The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

 

Germany and Russia signed their own secret non-agression pact on August 23, 1939. The secret treaty expanded spheres of influence for both Germany and Russia by dismantling and absorbing the nations in between them - specifically, four articles of a "Secret Additional Protocol" outlined the partition of Polish lands as well as those belonging to the other Baltic states, including Finland.

 

Descent into war and dismemberment of Poland

 

World War II began as Hitler's forces invaded Poland by air, sea, and land on September 1st, 1939 and Russian invasion on Sept. 17th. On September 3rd, Allied governments declared war on Germany. Remarkably, they failed to provide any means of support to the Poles. This lack of support, among other acts, is called the "Western betrayal" or "The Phoney War" by some. Allied powers would fail to undertake significant action against Germany until May of 1940, when France fell under attack.

 

Poland is officially deleted from the map

 

In October 1939, Poland was officially deleted from the European map.  German authorities ordered the genocide of Jews, mainly, and a combination of execution and deportation of Poles, with a small number of Poles to be spared as serfs serving Hitler's "master race". Because over 10 % of the population in Poland was Jewish (more than 3,500,000 people), Germany set up concentration camps for them in Poland. Once "cleansed", the area was to be repopulated by German colonists within 15-20 years. This state of affairs functioned until late 1944, when the Red Army overran the territory on their way to Berlin. In total, 6,000,000 Poles died in WWII (including 3,000,000 Polish Jews).

 

Under Soviet occupation - Deportations to the Russian Gulags

 

Similar to the Nazis, the Soviets wanted to deal with "undesirables". The NKVD (the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs--the Soviet secret police) began a campaign of terror against the populace. Following the September invasion and the subsequent fall of Warsaw, a few Polish navy, pilots, and soldiers escaped, most notably to Britain, where they fought for the Allies.

 

Soviet "enemies" were those who were thought to pose a potential threat to the Soviet State. Those enemies were rounded up and deported to Russian Gulags - works camps in remote areas of Russia, mainly wastelands of Siberia.

 

These "enemies" were arrested in phases:

 

• The first victims of deportations were the Polish military, prisoners of war resulting from resistance to the September invasion

• Secondly, all previous government officials, politicians, civil servants, members of the intelligentsia, scientists and any others deemed threats to the Soviet state were arrested

• Next were the families: frequently the remaining women, children and eldery parents of the men deported earlier

 

An estimated 1,800,000 Polish men, women, and children were removed deep into Siberia, where they faced hard physical labor, squalid living conditions, harsh climate extremes, disease, and starvation. They died by the thousands.

 

Extreme temperatures resulted in many casualties - mostly women and children

 

The first deportations occurred in the winter. Long trips in dark, unheated box cars with little to no food. Packed in with people we didn't know. We traveled across 11 times zones into the frigid wastelands of Siberia. Many people froze, being unprepared for the cold. For the rest, the process of starvation began. Those who had food had to decide how to ration it. Others had to try to somehow buy some or barter for it. Many Poles, primarily the infants and elderly, died during this stage of the journey. Their bodies were unceremoniously tossed from the trains.

 

After arriving to the gulags, some had to walk up to 200 miles to the camp to which they had been assigned. Upon arrival, each family was assigned meager accommodations, such as a cramped bunk house or a room shared with another family. As these labor camps were not typical, fenced prison camps, people were sometimes able to barter different accommodations.

 

All adults were given jobs that involved physical labor. Physical work was required to earn food. Teen-aged children usually worked too. Alternatively, younger children could go to school, where they were instructed according to Stalin-approved curricula. Most work was paid with one slice of bread per day.

 

Life under such conditions was harsh and cruel. Securing food and clothes for survival was impossible without trading, and often necessitated lying and stealing. Starvation was a major problem as food usually consisted of watery soup and bread. Fruits, vegetables, and meat were largely non-existent. Many more Poles died in these conditions. They died of cold, starvation, physical fatigue, and disease.

 

A surprising turn of events - Germany attacks Russia

 

Operation Barbarossa, the codename for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, commenced on June 22, 1941, and caught the Soviet army completely by surprise.  The Germans were their allies - or so they thought.

 

In order to secure support from the Western Allies, Stalin reversed his public policies with respect to Poland. Among his first orders of business was the recognition of the Polish Government in Exile as well as a declaration of "amnesty" for Polish "workers". In retrospect, "amnesty" was a ridiculous term because the deported Polish people had committed no crimes to begin with. For a large number of Poles, this resulted in an exodus from the gulags via Persia (Iran) and then onward to journeys to other countries willing to host these displaced individuals.

 

Stalin agreed to the formation of a Polish army. Two prominent Polish generals were given permission to begin formation of these armies: General Sikorski who was in London, and General Anders, who was released from the infamous, Soviet, high-security prison Lubyanka. Shortly afterwards, General Sikorski was killed in an airplane accident.

