U.S. KATYN REPORT WAS HELD SECRET

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00682R000300100023-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 11, 2001
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: March 15, 1952
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2001/08/09 : CIA-RDP91-00682R000300100023-6
NEW YORK TIMES
15 March 1952
WAS HELD SECRET
olonel's Accusation Against
R s fans, Just Declassified,
Is Read to Congress Unit
Special to Tam Naw Yoax 'tr MES.
CRI AGQ, March 15-Parts ofa
a United States Army colonel's,
report on the massacre of 14;bb0
'olish soldiers in TK;atyn Porest,
near' Smolensk, Russia that was
held secret until this week were,
read into the record ?of an
g ''t investi-
ion by a Congressional commit-
tee today.
the report placing the blame
fort kil1in s on the 'Russians,
wdy , by Col. Henry I. Szymanski,
i4ho d investigated the Katyn
atrocity on orders from the Penta-
gon
lis eport was classified "se-
or
ylll"ay, 3943, until this
w k, *hen the Army declassified
thg.,.eport and turned it over to
the, znrig
nel zymanski at the time
pt# tiny was liaison officer
y at the{
fs e United States Arm `
h " uarters of the oli"s Army I
the command of Gen.
Us aw Anders
11Z11 ns. of his report read today
that Colonel Szymanski
aorwarded his account of the
~ayn massacres "outside regular
army channels to Maj. Gen George
V. Strong, the intelligence chief.
In a covering letter the colonel
had written that . the report con-
tailnel "too much dynamite" to be
forwarded through normal chan
ne s.
'lze report compiled by Colonel
Sz manski was based, he said, on
Conversatioiis with "hundreds" of
Pokes who had knowledge of the
Katyn killings by the Russians
the officer concluded his testi-
Yltony and Identification. of his re-'.
port by declaring that there ex
isted his mindno shadow of
doubt tat the ~olisTi officers "slain
atdKatyn were sIaughtered by" the
!Russians in a planned, and calcu-
{l tedt act of, genocide whose intent
the liquidation of the Polish
1 .1 Army leadership, the 'eradication
of Polish intelligentsia and the re-
duction of Poland to impotency.
;A. ;former lied Army colonel told
the committee, how a drunken
gq viet secre lee officer boasted
of having pa ticipated in the mass
?e r dons ?during`World War II.
col Vail%rsliov, the 45-year-
ol witness, who fled the' 'Soviet
Vfiipn In190, explained that as
3 quartermaster of "a Soviet Army
I nillt he met_ a Captain Borisov in'
19 4 in the 1 alkima-Gorna district'
cif" Poland. `" Captain Borisov, the
Co or e1 said, boasted of the vast
tlsiitities oi~ vodka "consumed by
a `Katteyrn murder squads before
4-14" -Iayings.
Colo-
revelation came about,
d,when Catai
saipn
a~~e q a - r
:a.
Approved For Release 2001/08/09 : CIA-RDP91-00682R00D300100023-6