field police lieutenant
May 3, 1943.
The same announcement was placed in the New Way newspaper published by the Germans in Smolensk (No. 35 (157) of May 6, 1943).
The fact that the Germans promised a reward for giving the testimony they needed in the Katyn case was stated by witnesses interviewed by the Special Commission - residents of the mountains. Smolensk: Sokolova O.E., Pushchina E.A., Bychkov I.I., Bondarev G.T., Ustinov E.P. and many others.
Treatment of Katyn graves
Along with the search for "witnesses", the Germans began to prepare the graves in the Katyn Forest accordingly: to remove from the clothes of the Polish prisoners of war killed by them all documents marked with dates later than April 1940, i.e. the time when, according to the German provocative version, the Poles were shot by the Bolsheviks; to the removal of all physical evidence that could refute the same provocative version.
The investigation of the Special Commission established that for this purpose the Germans used up to 500 Russian prisoners of war, specially selected from prisoner of war camp No. 126.
The Special Commission has numerous testimonies on this subject.
Of these, the testimonies of the medical staff of the mentioned camp deserve special attention.
Doctor Chizhov A.T., who worked in camp No. 126 during the days of the occupation of Smolensk by the Germans, testified:
... Approximately at the beginning of March 1943, from the Smolensk prisoner of war camp No. 126, from among the more physically strong prisoners, several parties were selected, with a total of up to 500 people, to be sent allegedly to trench work. Subsequently, none of these prisoners returned to the camp.
Doctor Khmyrov V.A., who also worked under the Germans in the same camp, testified:
I know that approximately in the second half of February or the beginning of March 1943, about 500 Red Army prisoners of war were sent from our camp in a direction unknown to me. These prisoners were allegedly sent to work in the trenches, which is why physically fit people were selected ...
Identical testimony was given by: nurse Lenkovskaya O.G., nurse Timofeeva A.I., witnesses Orlova P.M., Dobroserdova E.G. and witness Kochetkov BC
Where 500 Soviet prisoners of war were actually sent from camp No. 126, is clear from the testimony of a witness of the Moscow AM
Count Moskovskaya Alexandra Mikhailovna, who lived on the outskirts of the mountains. Smolensk and worked during the occupation in the kitchen in one of the German military units, on October 5, 1943, she filed an application with the Extraordinary Commission to investigate the atrocities of the German occupiers with a request to call her to give important evidence.
Being summoned, she told the Special Commission that in April 1943, before leaving for work, when she went to get firewood in her shed, located in a courtyard near the banks of the Dnieper, she found an unknown person in it, who turned out to be a Russian prisoner of war.
Moskovskaya A. M., born in 1922, testified: ... From a conversation with him, I learned the following: His surname is Egorov, his name is Nikolai, from Leningrad. From the end of 1941, he was constantly kept in the German prisoner of war camp No. 126 in the city of Smolensk. In early March 1943, he was sent from the camp to the Katyn forest with a column of prisoners of war of several hundred people. There they, including Yegorov, were forced to dig up graves containing corpses in the uniform of Polish officers, to pull these corpses out of the pits and to pick out documents, letters, photographs and all other things from their pockets. The Germans had the strictest order not to leave anything in the pockets of corpses. Two prisoners of war were shot because, after they searched the corpses, a German officer found some papers on these corpses.
Removed from the clothes in which the corpses were dressed, things, documents and letters were looked through by German officers, then the prisoners were forced to put some of the papers back into the pockets of the corpses, the rest were thrown into a pile of things and documents seized in this way, which were then burned.
In addition, the Germans forced to put some papers into the pockets of the corpses of Polish officers, which they took out of the boxes or suitcases they brought with them (I don’t remember exactly).
All prisoners of war lived on the territory of the Katyn forest in terrible conditions, in the open air and were heavily guarded.
At the beginning of April 1943, all the work planned by the Germans, apparently, was completed, since for 3 days none of the prisoners of war were forced to work ...