 

The Soviets were slow in getting the word out; in some of the gulags, news of amnesty did not arrive until at least a year later. In some areas, men, many of them either old or quite young, were given the option to join a Polish division of the Red Army.

 

In contrast to the Polish army forming on Soviet soil, General Anders (former General of the free Polaish Army) received permission to form his army in Persia (Iran) out of mistrust of Stalin. He was also able to secure permission for the families of the recruits to join them. Anders began forming his army primarily from the young men and boys who were arriving from the gulags, though they were emaciated, in tattered clothes, and untrained. Startlingly, none of the Polish officers arrested by the Soviets at the beginning of the war were arriving. Despite Anders' requests about these officers, the Soviets claimed no knowledge of their whereabouts.

 

 

Exodus

 

Thus began the exodus of Poles to southern Russia, through the port of Krasnovodsk, and across the Caspian Sea to Persia. Some were able to leave because they had permission, being family members of army volunteers. Others forged the paperwork; still others bribed their way out. Many were not able to leave. Despite "amnesty", they were condemned to the gulags.

 

For those who did leave, the hardship did not yet end. The trains from Siberia to Krasnovodsk took up six weeks. The cruelty of their conditions mirrored that of the trains that brought Poles into Siberia in the first place. The policy of intentional starvation continued. Sometimes trains sat on the track in unpopulated places for days. Other times the trains would stop in towns and food had to be bartered for with whatever things of value that people still had left. Many more Poles continued to die along this part of the journey.

 

When they reached the Polish army in Buzuluk, Uzbekistan, and in Krasnovodsk, they boarded filthy ships and sailed south across the Caspian Sea for two days to Pahlevi, Persia (Iran). General Anders did not trust that Soviet permission to leave would last and wanted to get as many Poles out as quickly as possible. So he ordered the boats to be completely loaded with people, essentially standing room only. As a result, the journey was extremely unsafe and the boats were extraordinarily unsanitary, with no bathroom facilities. Many survivors recall with amazing detail these squalid conditions.

 

Arrival and diaspora

 

On arrival in Pahlevi, living conditions greatly improved. Good food was available compliments of the British army. For some, however, it was an ironic death sentence as they could not handle the relatively rich food after years of starvation. Many who arrived were orphans, having lost their parents on the way to the gulags, in the gulags, or on the journey to Persia. These children were often put in separate camps for boys and girls, thus further separating families. In some cases siblings were never reunited. Approximately 5,000 orphans went to Isfahan (Persia) or to India. Others were sent by British ships to New Zealand, South Africa, and Mexico.

 

 

The soldiers trained in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt. Members of Anders Polish army were sent to the western front where they were formed into two corps attached to the British Army. The 1st Corps fought in Normandy and northwestern Europe. The 2nd Corps served in Italy where it won distinction as the first Allied unit to reach the peak of Monte Cassino.

 

From Pahlevi, the soldiers' family members were subsequently sent to other camps in Persia, notably Teheran and Ahwaz. From these temporary displaced persons camps, they were then sent to longer term displaced persons camps in India, Lebanon, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Many spent up to 5 years in these temporary camps. When these camps closed, Poles found permanent residence in England if they already had family members there or had a family member in the Polish army. Some stayed in Africa while others traveled to Argentina, Canada, the United States, and other countries. Most refused to return to Poland, not wanting to live under the Soviet control.

 

The massacres at Katyn

 

As mentioned earlier, Polish military officers were among the first to be arrested and deported by Soviet authorities. We now know that they were executed at gunpoint shortly after their arrests. In March 1940, about 8000 Polish military officers and 14,000 others were victims of a mass execution and mass burial in the forests of Katyn, located near the city of Smolensk, 225 miles west-southwest of Moscow. The victims came from a number of POW camps in Kozielsk, Starobielsk and Ostashkov as well as political prisons.  

 

The mass graves were discovered by German forces in 1943 during their invasion of Russia. The Germans unearthed the mass graves, documented the method and the timing of the execution, and then told the world. However, the Soviets denied any knowledge of the mass graves and insisted that the Germans were responsible. After defeating the German forces and taking control of the Katyn forests, the Soviets conducted their own investigation and "proved" to the world that the Germans were responsible.

 

Both the United States and Great Britain kept silent about the possibility of Soviet involvement for fear of upsetting the Soviet Union, an ally. Soviet authorities continued to deny responsibility for the crimes until 1989. Yet to this day, the Moscow government careful avoids calling the massacre a war crime or crime against humanity in order to avoid possible prosecution (BBC).

 

 

Of more than 1,800,000 Polish men, women, and children deported to Siberia, only 115,000, or about 7%, made it out to Persia