Germans in Katyn

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 978-5-88010-266-2

Transcript of the meeting of the Extraordinary Commission for the Investigation of German Atrocities dated January 23, 1944.

Archive: GARF, f. 7021, on. 114, d. 8, l. 264-266.

Interrogation of the witness Vetoshnikov [1]

Potemkin: You addressed the head of the Smolensk sector, comrade. IVANOV with a request to give you wagons for the evacuation of Polish prisoners of war. Tell me how it was?

Answer: On the 10th (July 1941. - Ed.) I held a meeting with the administrative staff on the evacuation of the camp. I was waiting for 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 head of the traffic of the Smolensk section of the Western railway. comrade 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 by the Germans from the camp, and I don’t know what happened to the Polish prisoners of war and the guards who remained in the camp.

Potemkin: How many wagons were you talking about?

Answer: I needed 75 wagons, but I asked for any number, just to somehow load and leave. By this time, communication with Moscow had been broken, and I was unable to contact Moscow.

On July 13, I left in order to get to the camp, but on the Vitebsk highway the outpost did not let me through. I returned back to Smolensk and wanted to get to the camp along the Minsk highway, but even here the outpost did not let me through. I tried to contact the commandant's office of the rear guard, but I did not succeed. So I didn't get to the camp.

Potemkin: Do you have any information about what happened to the Poles from the camps?

Answer: I had no information about this before the publication of the materials on the Katyn case.

Tolstoy: The commission was informed that the documents from the camp had been saved.

Answer: Not all documents. Personal accounting files were taken out from the beginning of the appearance of parachute landings.

Potemkin: How many were in the three named camps?

Answer: I had 2932 people in camp, more than 3 thousand in camp No. 3, about one and a half, maximum 2000 in camp No. 2.

Tolstoy: What was the mood of the Polish prisoners of war officers under the Soviet regime?

Answer: The senior officers were closed, the sub-officers and the middle part with the outbreak of hostilities were set up in such a way that at least arm them today and they will go against Germany. The middle strata held that, no matter how the situation developed, Poland would not perish. They were guided by the Sikorsky government.

[1] Vetoshnikov V.M. - former head of camp No. 1-ON, major of the NKGB.