Official Blog of the Author

Interview with Polish Television

I provided one of two assessments last Monday (Sept 10) at a Capitol Hill event where newly declassified documents on the Katyn Forest Massacre were made public for the first time.  Hosted by Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio at the National Visitor Center, the event attracted a standing room only crowd and worldwide media coverage as the U.S. National Archives placed more than 2,000 pages of Katyn-related documents online for the first time.  The documents can be found at…

www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/katyn-massacre/

Rep. Kaptur, who has a large Polish constituency, had pushed for more than a year to get the documents released.  Part of the search centered on a list of documents I prepared in March, 2010 at the request of the Helsinki Commission, the human rights arm of Congress.  Mark Kramer, head of Harvard’s Cold War Studies Center, focused in the other assessment on papers released by the presidential libraries.

My main conclusion was that the documents show U.S. leaders at the highest level knew that the Russians had murdered thousands of Polish officers in Katyn Forest near Smolensk long before World War II ended.  The new information provides dramatic evidence that they heard from an unimpeachable source-a U.S. Army colonel communicating, incredibly, in code from a German POW camp in late 1943.

That same May 1943 the Germans had forced Lt. Col. John Van Vliet, a West Pointer known for his integrity, to witness the Poles’ bodies being exhumed from mass graves.  They had been murdered in the spring of 1940 following the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland the previous September. Van Vliet arrived at Katyn convinced that he was a prop for German allegations which had become a worldwide press sensation.  Much to his surprise, he was given free access to the graves where many bodies remained in a mummified mass.  It was obvious to him that a major Russian claim – that the Germans had used the Poles in road construction before shooting them – was false because the Poles’ uniforms and boots were in near perfect condition.  Van Vliet returned to his POW camp near Rotenberg convinced that the Russians had murdered the Poles.

A newly declassified file note written by the head of Army Intelligence, Gen. Clayton Bissell, confirms that a few months after Van Vliet’s visit to Katyn he exchanged coded messages with the War Department about what he saw.  The messages were routed through the Swiss Protecting Power which served as a wartime conduit between belligerents, including the U.S. and Nazi Germany.  How the messages were coded to get past German censors remains a mystery, but the National Archives is still seeking an answer to that question.

Bissell is a controversial figure who got a much-deserved chewing out from Congress for the way he handled sensitive Katyn information-in particular the report Van Vliet gave the War Department once he was freed and came home.   Bissell stamped that report top secret and told the colonel not to reveal a word of it without written approval from the War Department.  What happened to Van Vliet’s report became the subject of great controversy when Congress investigated the Katyn crime in 1951-52.  Bissell said he sent the original to the State Department, but it was never found.  It has not turned up in a batch of documents the National Archives just put online.  The possibility that the report was destroyed cannot be dismissed.

Members of Congress were irate that Bissell wildly exceeded his authority.  His said he suppressed the report to avoid embarrassing the Soviets at a time when we were urging them to enter the war against Japan and to sign the U.N. Charter in San Francisco.  As lawmakers pointed out, Bissell had veered into de facto policymaking, the province of the State Department and the Office of the President.

Prime Minister Churchill sent President Roosevelt an explosive report on Aug. 13, 1943 that pointed to Russian responsibility for the murders.  The American people were kept in the dark about that (and other Katyn reports) in order to maintain good relations with Stalin.  That decision could be justified on military and political grounds in 1943 when Russia was bearing the brunt of the war and the Normandy invasion was still nearly a year away.  But suppressing the truth after the war ended was much harder to justify.  As late as mid-1953, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was suppressing Katyn information.  By then a highly popular proposal had emerged in Congress to conduct a Katyn trial before the Court of International Justice at The Hague.  At Dulles’ behest the House Foreign Affairs Committee torpedoed that recommendation.  His grounds?  He claimed the Russians would help end the Korean War which proved to be a fantasy.

