The Katyn Massacre
by Captain Billy Bingham, 34th Inf. Div.
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by Captain Billy Bingham, 34th Inf. Div.
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This is what I know about the Katyn Massacre. After I had escaped from the Germans and was living on
the outskirts of Warsaw near Rembertov, Poland, I stayed all night with the wife of the Commandant of
the Old Cavalry Academy at Rembertov, Poland. Her husband, a Polish Colonel, was with the exile
government in London, England, an assistant to General Borr.
She told me that the Russians were committing terrible atrocities by murdering thousands of Polish
Officers. She asked me to convey this to our government, if and when I should get back to the U.S.A.
I did and our G-2 (Intelligence Agency) refused to believe me saying I had been brain washed by the
Germans. They threatened to throw me into a psycho ward. The could not believe that our ally, the
Russians, did this.
In an article published 10 August 1989, the Soviet Union admitted their guilt in the Katyn Atrocity, where
some 10,000 Polish Officers were shot in the head.
What is now called the Katyn Forest Massacre was first discovered by the Germans in 1943. On a spruce
covered hill overlooking the Dnieper River near Smolensk, Russia, German soldiers had found, stacked in
mass graves, the bodies of thousands of Polish Officers.
The Germans charging that the Russians had committed the mass murder after invading Poland in 1939
sent teams of German doctors to Katyn to corraborate the findings and brought along several Allied
prisoners to view the bodies. My Battalion Commander, Colonel VanVliet, who was captured with me
in the Kasserine / Faide Pass fiasco was one of those officers. The Russians promptly counter-charged
that the Germans had done it. The Russian story was as follows: When the Red armies retreated from
Smolensk, they had to leave behind their Polish officer prisoners. The Germans had shot the Poles and
rigged the Katyn story as a propaganda plant.
The KATYN MASSACRE is unique among the famous atrocities of history. For Poland, the Katyn Massacre
was a national disaster. About a third of the prewar officer corps of the Polish Army had disappeared.
There can be no reasonable doubt of the Kremlin's guilt in what is now established as one of the most
revolting crimes of all times. My Colonel VanVliet was forced to go there. He hated the Germans, as did
I, and didn't want to believe that the Russians had done it. Col. VanVliet and Col. Stuart were at the grave
sites. Now, the Soviets admitted to this massacre. What a beastly crime!!!
I have a theory why the Russians killed all the Polish Officers. The Russians sought to eliminate a military
elite and civilian intelligentsia that would block their post-war designs on Poland. All Polish Officers came
from the Landlord class. I consider this a valid theory.
During the Nurenberg trial, the Katyn Forest murders were never brought up. The heinous inhumane
crimes of the wholesale genocide have never been punished. Why? The British knew about this long
before we did. Was it for fear of disrupting Allied unity?
the outskirts of Warsaw near Rembertov, Poland, I stayed all night with the wife of the Commandant of
the Old Cavalry Academy at Rembertov, Poland. Her husband, a Polish Colonel, was with the exile
government in London, England, an assistant to General Borr.
She told me that the Russians were committing terrible atrocities by murdering thousands of Polish
Officers. She asked me to convey this to our government, if and when I should get back to the U.S.A.
I did and our G-2 (Intelligence Agency) refused to believe me saying I had been brain washed by the
Germans. They threatened to throw me into a psycho ward. The could not believe that our ally, the
Russians, did this.
In an article published 10 August 1989, the Soviet Union admitted their guilt in the Katyn Atrocity, where
some 10,000 Polish Officers were shot in the head.
What is now called the Katyn Forest Massacre was first discovered by the Germans in 1943. On a spruce
covered hill overlooking the Dnieper River near Smolensk, Russia, German soldiers had found, stacked in
mass graves, the bodies of thousands of Polish Officers.
The Germans charging that the Russians had committed the mass murder after invading Poland in 1939
sent teams of German doctors to Katyn to corraborate the findings and brought along several Allied
prisoners to view the bodies. My Battalion Commander, Colonel VanVliet, who was captured with me
in the Kasserine / Faide Pass fiasco was one of those officers. The Russians promptly counter-charged
that the Germans had done it. The Russian story was as follows: When the Red armies retreated from
Smolensk, they had to leave behind their Polish officer prisoners. The Germans had shot the Poles and
rigged the Katyn story as a propaganda plant.
The KATYN MASSACRE is unique among the famous atrocities of history. For Poland, the Katyn Massacre
was a national disaster. About a third of the prewar officer corps of the Polish Army had disappeared.
There can be no reasonable doubt of the Kremlin's guilt in what is now established as one of the most
revolting crimes of all times. My Colonel VanVliet was forced to go there. He hated the Germans, as did
I, and didn't want to believe that the Russians had done it. Col. VanVliet and Col. Stuart were at the grave
sites. Now, the Soviets admitted to this massacre. What a beastly crime!!!
I have a theory why the Russians killed all the Polish Officers. The Russians sought to eliminate a military
elite and civilian intelligentsia that would block their post-war designs on Poland. All Polish Officers came
from the Landlord class. I consider this a valid theory.
During the Nurenberg trial, the Katyn Forest murders were never brought up. The heinous inhumane
crimes of the wholesale genocide have never been punished. Why? The British knew about this long
before we did. Was it for fear of disrupting Allied unity?
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