[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 100 (Monday, June 19, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1287]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



[[Page E 1287]]

             COMMEMORATING THE VICTIMS OF THE KATYN MASSACRE

                                 ______


                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, June 19, 1995
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in 
remembering the victims of Stalin's mass murder of Polish officers in 
the Katyn Forest in Russia on June 4, 1940. That vicious and horrible 
slaughter was one of the great atrocities of World War II. As a result 
of the partition of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on the 
basis of the infamous Hitler-Stalin pact, the Soviet Union occupied 
eastern Poland. Following that imposition of Soviet control, which was 
every bit as brutal as the Nazi occupation of western Poland, the 
Soviet authorities brutally murdered some 15,000 Polish military 
officers and other Polish citizens. After the Soviets carried out this 
brutal massacre, they falsely blamed the Nazis for this inhuman act.
  Mr. Speaker, this month marks the 55th anniversary of the Katyn 
Massacre. In memory of the victims of this horrible act, as a tribute 
to the survivors and their families, and as a message of reconciliation 
for the future, I wish to place in the Record the following message 
from the Federation of the Katyn Families:
    ``A Message to the World From the Katyn Families''--A Statement 
                      Regarding the Katyn Massacre

       Many call it the ``Golgotha of the East'': Katyn Forest and 
     other sites in Russia where 15,000 captured Polish citizens 
     and officers were massacred by Soviet paramilitary police 
     during World War II. Now a sanctuary is being built in Katyn: 
     as a remembrance and warning that it must not happen again, 
     and as a symbol of reconciliation between Poland and Russia. 
     Monsignor Zdzislaw Peszkowski, one of the fewer than 150 
     surviving prisoners of the massacre, and chief proponent of 
     the sanctuary, states that the act of forgiveness offered by 
     the Katyn Families will provide a starting point for future 
     positive relations between Poland and Russia.
       The massacre of the leading members of the Polish 
     intelligentsia--including physicians, judges, scholars, 
     policemen, and military officers--was intended by Josef 
     Stalin to destroy resistance in Poland and annihilate the 
     nation. During the war, Poland was invaded by both German and 
     Soviet troops. The prisoners were each killed by a single 
     bullet to the back of the head. With their hands tied behind 
     their backs with barbed wire or heavy cord, they were thrown 
     into mass graves. The victims have never been exhumed or 
     buried. After the systematic murders of these 15,000 men, 
     some 2 million Polish citizens, including victims' families, 
     were evicted from their homes and crowded into animal boxcars 
     and sent inland to serve as slaves in Russia. Many died on 
     the trains and their bodies were thrown from the moving 
     trains. In 1993, Boris Yeltsin admitted that responsibility 
     for the massacre lay with the Soviet Union, while previously 
     it had been attributed to the German army.
       The Federation of the Katyn Families pleads with members of 
     all nations to remember these atrocities and prevent such a 
     thing from happening again. They proclaim that evil is 
     overcome by the power of love and this love leads to victory 
     and new life. They turn to the heirs of their persecutors and 
     say: ``We forgive.'' Especially to the youth, they say: ``You 
     are our hope. We caution you and beg: Through memory of past 
     crimes, do not try to solve problems by force. May your 
     generation renew the face of the earth. . . . We extend our 
     hand in reconciliation to you, Brothers of the East. May our 
     pain, memory, and forgiveness strengthen us all on the road 
     to the peace desired by the entire human family.''
     

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