Suddenly, at night, all of them, without exception, were picked up and taken somewhere. Security has been strengthened. Egorov suspected something was wrong and began to follow everything that was happening with special attention. They walked for 3-4 hours in an unknown direction. We stopped in the forest at some clearing near the pit. He saw how a group of prisoners of war was separated from the general mass, driven to the pit, and then they began to shoot.
The prisoners of war became agitated, made a noise, moved. Not far from Yegorov, several prisoners of war attacked the guards, other guards ran to this place. Yegorov took advantage of this moment of confusion and rushed to run into the darkness of the forest, hearing screams and shots behind him.
After this terrible story, which burned into my memory for the rest of my life, I felt very sorry for Yegorov, and I asked him to come into my room to warm up and hide with me until he gains strength. But Yegorov did not agree... He said that no matter what, he would leave tonight and try to get through the front line to the Red Army units.
But that evening Yegorov did not leave. The next morning, when I went to check, he was in the barn. As it turned out, he tried to leave at night, but after walking fifty paces, he felt so weak that he was forced to return. Apparently, the prolonged exhaustion in the camp and the famine of the last days had an effect. We decided that he would stay with me for another day or two in order to get stronger. Having fed Yegorov, I went to work.
When I returned home in the evening, my neighbors, Baranova Maria Ivanovna and Kabanovskaya Ekaterina Viktorovna, informed me that in the afternoon, during a raid by German police, a captured Red Army soldier was found in my barn, whom they took away with them.
In connection with the discovery of the prisoner of war Egorov in the barn of Moscow, she was called to the Gestapo, where she was accused of harboring a prisoner of war.
Moskovskaya, during interrogations by the Gestapo, stubbornly denied any relation to this prisoner of war, arguing that she knew nothing about his being in a barn that belonged to her. Having failed to obtain recognition from Moskovskaya, and also because the prisoner of war Yegorov, apparently, did not extradite Moskovskaya, she was released from the Gestapo.
The same Yegorov told Moskovskaya that some of the prisoners of war who worked in the Katyn forest, in addition to digging up corpses, were also engaged in bringing corpses from other places to the Katyn forest. The brought corpses were dumped into the pits along with the corpses dug up earlier.
The fact of delivery to the Katyn graves in a large number of corpses shot by the Germans in other places is also confirmed by the testimony of the mechanical engineer Sukhachev P.F.
Sukhachev P.F., born in 1912, a mechanical engineer of the Rosglavkhleb system, who worked under the Germans as a machinist at the Smolensk city mill, filed an application on October 8, 1943 with a request for a call.
When summoned by the Special Commission, he testified:
... Once at the mill in the second half of March 1943, I spoke to a German driver who knew a little Russian. Having found out from him that he was taking flour to the village of Savenki for a military unit and returning to Smolensk the next day, I asked him to take me with him in order to be able to buy fat products in the village. At the same time, I took into account that driving a German car for me excluded the risk of being detained at a checkpoint. The German driver agreed for a fee. On the same day, at ten o'clock in the evening, we drove to the Smolensk-Vitebsk highway. There were two of us in the car - me and a German driver. The night was bright, moonlit, but the fog that covered the road somewhat reduced visibility. Approximately 22-23 kilometers from Smolensk, near the destroyed bridge on the highway, a detour was arranged with a rather steep descent. We had already begun to descend from the highway to a detour, as a truck suddenly appeared towards us from the fog. Either due to the fact that the brakes of our car were not in order, or because of the inexperience of the driver, but we were not able to slow down our car and, due to the fact that the detour was rather narrow, we collided with an oncoming car. The collision was not strong, as the driver of the oncoming car managed to take to the side, as a result of which there was a sliding impact of the sides of the cars. However, the oncoming car, having hit the right wheel in a ditch, fell down one side onto the slope. Our car was on wheels. The driver and I immediately jumped out of the cab and walked over to the fallen car. I was struck by a strong cadaverous smell, obviously coming from the car. Coming closer, I saw that the car was filled with cargo, topped with a tarpaulin, tied with ropes. From the impact, the ropes burst, and part of the load fell out onto the slope. It was a terrible burden. They were the corpses of people dressed in military uniforms.
