Requiem for the Polish Leadership in Commemorating the Katyn Massacre

The moral of this commentary, and most of my others, is “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.”




Poland lost its leadership the other day when the plane crashed which was carrying them to Russia to commemorate the Katyn Massacre by the Soviets. Interestingly, the site of the crash was the same forest of Katyn where, in 1940, the Soviets had massacred 22,000 intellectuals, leaders, ethnic minorities, and military Reserve [militia] officers and non-commissioned officers. The Russians blame the crash on “pilot error” and fog, while conspiracy theorists believe this was a carefully laid plot; they’ll be watching for a Russian putsch.


In reality, the Katyn Massacre may have been the catalyst for the unraveling of the Soviet Empire in later years. In 1978 (back when I was a Pentagon Intelligence Analyst) I reported on a mass civil riot in Warsaw in which Soviet soldiers were attacked and mauled by thousands of irate Poles. The incident was sparked by a group of drunken Soviet soldiers who made a show of desecrating the Katyn monument in Warsaw. The consequent death toll of Soviet soldiers was not insignificant; what was more significant was the size and intensity of the riot itself, coupled with the conspicuous absence of any retaliatory action by the Soviets against the citizenry.


A good part of the Soviet reticence was the fact that Poland was one of the key producers of chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction for the Warsaw Pact, and there was the possibility that inflamed Polish citizenry might just turn some of these weapons against the Soviet troops. In addition, Poland produced key components of major weapons systems and vehicles, any of which could be [and frequently were] sabotaged on the production line by unhappy workers.


Following the riots over the Katyn Massacre monument, there were a series of visible rebellious events, such as the stoning of the puppet president while he attempted to give a speech in a coal mining town, again without Soviet retaliation. The absence of a response by the Soviets emboldened revolutionary figures like Lech Walesa to lead the Solidarity Movement from the Gdansk Shipyard, and eventually topple the Soviet-backed government in Poland; the collapse of the Soviet satellites soon brought down the entire Soviet state, and of course, the rest is history.


All this is background to how the Katyn Massacre came to be; it was based on Stalin’s theory of domination of a conquered country which consisted of killing off the leadership and intellectuals; most recently, we witnessed the Killing Fields of Cambodia, in which all intellectuals were rounded up and killed. [I periodically operated in northern Cambodia (Khet Preah Vihear) and personally witnessed the depravity of the Khmer Rouge and the North Vietnamese soldiers who advised the Khmers; they slaughtered teachers, priests, nuns, village leaders, and even those who wore glasses on the premise that if they were smart enough to recognize the need for glasses, they should be killed. On occasion, we’d capture these sub-human creatures; rather than kill them ourselves, we’d strip them down and march them to the nearest village and let the people deal with them – slowly.]


To completely dominate a country and its people, Stalin and Hitler operated from the same SOP. The first step was gun control through universal registration, and later, confiscation of all privately held guns using the registration documents. Concurrent with this process was the mandatory registration of all educated persons in the military Reserves, which then made it an easy task to track down and arrest anyone who might conceivably pose a threat to the State. All this legislation was enacted in the interest of public safety and national security, and the educated populace em
braced it wholeheartedly as a means to domestic tranquility, initially.


Interestingly, Hitler didn’t have to initiate gun control since the Weimar Republic had legislated in 1928 to "protect the citizenry"; Hitler simply used existing laws as the basis for disarming the populace. In the period leading up to Kristallnacht, all firearms were confiscated from the Jews; any one found with a gun was arrested and either shipped off to a concentration camp, or executed.


I’ll close my comments with quotes from two notable men in history:


"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let's not have any native militia or native police. German troops alone will bear the sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order throughout the occupied Russian territories, and a system of military strong-points must be evolved to cover the entire occupied country."

                                                --Adolf Hitler, 11 April 1942, quoted in
                                                              Hitler's Table Talk 1941-44: 
                                                              His Private Conversations, 
                                                              2nd Edition (1973), Pp. 425-426.

“The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered the palladium of the liberties of a republic, since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers and will generally, even if these (rulers) are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.”
                                                             US Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story
                                                             Commentaries on the US Constitution [1833]

"Those Who Don't Know History Are Destined to Repeat It." (Edmund Burke)

As a former history teacher, I've used content similar to this in the classroom to caution students on accepting political promises at face value.  In this case, I'll simply reproduce the author's story in her own words since she experienced it first-hand.  

[Snopes neither confirms nor denies her story.  Interestingly, the Snopes comment page is filled with remarks ridiculing her, which I think significantly undermines Snopes' credibility.]

