Although London heard the
Radio Berlin announcement on the 11th, the Warsaw Red Cross had been
determining as to how to proceed since the 9th when the Reich
Propaganda Ministry representative had delivered his statement.
The Propaganda Ministry had
first made announcement in Warsaw calling for Poles to join the fight with the
Germans against the Soviets,
The time had come for
reconciliation between the Polish and the Germans, under the sign of the joint
effort to fight for the civilization of Europe against the barbaric East
as the Polish Red Cross representatives
refused to be present at the meeting, one of the Germans first called and then came
personally to advise them and also inform them about a planned visit to Katyn.
The Red Cross officials demurred
The chairman
refused again because he said that is a pure propaganda move and the Red Cross
must keep away from any propaganda
Nonetheless, he immediately
contacted the Underground. Surprisingly, the Germans were patient and did not
issue orders or threats of an immediate departure. By April 11, the Polish Red
Cross had received a response from the Underground and as Dr. Skarzyński noted,
they were instructed to participate in the visit
…we must take part as much as we
can, and we decided to exhume the bodies to enable the families to get a list
of the identified officers and to try to know who did the murder.
Then in a statement that
sounds eerily similar to the one that would be made by Lt. Colonel John H. Van Vliet, Jr.
about the opinion of the English-speaking witnesses, Kazimierz Skarzyński noted
that
I must tell you
gentlemen, our first impression was the absolute impression that the Germans
did it, and that we had to do with a German provocation, after seeing what we
saw during these 2 ½ years.
That note of uncertainty
would repeat itself, not only in the statements of the Polish Red Cross
representatives, and the US Army officers, but also in the statements of the
Polish POW officers held by the Germans and brought to the site. They all were willing to believe that this
was a German propaganda action.
©Krystyna Piórkowska
