[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Page 22083]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE VICTIMS OF THE KATYN FOREST MASSACRE

  Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the memory of the 
victims of the Katyn Forest Massacre in 1940. Katyn Forest is a quiet 
wooded area near the Gneizdovo village, a short distance from Smolensk 
in Russia. It was at this site, on Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's 
orders, that the Soviet NKVD shot and buried more than 4,000 Polish 
service personnel that had been taken prisoner when the Soviet Union 
invaded Poland in September 1939. Most of these victims were Polish 
army reservists--lawyers, doctors, scientists and businessmen, Poland's 
elite and intelligentsia--who were called up to active service 
following the Nazi invasion of Poland.
  On September 17, 1939, under the terms of a secret Moscow-Berlin 
treaty, forces of the Soviet Union invaded Poland through its eastern 
border. Polish troops, overwhelmed by the German invasion on its 
western border, surrendered to the Red Army on the pretense they would 
be protected. More than 15,000 Polish soldiers and civilians were sent 
to prison camps at Kozielsk, Starobielska and Ostashkov in the Soviet 
Union.
  In an effort to eliminate potential threats to Soviet control of 
Poland and what Stalin described as counter-revolutionary espionage and 
resistance organizations, Soviet troops carried out what many have 
called one of the most heinous war crimes in history. Prisoners in all 
three Soviet Camps were executed and buried in mass graves. One of 
these graves was discovered in Katyn Forest, where between four and 
five thousand Polish bodies were found. There were no trials; there was 
no justice for these innocent victims.
  Although the Soviet Government originally denied their role in this 
unspeakable atrocity, on February 19, 1989 Soviet scholars released 
documents that revealed that Stalin had indeed ordered the mass 
execution. The following year Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev 
apologized to the Polish people for the killings. While this admission 
of guilt provided some closure, it certainly does not erase the pain 
and suffering felt by a nation whose entire population was affected by 
this horrific event. Sixty-three years later, the name Katyn still 
stirs passions in Poland.
  Today, I honor the victims of the Katyn Forest Massacre and commend 
them for their courage and their sacrifice. For on that fateful day, 
more than six decades ago, these valiant men paid the ultimate price to 
secure their country's freedom.
  It is my sincere hope that as more people learn about the carnage 
that occurred at Katyn Forest and the surrounding sites, we will be 
able to come to terms with this tragedy and help heal the wounds that 
the great nation of Poland and its citizens still suffer. When we honor 
the memories of those brave souls who were lost on that tragic day, we 
will prevent future generations from repeating the same horrors which 
occurred in our past.

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