As far as I remember, there were 6-7 people near the car, one of them was a German driver, two Germans armed with machine guns, and the rest were Russian prisoners of war, as they spoke Russian and were dressed accordingly.
The Germans attacked my driver with a curse, then made attempts to put the car on wheels. Two minutes later, two more trucks arrived at the scene of the accident and stopped. From these vehicles, a group of Germans and Russian prisoners of war approached us, about 10 people in total. With a joint effort, everyone began to raise the car. Taking advantage of the opportunity, I quietly asked one of the Russian prisoners of war: "What is this?" He just as quietly answered me: "What night have we been transporting corpses to the Katyn forest."
The fallen car had not yet been raised, when a German non-commissioned officer approached me and my driver and ordered us to move on immediately. Since there were no serious injuries on our car, the driver, having taken it a little to the side, got out onto the highway, and we drove on.
As I passed two tarpaulin-covered cars that came up later, I also smelled a terrible cadaverous smell.
The testimony of Sukhachev is confirmed by the testimony of Yegorov Vladimir Afanasyevich, who was in the police service during the occupation as a policeman.
Egorov testified that, by the nature of his service, guarding the bridge at the intersection of the Moscow-Minsk and Smolensk-Vitebsk highways, he several times at night at the end of March and in the first days of April 1943 watched large trucks pass in the direction of Smolensk, covered with tarpaulin, from which there was a strong cadaverous smell. In the cabs of the cars and at the back, several people were sitting on top of the tarpaulin, some were armed and, undoubtedly, they were Germans.
Egorov reported his observations to the head of the police station in the village of Arkhipovka Kuzma Demyanovich Golovnev, who advised him to "keep his mouth shut" and added: "This does not concern us, there is nothing for us to get confused in German affairs."
Yakovlev-Sokolov Flor Maksimovich, born in 1896, ex. agent for the supply of canteens of the Smolensk trust of canteens, and under the Germans - the police chief of the Katyn section.
He testified that he personally saw once at the beginning of April 1943 how four trucks covered with a tarpaulin, in which several people armed with machine guns and rifles, were sitting from the highway into the Katyn forest. There was a strong putrid smell from these machines.
From the testimonies cited, it can be clearly concluded that the Germans shot the Poles in other places as well. By taking their corpses to the Katyn forest, they pursued a threefold goal: first, to destroy the traces of their own atrocities; secondly, to blame their crimes on the Soviet government; thirdly, to increase the number of "Bolshevik victims" in the graves of the Katyn Forest.
"Excursions" to the Katyn graves
In April 1943, having completed all the preparatory work on the graves in the Katyn forest, the German occupiers began extensive agitation in the press and on the radio, trying to attribute to the Soviet government the atrocities committed by themselves against the Polish prisoners of war. As one of the methods of this provocative agitation, the Germans organized visits to the Katyn graves by residents of Smolensk and its environs, as well as "delegations" from countries occupied by the German invaders or vassal dependent on them.
The Special Commission interviewed a number of witnesses who participated in the "excursions" to the Katyn graves.
