Katyn
 

Because of my new-found interest in Polish history, I bought the Polish film "Katyn" on DVD and just watched it this afternoon. It is very powerful and brutal, especially at the end where the film presents the massacre of some of the 22,000 Polish officers, professors and doctors and other members of the Polish intelligentsia. It's just relentless. The massacre was carried out at the order of Beria's NKVD, although the Soviets blamed the Nazis.

It also portrays the measures taken by the Soviets against Poles who refused to accept the idea that the massacre was committed by the Nazis.

The truth about the massacre was not revealed until 1990.

Thank you so much for posting this, it's of great interest in preparation for our visit to Poland this fall. Actually it would be of interest anyway and I see it has an Oscar nomination. We'll be watching it later this week.

For anyone interested, it is also available on Hulu.

limmy: (Did I get that name right?) I have been reading a book about Poland called "Heart of Europe: Poland's Past in its Present." It's quite long--almost 500 pages--but it's very informative and also fascinating. There are some sections that are a bit too "informative"--You could call those parts "dry," but in general, I'm really enjoying it.

After I returned from my trip in July, I also read Alan Furst's novel "The Polish Officer." It revealed something of Poland's spirit to me. I recommend it also.

Where are you going in Poland? I went to Gdansk, to Torun, and to Warsaw. Also to a little place called Ketrzyn, which was a steppingstone to Hitler's Wolf's Lair.

I pan on going back to Warsaw next year because I didn't see everything I wanted to see.

Thanks for the recommendation, sometimes I have trouble with a lot of brutal war films, but I put that on my Netflix list.

I suppose you saw that film Ida, about a girl in Poland hidden (in a Catholic orphanage) during WWII who thinks of becoming a nun? It won the Academy Award for foreign film and got very good reviews, although I'll admit it wasn't top notch for me. I think sometimes I need films with a little more action to pay attention or something. But lots of others liked it. http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cul...lm-masterpiece

I may go back to Poland next year, but I've only been to Krakow and Wroclaw, which I loved.

Peg,
How did you communicate in Poland?
English..German..Polish. ??

I have never been, but thinking about it

I communicated in English, except for once in Torun at the bus station. I asked if anyone spoke English and then if anyone spoke Deutsch. A man spoke German and was able to give me the information I needed.

I was expecting to use German more, but aside from that time and also tagging along on a German-speaking tour at the Wolf's Lair, that was it.

Oh, and once in Spanish, believe it or not. I was at the bus station in Gdansk and wasn't sure I was in the right place. There was kind a scruffy guy sitting on the next bench. I asked, "Do you speak English?" No. "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" "No." Just for the heck of it, I said, "Habla Ud.Español?" and he said, "Un poco." He said he'd studied it in school.

I really got a kick out of that.

Christina: Thanks for the info. There wasn't really a lot of blood and gore in the film, except that at the end where you get a picture of how they killed so many people.

There's violence but not gratuitous violence.

I found Poland very interesting, especially Warsaw, given my interest in WWII and the Cold War.

After reading about the film on your previous post, I found "Katyn" on youtube. I watched it over the weekend.

Thanks for the info ....
Spanish works for me!

I watched this movie before I went to Poland in 2013. I had never heard of this incident, so it was eye-opening to me.

danon, it's easy to get around tourist Poland in English. Any Polish you learn will be be appreciated though.

Christina, I felt the same way about Ida. I'd put Katyn at the same level (as cinema) perhaps a bit more gripping. But it's very interesting.

There was a tragic subsequent event: in 2010, a Polish Air Force plane carrying politicians and senior officials, crashed on approach to Smolensk. They were on their way to a ceremony marking the anniversary of the Katyn massacre.

All on board were killed, including the President of Poland.

Danon, like Leely and Peontheroad, I found I could communicate pretty much everywhere in English. (I'll confess, though, that I was travelling with my wife, who was born in Poland. She moved to Canada when she was seven, and continued to speak Polish at home, so she handled most of our interactions.)

Peg, knowing your interest in history, I might mention <i>God's Playground — A History of Poland</i> by Norman Davies. My historian brother-in-law passed it to me, saying it was excellent, but I haven't yet read it.

thanks AA , Leely

I took Russian for three months before this summer's trip to SP and
Moscow. It was not absolutely necessary but I was glad I did.
If I decided to go, I would try to learn a bit of Polish .

Peg, we watched Katyn last night, very powerful and eye opening for us. I did not know anything about this incident prior to this thread. We are going to Warsaw (2-3 nights and Krakow (4 nights) before moving on to Budapest.

We do plan on visiting more of Poland in the future during the mild weather months (I loved your Eastern Europe report and filed that away as a future trip as well). My husband is Polish on one side and we are from an area with a strong Polish community so there has always been a feeling of kinship. We are also interested in WW2 and the Cold War, particularly my husband. Thank you for the book suggestions, I'll check them out.

I really liked the movie Ida. It was slow and subtle but I happened to be in just the right mood for it when I watched it, otherwise it might have been difficult for me to really latch on to it.

Anselm - I knew about that plane crash but never knew about the Katyn connection and wow is that just so tragic.

Anselm: I've been thinking about getting "God's Playground..." Today I loaded a history of the Baltic nations on my kindle. I think I'll see if I can get "God's Playground" from Abebooks. I can usually get anything there for under $5, including shipping and postage.

One of the things I learned about the Poles is how important their literature, specifically their poetry, is to them. The poem on the monument to the workers outside the Solidarity museum really touched me.

"You who wronged a simple man..."

and then the last part

"Do not feel safe. The poet remembers.
You can slay him, but another is always born.
The words are written down, the deed, the date.
You could have done better with a winter's dawn,
And a rope, and a branch bent down beneath your weight."

The poem haunted me, and I had to find it again. I love poetry, so it is another linke with me and the Poles.

The truth about the massacre was known by Churchill and Roosevelt in 1943 and proven by U.S. Govt investigations by 1953. The USSR did not admit fault till 1990.

I read a book in the 70s called "Katyn: A Crime Unparalleled" although it is no longer in print.

Peg, Abebooks would be perfect for picking up a copy. I have always been able to find older publications through them. (By the way, my copy is in two volumes, so that might up the shipping costs a bit.)

That is indeed heartfelt poetry.