The U.S. government should clear the air on our executive branch cover-up by intensifying its search for Katyn-related documents and by urging others – most notably the Russians and the British – to do the same.  It should also issue an apology or statement of profound regret to the Poles who suffered grievously under Stalin.  Our cover-up delayed by years American understanding of the true nature of Stalinism-to 1949, in point of fact, when the Soviets exploded their bomb.  A full two years earlier an iron fist had clamped shut on Poland’s long-suffering people when Stalinist stooges stole the “free and unfettered elections” promised at Yalta.  The Poles had known long before the war ended what Stalin’s true intentions were.  The West’s refusal to hear them out on the Katyn issue was a crushing blow that made their fate worse.

My assessment of the newly declassified Katyn documents was widely covered by international media outlets.  This link to the story carried by the BBC is a good example:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19552745

Moscow papers gave surprising prominence to the story, including my assessment at Monday’s Capitol Hill event.  It is noteworthy that books are still being published in Russia that blame the massacre on the Germans.  Congressional staff reported that 350 prominent media outlets around the globe gave coverage.

I’m happy to report that I completed my first novel, THE AMBER EYE, this spring.  Since then I’ve been working with one of the top editors in New York to put it in final form.

The book is based on an incident that actually occurred in 1944—a daring raid carried out by the Polish underground to capture evidence that could prove to the world who Stalin really was.  At the time a Forgotten War was being waged in Poland which left its people out of sight and out of mind in the West as the Soviet dictator closed his grip on the country.  Westerners still thought of him as a great friend and ally; and the underground hoped to use the evidence to convict Stalin in the world court of opinion.

I made several trips to Poland while researching the book.   During my year there as a Fulbright Fellow (2010-11), I finished the research phase and began writing the novel.  It will be published in several countries next fall.

Currently I’m working on a fictional book for children entitled HONEY THE DIXIE DINGO DOG.  It’s inspired by our own Dixie Dingo, Honey.  The book is loosely based on the incredible work of Jane Gunnell of Aiken, SC, who has saved these dogs from extinction.  Among other things she won recognition for them from the United Kennel Club as an official breed and now breeds them herself.  (See www.carolinadogs.com)

I’ve posted on my website a short story I wrote entitled “Halloween in Poland.”

It deals with the threat mass media and culture poses to tradition and traditional values.  I got the idea for the story when several Polish teenagers knocked on my door in Warsaw on All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1).  They were trick-or-treating on the wrong day.  When I pointed this out, they said it didn’t really matter.

Until recently Halloween was virtually unknown in Poland.  As young Poles learn about it, more and more go out trick-or-treating.  As the short story points out, soon it may begin to compete with All Saints’ Day, a time when almost all Poles visit cemeteries to light candles on the graves of their ancestors.  All Saints’ Day is a great tradition Poles have observed for many centuries.  It is as spiritual in nature as Halloween is commercial.  This clash in values could threaten one of the hallmarks of what it means to be a Pole.

I hope you’ll take time to read the story and add any comments you might care to make to this post.  I want to consider reader reactions as I finalize the story and then submit it for publication.

Just before we left Poland, Betsy and I bid our friends goodbye at a party at Café Biba, a quaint tearoom with an Old Warsaw atmosphere.  It was a wonderful but sad occasion.  Among those who attended were the editor-in-chief and the publisher of Swiat Ksiazki (World Books) which is my publisher in Poland, literary critics, a well-known Warsaw artist, faculty members from the University of Warsaw and friends from the Fulbright Program.  Much to our surprise we received a number of going away gifts including flowers, wine, music cd’s and splendid photo montage.  The latter was a gift from Heike Rosener and Ken Tyler.  Heike served as CEO of Swiat Ksiazki and led the promotional effort that turned my book Katyn into a bestseller twice.  We often had breakfast on Sunday mornings with Heike, Ken and their beautiful two-year-old daughter, Raffaela.  In time we came to feel like Raffaela’s surrogate grandparents.  Two of our dearest friends in Poland – Agnieszka Gorska and Piotr Ostaszewski – also were present.  Almost every Wednesday night the four of us had dinner at Agnieszka’s apartment.  Agnieszka and her daughter, Laura, and Piotr and his son, Jas, plan to visit us next summer.  A small world coincidence: Piotr’s sister, Monika, lives on the same street in Arlington, VA as our daughter, Jennifer.  They are members of the same book club.  (See photos in gallery section: “Year in Poland Highlights”)      

A wonderful, productive year in Poland just ended, all too fast, for Betsy, Honey (our Carolina Dingo) and me.  After spending a year there on a Fulbright Research Fellowship, I can truly say that Poland has become a second home.  We have developed a deep affection for its people, for the remarkable landscape and the culture of Poland.  Honey even enjoyed rolling in the snow.  (Note: the photo above was taken after a talk I gave at a middle school in Warsaw.)

