Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1943, The British Commonwealth, Eastern Europe, the Far East, Volume III

740.0011 European War 1939/29008: Telegram

The Minister in Switzerland (Harrison) to the Secretary of State

Bern, April 15, 1943.
[Received 11:15 a.m.]

2357. Berlin DAD³ release April 14 states:

Polish officers shot by GPU spring 1940 have been exhumed in Katyn Forest 20 kilometers west Smolensk.⁴ Identification papers found in officers’ uniforms will facilitate their identity. Three large common graves have already been opened, one contains bodies 4,000 assassinated officers, other 5,000–6,000 bodies. Tests have revealed existence at least two other common graves, but impossible estimate number bodies therein. Polish delegation has arrived and been convinced mass murder Polish officers perpetrated spring 1940.

Harrison

3. Presumably Dienst aus Deutschland, German News Service.
4. A “Select Committee to Conduct an Investigation of the Facts, Evidence and Circumstances of the Katyn Forest Massacre” was unanimously authorized under House Resolution 390, 82d Cong., 1st sess., on September 18, 1951. Hearings were held by the Committee between October 11, 1951, and November 14, 1952, in Washington, Chicago, London, and Frankfurt, Germany. The text of the hearings, with accompanying documents, entitled The Katyn Forest Massacre, was published in 7 parts (2362 pages) (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1952). In part 4 there is reproduced the complete text of the volume, Polish-Soviet Relations, 1918–1943, Official Documents.