Witness K.P. Zubkov, a pathologist who worked as a forensic expert in Smolensk, testified to the Special Commission:
... The clothes of the corpses, especially overcoats, boots and belts, were quite well preserved. Metal parts of clothing - belt buckles, buttons, hooks, spikes on shoes, etc., had not pronounced rust and in some cases retained the luster of the metal. The tissues of the bodies of corpses accessible to inspection - faces, necks, hands, had a predominantly dirty greenish color, in some cases dirty brown, but there was no complete destruction of the tissues, no decay. In some cases, bare tendons of a whitish color and part of the muscles were visible. During my stay at the excavations at the bottom of a large pit, people were working to disassemble and extract the corpses. To do this, they used shovels and other tools, and also took the corpses with their hands, dragged them by the arms, legs and clothes from place to place. On no occasion was it necessary to observe that the corpses disintegrated,
Considering all of the above, I came to the conclusion that the age of corpses in the ground is not three years, as the Germans claimed, but much less. Knowing that the rotting of corpses in mass graves proceeds faster than in single ones, and even more so without coffins, I came to the conclusion that the mass execution of Poles was carried out about a year and a half ago and could refer to the autumn of 1941 or the spring of 1942. As a result of visiting the excavations, I was firmly convinced that the monstrous atrocity committed was the work of the Germans.
Evidence that the clothes of the corpses, their metal parts, shoes, as well as the corpses themselves were well preserved, was given by numerous witnesses interrogated by the Special Commission who participated in the “excursions” to the Katyn graves, including: the head of the Smolensk water supply network Kutsev I.Z. , a teacher of the Katyn school Vetrova E.N., a telephone operator of the Smolensk post office Shchedrova N.G., a resident of the village. Borok Alekseev M.A., resident of the village. New Bateki M. G. Krivozertsev, on duty under art. Gnezdovo Savateev I.V., citizen of Smolensk Pushchina E.A., doctor of the 2nd Smolensk hospital Sidoruk T.A., doctor of the same hospital Kesarev P.M. and etc.
German attempts to cover up the traces of their atrocities
The “excursions” organized by the Germans did not reach their goal. All those who visited the graves were convinced that before them there was the most blatant and obvious German fascist provocation. Therefore, measures were taken by the German authorities to silence the doubters.
The Special Commission has testimonies from a number of witnesses who spoke about how the German authorities persecuted those who doubted or did not believe in the provocation. They were dismissed from service, arrested, threatened with execution. The commission found two cases of execution for the inability to "keep your tongue on a leash": such a reprisal was perpetrated on the former German policeman Zagainov and on Egorov AM, who worked on the excavation of graves in the Katyn forest.
Testimonies about the persecution by the Germans of people who expressed their doubts after visiting the graves in the Katyn forest were given by: the cleaner of the pharmacy No. 1 of Smolensk Zubareva M.S., the assistant to the sanitary doctor of the Stalin district health department of Smolensk Kozlova V.F. and others.
Ex. early Police of the Katyn district Yakovlev-Sokolov F.M. showed:
A situation was created that caused serious anxiety in the German commandant's office, and instructions were urgently given to the local police apparatus to stop all harmful conversations at all costs and to arrest all persons expressing disbelief in the Katyn case.
To me personally, as district police, such instructions were given: at the end of May 1943, the German commandant s. Katyn Lieutenant Brown and in early June - early. Smolensk district police Kamensky.
I convened a briefing meeting of the policemen of my section, at which I proposed to detain and deliver to the police everyone who expressed disbelief and doubted the plausibility of the German reports about the execution of Polish prisoners of war by the Bolsheviks.
Fulfilling these instructions of the German authorities, I was obviously paltering, since I myself was sure that the “Katyn case” was a German provocation. I was fully convinced of this when I personally went on an “excursion” in the Katyn forest.
Seeing that the "excursions" of the local population to the Katyn graves did not achieve their goal, the German occupation authorities in the summer of 1943 ordered to bury these graves.
Before their retreat from Smolensk, the German occupation authorities began to hastily cover up the traces of their atrocities. The dacha, which was occupied by the “headquarters of the 537th construction battalion”, was burned to the ground. The Germans were looking for three girls - Alekseeva, Mikhailova and Konakhovskaya - in the village. Borok to take away with you, and maybe destroy. The Germans were also looking for their main "witness" - P. G. Kiselev, but he managed to escape with his family. The Germans burned down his house.
The Germans tried to capture other "witnesses" - b. head of the Gnezdovo station Ivanov S.V. and b. on duty at this station Savateeva I.V., as well as b. coupler st. Smolensk Zakharova M.D.
