AN AMERICAN IN KATYN - Lecture at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York

An American in Katyn – the Paris Deposition of Lt. Col. John H. Van Vliet, Jr.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014, at 7:00pm

In November 2013, researcher Krystyna Piorkowska discovered a sworn deposition submitted by Lt. Col. John H. Van Vliet, Jr. on May 10, 1945, while he was still in Paris.  This discovery underscores a heretofore unstudied area – the entirety of knowledge possessed by Great Britain and the United States regarding the Katyn Massacre, supplied to these governments at great personal risk by their own countrymen who were German prisoners of war.

Piorkowska discusses the implications of this sensational discovery, first announced at a press conference of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, on January 8, 2014: after arriving in Paris, Van Vliet was questioned by a War Crimes Investigation Unit officer, and submitted a sworn deposition.  This document implies that both Colonels Van Vliet and James R. Hoffman (Investigator-Examiner) believed that the Soviet Union would be charged with the Katyn Massacre. 

AP Article on Krystyna Piorkowska's latest discovery