US 'hushed up' Soviet massacre of Polish officers at Katyn

[perseus]

All this would have been rather embarrassing at Nuremberg as well.

New evidence appears to back the idea that the Roosevelt administration helped cover up Soviet guilt for the 1940 Katyn massacre of Polish soldiers.......

Katyn expert Allen Paul said some of the material did not appear in the record of Congressional hearings in 1951-52 held to investigate the massacre, suggesting it had been deliberately kept hidden.
Among the new evidence is a report sent to President Roosevelt by the then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill - who did not challenge Stalin's claim either - which also pointed to Soviet guilt.

More than 22,000 Poles were killed by the Soviets on Stalin's orders

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19552745

 

[MontyB]

I think there is a little revisionism going on there as pretty much all the western allies took part in the cover up. I am really not sure what else was possible at that stage in the war as the west could not allow the Soviet Union to fall nor could they help the Germans I think in the end it came down to supporting the lesser of two evils even if Stalin was only the lesser by a whisker.

 

[perseus]

Could they have admitted it at Nuremberg or would this have given the defence a case of hypocrisy?

 

[MontyB]

Could they have admitted it at Nuremberg or would this have given the defence a case of hypocrisy?

To what purpose would they have done this?

In the end there is nothing the Allies could do about the Katyn massacre that would not have led to a continuation of war against Russia, how would they have bought anyone to trial or enforced any findings against the Soviet Union when the man that sanctioned the killings was Stalin?

I would suggest that the Nuremberg trials were less about "justice" and more about the "revenge of the victor" (which isn't a good description) for the brutality of the German occupation of Europe and the Holocaust.

 

[perseus]

To what purpose would they have done this?

In the end there is nothing the Allies could do about the Katyn massacre that would not have led to a continuation of war against Russia, how would they have bought anyone to trial or enforced any findings against the Soviet Union when the man that sanctioned the killings was Stalin?

I would suggest that the Nuremberg trials were less about "justice" and more about the "revenge of the victor" (which isn't a good description) for the brutality of the German occupation of Europe and the Holocaust.

Ideally they should have had a fair trial for all sides so accusations of victors justice wouldn't undermine it. The refusal to acknowledge Katyn is part of this defect. Obviously the Soviets would have boycotted, Stalin wasn't exactly going to hand himself in.

Do you suggest they should have let everyone off, or just some of them? Which ones should have been punished if any?

 

[MontyB]

They did just let everyone off with regards to the Katyn massacre and I think things were made all the more farcical when the Russians tried to prosecute the Germans for the massacre.

In terms of the Germans no they could not just let the Holocaust go unchallenged but at the same time inventing laws and applying them retrospectively is rather a dodgy approach to justice.

Lets be honest the ones that were hung were never going to walk out of court free men therefore the whole trial thing was a bit of a charade.

 

[perseus]

They did just let everyone off with regards to the Katyn massacre and I think things were made all the more farcical when the Russians tried to prosecute the Germans for the massacre.

In terms of the Germans no they could not just let the Holocaust go unchallenged but at the same time inventing laws and applying them retrospectively is rather a dodgy approach to justice.

Lets be honest the ones that were hung were never going to walk out of court free men therefore the whole trial thing was a bit of a charade.

It seems the Katyn Massacre was embarassing, since they were highly suspicious of the Russian claims. Perhaps this confirms that documents were being hidden, and they were reasonably certain who was responsible even at this early stage?

The chief Soviet prosecutor submitted false documentation in an attempt to indict defendants for the murder of thousands of Polish officers in the Katyn forest near Smolensk. However, the other Allied prosecutors refused to support the indictment and German lawyers promised to mount an embarrassing defense. No one was charged or found guilty at Nuremberg for the Katyn Forest massacre.[71]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials#Criticism

Regarding the death sentences. All of those hanged were guilty in the category of 'crimes against humanity', whilst Donitz was not punished possibly because of the double standards charge?

Donitz was convicted of carrying out unrestricted submarine warfare in breach of the 1936 Second London Naval Treaty, but was not punished for that charge because the United States committed the same breach.[16

 

[LeEnfield]

I think it was a case of who did what to whom, there was so much black information going around just how were you going to sort it all out. Also like the death camps there was a certain amount of disbelief that one educated country could be doing some thing like this even if it was your enemy who was doing it. Even now there are people who wont admit that it happened