In the very last days before the retreat from Smolensk, the Nazi invaders were looking for Professors Bazilevsky and Efimov. Both managed to avoid withdrawal or death only because they disappeared in advance.
However, the Nazi invaders failed to cover their tracks and hide their crimes.
The forensic medical examination of the exhumed corpses proves with irrefutable clarity that the Germans themselves carried out the execution of the Polish prisoners of war.
Act of forensic medical examination
At the direction of the Special Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of the Circumstances of the Execution by the Nazi Invaders in the Katyn Forest (near Smolensk) of Polish Officers of War, a forensic medical expert commission consisting of:
Chief forensic expert of the People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR, Director of the State Research Institute of Forensic Medicine of the People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR V.I. Prozorovsky;
Professor of Forensic Medicine of the 2nd Moscow State Medical Institute, Doctor of Medical Sciences V.M. Smolyaninov;
Professor of pathological anatomy, doctor of medical sciences - D.N. Vyropayeva;
Senior researcher of the thanatological department of the State Research Institute of Forensic Medicine of the People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR, Dr. P.S. Semenovsky;
Senior Researcher of the Forensic Chemical Department of the State Research Institute of Forensic Medicine of the People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR, Associate Professor M.D. Shvaykova;
starring:
Chief forensic expert of the Western Front, major of the medical service Nikolsky;
Forensic medical expert of the N ... army, captain of the medical service Busoedov;
Head of the pathological and anatomical laboratory 92, major of the medical service Subbotin;
Major of the medical service Ogloblin;
Specialist doctor, senior lieutenant of the medical service Sadykov;
Senior lieutenant of the medical service Pushkareva,
in the period from January 16 to 23, 1944, she exhumed and forensic examination of the corpses of Polish prisoners of war buried in graves on the territory of "Kozy Gory" in the Katyn forest, 15 kilometers from the mountains. Smolensk. The corpses of Polish prisoners of war were buried in a common grave measuring about 60 x 60 x 3 meters and, in addition, in a separate grave measuring about 7 x 6 x 3.5 meters. 925 corpses were exhumed and examined from the graves.
Exhumation and forensic examination of corpses were carried out to establish:
a) the identity of the deceased;
b) causes of death;
c) the age of the burial.
Facts of the case: see materials of the Special Commission.
Objective data: see protocols of forensic examinations of corpses.
Conclusion
The forensic medical expert commission, based on the results of forensic examinations of corpses, comes to the following conclusion:
After opening the graves and removing the corpses from them, it was established:
a) among the mass of corpses of Polish prisoners of war there are corpses in civilian clothes, their number in relation to the total number of corpses examined is insignificant (only 2 per 925 recovered corpses); the corpses were wearing military-style boots;
b) the clothes on the corpses of prisoners of war testify to their belonging to the officers and partly to the rank and file of the Polish army;
c) the cuts of pockets and boots found during the inspection of clothes, turned-out pockets and their tears show that all the clothes on each corpse (overcoat, trousers, etc.), as a rule, bear traces of a search made on the corpses;
d) in some cases, when examining clothes, the integrity of the pockets was noted. In these pockets, as well as in cut and torn pockets under the lining of uniforms, in the belts of trousers, in footcloths and socks, fragments of newspapers, brochures, prayer books, postage stamps, open and closed letters, receipts, notes and other documents, as well as valuables were found ( gold ingot, gold dollars), pipes, penknives, smoking paper, handkerchiefs, etc.;
e) on parts of the documents (even without special studies), during their examination, the dates relating to the period from November 12, 1940 to June 20, 1941 were ascertained;
f) the fabric of clothing, especially overcoats, uniforms, trousers and overshirts, is well preserved and is very difficult to tear by hand;
g) in a very small part of the corpses (20 out of 925), the hands were tied behind the body with white braided cords.