I’ve been going to Poland since 1989 and feel privileged to have witnessed the country’s remarkable transformation—from an underperforming communist backwater to one of the most dynamic economies in all of Europe.  It hardly seems possible that in 2011 a Pole, Jerzy Buzek, is leading the European Union, or that Poland would play a leading role in structuring the bail-out package to Greece.  But it’s not surprising at all when one considers how hard-working the Poles are and how skillfully they’ve managed their economy since the Wall came down.

My work in Poland went very well.  I spent the year doing research on two books—one on the Solidarity trade union movement and another on a novel which I expect to finish next month.  The novel is set in 1944-45 and is based on a true story: how the Polish underground sought to seize evidence of the Katyn Massacre from the Germans in Krakow.  The mission goal involved an ambitious plan to conduct a grand tribunal to shock the West about Stalin’s murderous system and his true ambitions for Poland.  At the time Stalin was still being glorified in western media, and the Poles’ opportunity to regain their independence was slowly slipping away.

The novel will be published next year.  I will promote the book in Poland and other European countries in the fall of 2012.  I also expect to promote it extensively here in the U.S.  Once that is done I’ll start work on my next book which will tell the story of Solidarity’s foot soldiers who were at the forefront of the largest mass social movement of the Twentieth Century.  Solidarity’s primal role in bringing down the Berlin Wall is often overlooked in the West.

(See photos in gallery section: “Year in Poland Highlights”)

A Latvian edition of my book, Katyń, was launched in Riga last Thursday (April 7) before national media and an overflow audience at the Museum of the Occupation.  The kick-off was hosted by the Polish Embassy in Latvia and by my publisher Zvaigzne ABC.   Zvaigzne, which means Star in Latvian, it is the country’s largest book publisher.

(NOTE: See photos in my website’s gallery section under “Latvian Launch.”  A video clip of the event is being posted as well.)

Though it was much smaller and is often overlooked, Latvia had its own Katyń.  In 1941, 1100 Latvian army officers were arrested by the Soviets under the pretense of a training exercise.  Two hundred were shot and 560 were deported to Siberia.  Only 90 survived the war.  Stalin ordered the mass deportation of Latvians in 1941 and 1949.  Tensions on these issues linger still: a Russian language newspaper in Latvia wrote that the launch was “sponsored by Russophobes.”  In fact, my book is quite sympathetic to the Russian people and points out that they suffered most of all under Stalin.

The book launch took place one year to the day after the historic meeting in Katyn Forest between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.  I was the only American in the official delegation that accompanied Tusk.  I was invited to go back three days later on the presidential plane that crashed in early morning fog at Smolensk.  I declined the invitation because of responsibilities I had in organizing a 70^th anniversary observance of the Katyn Massacre on May 5 at the Library of Congress.

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Research on a novel I expect to finish later this year has taken me to the origins of the Amber Trail on the Baltic Coast of Poland near Gdansk.

Man has searched for amber since prehistoric times and the road to the greatest source began in Pruszcz where small amber caravans from Rome came each year in mid-summer.  The journey was perilous because once traders passed Carnuntum, a fortified Roman army camp on the Danube, they entered Barbaricum and the domain of fierce tribes who demanded tribute.  Traders traveled in groups of about ten using horse or ox carts.  There were no roads, but the last leg of the journey – from north of Krakow to the coast – followed the Vistula River by boat.  The overall journey was more than 2000 miles and took about six months.

