In the spring of 1940, the Soviet authorities murdered over 21,000 Polish soldiers, officers and policemen. However, there were also those who managed to survive. Nearly 400 people survived the death transports. What made it possible for them to escape death at the hands of the NKVD henchmen?
Reading most of the works devoted to the extermination of Polish prisoners of war held in the camps in Kozelsk, Starobelsk and Ostashkov, we usually receive information about the causes, course and consequences of this shameful and unprecedented act. The troublesome and unclear reasons for saving a certain part of Polish soldiers mean that the issue of the survivors is treated marginally.
Professor Stanisław Swianiewicz, who escaped from under the barrels of the NKVD in Katyn at the last moment, in his book "In the shadow of Katynia" claimed that the reasons for saving 3% of prisoners were as mysterious as the reasons for murdering the remaining 97% of prisoners.
Was that just a coincidence?
Another survivor, Józef Czapski, believed that there was no special key according to which Polish soldiers were kept alive - it was pure coincidence that decided whether someone survived or ended up in the death pits.
General Jerzy Wołkowicki (seated second from the right) did not share the fate of thousands of Polish officers murdered by the Soviets in 1940 due to a few sentences spoken 35 years earlier.
In his "Memories of Starobielskie", Captain Czapski describes the group of survivors, among whom he found himself:and> .
Socialist past. Even accidental
Michał Romm was to be saved by a lucky accident, because he was a relative and namesake of the famous Soviet director Machaił Romm, the creator of the film "Lenin in October" .
The famous general Wołkowicki was probably saved by a few sentences spoken 35 years earlier when during the Russo-Japanese War, as a michman, he opposed the surrender of the ship. Wołkowicki's attitude made him a walking legend of the Russian navy, recorded in the popular novel "Tsushima" .
A friend of the NKVD
Franciszek Bator, a survivor from Ostaszków, owed his life to a mistake of an NKVD in one of the temporary camps, was taken for a Czech from the Czech-Slovak Legion, which is why the Soviet soldier wrote him in the documents as Franc Bator.
Stefan Suchy, a young policeman also detained in Ostashkov, survived because he escaped from the death transport. Second Lieutenant Mintowt-Czyż avoided death because an NKVD officer recognized him as a companion of children's games in Kherson, where they both lived.
Graves of Polish generals murdered by the NKVD in Katyn (source:Bundesarchiv; license CC-BY-SA).
Zygmunt Berling claimed that he owed his continued existence in a survey conducted in the Starobelski camp in the Starobelski camp.
Calculated calculations
Due to the specific nature of the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union, there was no room for compassion towards prisoners, and their survival was most often determined by down-to-earth factors. If the Soviets deliberately decided to save a person's life, the basic criterion was suitability for the implementation of the short- and long-term plans of the Soviet state.
Out of the total number of 395 people, nearly 90 were saved at the request of the German embassy, Lithuanian authorities and the intervention of other countries. This group included, for example, the aforementioned captain Józef Czapski, associated with the European aristocracy, captain Olgierd Ślizień, lieutenant Ryszard Stiller, Wacław Komarnicki or Bronisław Młynarski, son of the famous conductor Emil Młynarski.
Among the survivors there was a group of about 100 people who sympathized with the USSR or broke down during interrogations through which they started to cooperate with the Soviet services.
Zygmunt Berling saved his life because he cooperated with the NKVD.
Sometimes it was enough to have the knowledge the Soviets needed. Prof. Swianiewicz saved his life probably because he was an outstanding expert in the economy and economy of Nazi Germany. Thus, he became an excellent source of information for the Stalinist intelligence.
Regardless of individual causes, saving hundreds of Poles was of key importance to Polish history. It was them who could personally tell about what happened in Katyn, Kharkiv, Bykivnia and Miednoje. They also became the defenders of the memory of the murdered.