The condition of the clothes on the corpses, namely the fact that uniforms, shirts, waist belts, trousers and underpants are fastened; boots or shoes are worn; scarves and ties are tied around the neck, straps are fastened, shirts are tucked into trousers - this indicates that the external examination of the torso and limbs of the corpses was not previously carried out.
The safety of the skin on the head and the absence on them, as well as on the integuments of the chest and abdomen (except for three cases out of 925) of any incisions, incisions and other signs of expert activity indicates that a forensic medical examination of the corpses was not carried out, judging by corpses exhumed by the forensic expert commission.
External and internal examinations of 925 corpses give grounds to assert the presence of gunshot wounds to the head and neck, in four cases combined with damage to the bones of the cranial vault with a blunt, hard, heavy object. In addition, in a small number of cases, damage to the abdomen was found with a simultaneous injury to the head.
The entrance holes of gunshot wounds, as a rule, are single, less often - double, located in the occipital region of the head near the occiput, foramen magnum or on its edge. In a small number of cases, the entrance gunshot holes were found on the back of the neck, respectively, 1, 2, 3 cervical vertebrae.
Exit holes were found most often in the frontal region, less often in the parietal and temporal regions, as well as on the face and neck. In 27 cases, gunshot wounds turned out to be blind (without exit holes) and at the end of the bullet channels under the soft covers of the skull, in its bones, in the membranes and brain substance, deformed, slightly deformed and not at all deformed shell bullets were found, used when firing from automatic pistols, mainly caliber 7.65 mm.
The dimensions of the inlets on the occipital bone allow the conclusion that two calibers of firearms were used during executions: in the vast majority of cases - less than 8 mm, i.e. 7.65 mm or less; in a smaller number - over 8 mm, i.e. 9 mm.
The nature of the cracks in the bones of the skull and the discovery in some cases of gunpowder residues at the inlet indicate that the shots were fired at point-blank or almost point-blank range.
The relative position of the inlet and outlet holes shows that the shots were fired from behind, with the head tilted forward. In this case, the bullet channel passed through the vital parts of the brain or near them, and the destruction of brain tissue was the cause of death.
The injuries found on the bones of the cranial vault with a blunt, hard, heavy object were accompanied by gunshot wounds to the head and did not in themselves cause death.
Forensic medical examinations of corpses, carried out between January 16 and 23, 1944, indicate that there are absolutely no corpses in a state of putrefactive decay or destruction, and that all 925 corpses are intact - in the initial stage of loss of moisture by the corpse (which most often and sharply expressed in the chest and abdomen, sometimes on the limbs; in the initial stage of fat wax; in a sharp degree of fat wax in corpses removed from the bottom of the graves); in a combination of dehydration of the tissues of the corpse and the formation of a fat wax.
It is noteworthy that the muscles of the trunk and limbs have completely retained their macroscopic structure and their almost normal color; the internal organs of the thoracic and abdominal cavities retained their configuration, in a number of cases, the heart muscle on the cuts had a clearly distinguishable structure and its inherent color, and the brain presented characteristic structural features with a distinct border of gray and white matter. In addition to microscopic examination of the tissues and organs of the corpse, the forensic medical examination seized the relevant material for subsequent microscopic and chemical studies in the laboratory.
In the preservation of tissues and organs of corpses, the properties of the soil at the site of discovery were of some importance.
After the opening of the graves and the removal of the corpses and their exposure to the air, they were exposed to heat and moisture in the spring and summer of 1943. This could have influenced the rapid development of the process of decomposition of corpses.
However, the degree of dehydration of the corpses and the formation of fat wax in them, the especially good preservation of muscles and internal organs, as well as clothes, give reason to assert that the corpses were in the soil for a short time.
Comparing the state of the corpses in the graves on the territory of "Kozya Gory" with the state of the corpses in other burial places in the city of Smolensk and its immediate environs - in Gedeonovka, Magalenschina, Readovka, camp No. 126, Krasny Bor, etc. (see act court. medical examination of October 22, 1943), it must be recognized that the burial of the corpses of Polish prisoners of war in the territory of "Kozy Gory" was made about 2 years ago. This finds its full confirmation in the discovery of documents on corpses in clothes, excluding earlier burial dates (see paragraph “e” of Article 36 and the inventory of documents).