To commemorate the trail and its history, a first century AD fort and settlement called Faktoria are being built in Pruszcz.  I visited the site and met the archaeologist in charge of the project.  Agnieszka Ruta is an expert in documenting settlement remains, particularly in urban areas.  It was exciting to see how her vision has taken shape on the ground: from the massive watchtower at the entrance to her sprawling fort, to the sharpened longs that form its palisades.  Huts inside replicate where amber-makers and blacksmiths would have worked and lived.  Tasks performed by blacksmiths were crucial to survival, according to Ruta; they made weapons for defense and the tools needed plant and grow crops. Read more

Grand Salon of Palace on Water

On Friday, Nov. 26 I received the Honorary Diploma of the Polish Foreign Ministry at the Palace on Water, one Warsaw’s loveliest landmarks.  The award is given annually for “outstanding promotion of Poland in the world.”  I was the only American among this year’s 11 recipients.

The diplomas were presented by Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski at a ceremony attended by U.S. Ambassador Lee Feinstein and many other dignitaries from Warsaw’s establishment.  I was cited for my book Katyn and for my role in helping organize a 70^th anniversary observance of the Katyn Forest Massacre at the Library of Congress this spring.

The Foreign Ministry hosted awardees at an informal dinner Thursday evening at Tamka, a modernistic restauracja that adjoins another Warsaw landmark, the Chopin Museum.  I sat at dinner across the table from Natalia Paszkowska and Marcin Mostafa, architects who received the award for their design of the acclaimed Polish Pavilion at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai.  It was voted one of the top two designs among more than 100 at the EXPO.  Its exterior resembled a folded sheet of paper and its inside design had a motif of traditional folk cut-outs.  In just four years the young husband-wife team has built one of the top architectural firms in Poland.

Others receiving this year’s award include: Jan Madey, who has coached two world championship Polish youth teams in mathematics; Henryk Skarźyński, a world famous specialist in hearing and speech disorders; and Jo Song Mu, the only Polish language teacher in North Korea.  More information about this year’s recipients is available at:

http://www.msz.gov.pl/Diplomas,of,the,Polish,Foreign,Minister,13676.html

The neoclassical Palace on Water was built in 1689 and remodeled nearly a century later by Poland’s last king, Stanislaw August Poniatowski, a great patron of the arts who made it his summer residence.  It appears to rise from the waters of a large lake in the Łasienki (Royal Baths) Park, the largest park in Warsaw. Łasienki is flanked by the Royal Route which extends just west of the Vistula River near the offices of the president and prime minister.  When the Wehrmacht left Warsaw near the end of World War II, it tried to blow up the palace but failed.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about the Fulbright Program has been getting to know other fellowship recipients.  The Fulbrighters here in Warsaw and two from Łodz (there are about thirty awardees at major Polish universities this year) met for an American-style Thanksgiving on Friday to savor a sumptuous turkey cooked by one of Warsaw’s leading restaurants, Gessler’s.  It came with all the trimmings: dressing, cranberry sauce and veggies.  A chef even came to carve, all for a reasonable price.  Though turkey is just catching on here as a popular dish, Gessler’s supplied a superb bird – cooked to perfection!

Dinner at apartment of Stuart and Nina Loory

We gathered in the spacious apartment of Stuart and Nina Loory in the center of Warsaw.  Stuart is a “Distinguished Fulbright Lecturer” at Warsaw University.  He and Nina have had fascinating careers.  Ted Turner sent him to Moscow to open CNN’s first Bureau there.  Most recently he has taught journalism at the University of Missouri.  Nina danced with the Bolshoi Ballet for twenty years.  The couple met during the Goodwill Games when Stuart rented the Czar’s box for an event hosted by Turner and the actress Jane Fonda.  Betsy and I are looking forward to meeting Nina’s mother, Tanya, who will arrive on Friday from Moscow.  She is one of the top English-to-Russian translators there.  She has translated any number of famous authors (e.g. John Updike, Agatha Cristie) into Russian.

Fulbrighters who came for Thanksgiving included aspiring novelist, a political theorist, an experimental psychologist and others specializing in political science and

English teaching.  Among the guests were my good friend Vanessa Gera who is chief of the AP Bureau here.