Austria in 1938

By: Kitty Werthmann

What I am about to tell you is something you've probably never heard or will ever read in history books. I believe that I am an eyewitness to history.  I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.  We elected him by a landslide - 98% of the vote..  I've never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.

In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression.  Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed..  We had 25% inflation and 25% bank loan interest rates. Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily.  Young people were going from house to house begging for food.  Not that they didn't want to work; there simply weren't any jobs.  My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need.  Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people - about 30 daily.

The Communist Party and the National Socialist Party were fighting each other. Blocks and blocks of cities like Vienna, Linz, and Graz were destroyed.  The people became desperate and petitioned the government to let them decide what kind of government they wanted. We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany , where Hitler had been in power since 1933.  We had been told that they didn't have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living.  Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group -- Jewish or otherwise.   

We were led to believe that everyone was happy.  We wanted the same way of life in Austria . We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family.  Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back.  Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.

We were overjoyed, and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades.  The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed. After the election, German officials were appointed, and like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order.  Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed.  The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.

Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women.  Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home.  An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn't support his family.  Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.

Hitler Targets Education - Eliminates Religious Instruction for Children:

Our education was nationalized.  I attended a very good public school..  The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler's picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn't pray or have religion anymore.  Instead, we sang "Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles" and had physical education. Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance.  Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum.  They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time.  The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail.  The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination.  The rest of the day we had sports.  As time went along, we loved it.   

Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free.  We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had. My mother was very unhappy.  When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent.  I told her she couldn't do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful.  There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun - no sports, and no political indoctrination.  I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it.  Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home.  I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing.  Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me.  They lived without religion.  By that time unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler.  It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly.  As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn't exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.

Equal Rights Hits Home:

In 1939, the war started and a food bank was established.  All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps.  At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn't work, you didn't get a ration card, and if you didn't have a card, you starved to death. Women who stayed home to raise their families didn't have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.  

[My comment:  In July 1934, Gertrude Scholtz-Klink was appointed as head of the Women's Bureau in the German Labor Front and had responsibility for persuading women to work for the good of the Nazi government. In 1938 she argued that "the German woman must work and work, physically and mentally she must renounce luxury and pleasure."]

Soon after this, the draft was implemented.  It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps.  During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys.  They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps.  After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines.  When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat.

Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack.  I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.

Hitler Restructured the Family Through Daycare:

When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.  You could take your children ages 4 weeks to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, 7 days a week, under the total care of the government.  The state raised a whole generation of children..  There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology.  By this time, no one talked about equal rights.  We knew we had been had.

Health Care and Small Business Under Government Control:

Before Hitler, we had very good medical care.  Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna .  After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government.  The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything. When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full.  If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn.  There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine.  Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.

As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80% of our income.  Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families.  All day care and education were free.  High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized.  Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing. We had another agency designed to monitor business.  My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables. Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners.  Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar.  He couldn't meet all the demands.  Soon, he went out of business.  If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control. We had consumer protection.  We were told how to shop and what to buy.  Free enterprise was essentially abolished.  We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers.  The agents would go to the farms, count the live-stock, then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

"Mercy Killing" 

In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps .  The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated.  So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded.  When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work.  I knew one, named Vincent, very well.  He was a janitor of the school.  One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van.  I asked my superior where they were going.  She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write.  The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months.  They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness. As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death.  The villagers were not fooled.  We suspected what was happening.  Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months.  We called this euthanasia. The Final Steps - Gun Laws:

Gun Registration 

People were getting injured by guns.  Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns.  Most citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms.  Not long after-wards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns.  The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.

Freedom of Speech

Anyone who said something against the government was taken away.  We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up. Totalitarianism didn't come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria .  Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism.

Now, our only weapons were broom handles.  The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.

After World War II, Russian troops occupied Austria .  Women were raped, preteen to elderly.  The press never wrote about this either.  When the Soviets left in 1955, they took everything that they could, dismantling whole factories in the process.  They sawed down whole orchards of fruit, and what they couldn't destroy, they burned.  We called it The Burned Earth. Most of the population barricaded themselves in their houses.  Women hid in their cellars for 6 weeks as the troops mobilized.  Those who couldn't, paid the price.  There is a monument in Vienna today, dedicated to those women who were massacred by the Russians.  This is an eye witness account. "It's true..those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity.

America Truly is the Greatest Country in the World. Don't Let Freedom Slip Away,

"After America , There is No Place to Go"