The forensic medical expert commission, on the basis of the data and results of the research, considers the act of killing by shooting prisoners of war of officers and partly of the rank and file of the Polish army as established;
claims that this execution refers to the period about 2 years ago, i.e. between September-December 1941;
sees in the fact of the discovery by the forensic medical expert commission of valuables and documents in the clothes of corpses dated 1941 - proof that the German fascist authorities, who undertook a search of the corpses in the spring and summer of 1943, did not conduct it carefully, but discovered documents testify that the execution was carried out after June 1941;
states that in 1943 the Germans performed an extremely insignificant number of autopsies on the corpses of executed Polish prisoners of war;
notes the complete identity of the method of shooting Polish prisoners of war with the method of shooting civilian Soviet citizens and Soviet prisoners of war, widely practiced by the Nazi authorities in the temporarily occupied territory of the USSR, including in the cities of Smolensk, Orel, Kharkov, Krasnodar, Voronezh.
V.I. PROZOROVSKY.
Professor of Forensic Medicine of the 2nd Moscow State Medical Institute, Doctor of Medical Sciences - V.M. SMOLYANINOV.
Professor of Pathological Anatomy, Doctor of Medical Sciences - D.N. VYROPAEV.
Senior researcher of the thanatological department of the State Research Institute of Forensic Medicine of the USSR People's Commissariat of Health, Doctor - PS SEMENOVSKY.
Senior Researcher of the Forensic Chemical Department of the State Research Institute of Forensic Medicine of the NHC of the USSR, Associate Professor - M.D. SHVAIKOV.
Smolensk, January 24, 1944
Documents found on corpses
In addition to the data recorded in the act of the forensic medical examination, the time of the execution by the Germans of Polish officers of war prisoners (autumn 1941, and not spring 1940, as the Germans claim) is also established by the documents discovered during the opening of the graves, relating not only to the second half of 1940 city, but also by the spring and summer (March-June) 1941.
Of the documents discovered by forensic experts, the following deserve special attention:
1. On corpse No. 92:
Letter from Warsaw addressed to the Red Cross to the Central Bureau of Prisoners of War - Moscow, st. Kuibysheva, 12. The letter is written in Russian. In this letter Sofya Zygon asks to know the whereabouts of her husband Tomasz Zygon. The letter is dated 12 Sept. 40 g. The envelope has a German postal stamp - "Warsaw, Sept.-40" and a stamp - "Moscow, post office 9th expedition, 28 Sept. 40 years" and a resolution in red ink in Russian: "Uch. set up camp and send for delivery. Nov. 15—40" (signature illegible).
2. On corpse #4:
Postcard, order No. 0112 from Tarnopol with a postmark “Tarnopol 12 Nov. -40 y.” The handwriting and address are discolored.
3. On corpse No. 101:
Receipt No. 10293 dated 19 Dec. - 1939, issued by the Kozelsk camp on the acceptance of a gold watch from Lewandovsky Eduard Adamovich. On the back of the receipt there is a record dated March 14, 1941 about the sale of this watch to the Yuvelirtorg.
4. On the corpse number 46:
Receipt (No. illegible) issued on 16 Dec. 1939 by the Starobelsky camp about the acceptance of a gold watch from Arashkevich Vladimir Rudolfovich. On the back of the receipt there is a note dated March 25, 1941, stating that the watch was sold to Yuvelirtorg.
5. On the corpse number 71:
A paper icon depicting Christ found between pages 144 and 145 of a Catholic prayer book. On the back of the icon there is an inscription, from which the signature is legible - "Yadvinya" and the date "April 4, 1941"
6. On corpse #46:
Receipt dated April 6, 1941, issued by camp No. 1-ON, confirming the receipt of money from Arashkevich in the amount of 225 rubles.
7. On the same corpse No. 46:
Receipt dated May 5, 1941, issued by camp No. 1-ON, confirming the receipt of money from Arashkevich in the amount of 102 rubles.
8. On corpse #101:
Receipt dated May 18, 1941, issued by Camp No. 1-ON, confirming the receipt of money from E. Levandovsky in the amount of 175 rubles.
9. On corpse #53:
Unsent postcard in Polish to: Warsaw, Bagatela 15 sq. 47 Irene Kuchinskaya. Dated June 20, 1941. Sender Stanislav Kuchinsky.
General conclusions
From all the materials at the disposal of the Special Commission, namely, the testimony of more than 100 witnesses interviewed by it, forensic medical examination data, documents and material evidence recovered from the graves of the Katyn Forest, the following conclusions follow with irrefutable clarity:
1. Polish prisoners of war, who were in three camps west of Smolensk and were employed in road construction work before the start of the war, remained there even after the German invaders invaded Smolensk until September 1941 inclusive;
2. In the autumn of 1941, in the Katyn forest, mass executions of Polish prisoners of war from the above-mentioned camps were carried out by the German occupation authorities;
3. The mass executions of Polish prisoners of war in the Katyn forest were carried out by a German military institution, codenamed "headquarters of the 537th construction battalion", headed by Oberst Lieutenant Arnes and his employees - Lieutenant Rekst, Lieutenant Hott;
4. In connection with the deterioration of the general military-political situation for Germany by the beginning of 1943, the German occupation authorities, for provocative purposes, took a number of measures to attribute their own atrocities to the organs of Soviet power in the hope of quarreling the Russians with the Poles;
5. For these purposes:
a) the fascist German invaders, through persuasion, attempts at bribery, threats and barbaric tortures, tried to find "witnesses" from among Soviet citizens, from whom they sought false testimony that Poles prisoners of war were allegedly shot by Soviet authorities in the spring of 1940;
b) in the spring of 1943, the German occupation authorities brought from other places the corpses of the Poles they had shot and put them in the dug-up graves of the Katyn forest with the expectation of hiding the traces of their own atrocities and increasing the number of "victims of Bolshevik atrocities" in the Katyn forest;
c) in preparation for their provocation, the German occupation authorities used up to 500 Russian prisoners of war to work on digging graves in the Katyn forest, extracting documents and material evidence incriminating them, who, after doing this work, were shot by the Germans.
6. The following is established with certainty by the data of the forensic medical examination:
a) the time of execution - autumn 1941;
b) the use by German executioners in the execution of Polish prisoners of war of the same method of a pistol shot in the back of the head, which they used in the massacres of Soviet citizens in other cities, in particular, in Orel, Voronezh, Krasnodar and in the same Smolensk.
7. The conclusions from the testimonies and forensic medical examination about the shooting of Polish prisoners of war by the Germans in the autumn of 1941 are fully confirmed by material evidence and documents recovered from the Katyn graves;
8. By shooting Polish prisoners of war in the Katyn forest, the Nazi invaders consistently carried out their policy of physical destruction of the Slavic peoples.
(The signatures of the members of the Special Commission follow)
Chairman of the Special Commission, member of the Extraordinary State Commission, Academician N.N. BURDENKO.
MEMBERS:
Member of the Extraordinary State Commission, Academician Alexei TOLSTOY. Member of the Extraordinary State Commission, Metropolitan NIKOLAI. Chairman of the All-Slavic Committee, Lieutenant-General A. S. GUNDOROV. Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Union of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies SA KOLESNIKOV. People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR, Academician V. P. POTEMKIN.
Head of the Main Military Sanitary Directorate of the Red Army,
Colonel General E. I. SMIRNOV. Chairman of the Smolensk Regional Executive Committee RE MELNIKOV.
Gor. Smolensk. January 24, 1944.
True. 1944. January 26