"POLAND BETRAYED: The Nazi-Soviet Invasions of 1939 (Campaign Chronicles)" by D. G. Williamson

"From the Publisher: Hitler's attack on Poland in 1939 was the first brutal act in six years of world war, but the campaign is often overshadowed by the momentous struggle that followed across the rest of Europe. David Williamson, in this timely and thought-provoking study, reconstructs each stage of the battle in graphic detail. He looks at the precarious situation of the Polish nation caught between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, reconsiders the pre-war policies of the other European powers, particularly France and Britain, and assesses the state of the opposing armed forces before the Germans launched Operation White. In a vivid and fast-moving narrative he follows the course of the campaign as it moved across Poland in September 1939. His book should encourage a fresh understanding of the Polish-German war and of its significance for the wider conflagration that followed. Critical episodes in the German offensive are re-examined: the mock attack at Gleiwitz, the battles at Westerplatte and Bzura, the siege of Warsaw and the impact of the intervention of the Red Army.

"I Saw Poland Betrayed: An American ambassador reports to the American people" by Arthur Bliss Lane, United States Ambassador to Poland, 1944-1947

"This book is much more than an account for the disgraceful sellout of Poland to the Soviet Union by the west and the brutal imposition of a Soviet puppet state. It is nothing less than a one-volume history of Poland from 1944-1947. It provides so much detail in just one book, and includes such things as pictures of then-General Eisenhower's visit to Poland. Lane devotes some detail to the double-dealing of Roosevelt behind the Poles' backs. The sellout of Poland included President Roosevelt openly lying to Polish-American leader Charles Rozmarek, even using a prewar map of Poland as part of the deception (p. 96). Throughout his travels across Poland, Lane was keenly aware of the terror created by the Communist secret police (U. B., or UB). He was well aware of the fact that free elections were unimaginable under such circumstances, long before the farcical elections of January 17, 1947 that officially brought the Communists to power. Soon thereafter, Lane could not take it any more. He resigned his position as ambassador in order that he could freely speak to Americans about the crime of betrayal that had been done to Poland.

"Hollywood's War with Poland, 1939-1945" by M.B.B. Biskupski

From the Publisher: "During World War II, Hollywood studios supported the war effort by making patriotic movies designed to raise the nation's morale. They often portrayed the combatants in very simple terms: Americans and their allies were heroes, and everyone else was a villain. Norway, France, Czechoslovakia, and England were all good because they had been invaded or victimized by Nazi Germany. Poland, however, was represented in a negative light in numerous movies. In Hollywood's War with Poland, 1939-1945, M. B. B. Biskupski draws on a close study of prewar and wartime films such as To Be or Not to Be (1942), In Our Time (1944), and None Shall Escape (1944). He researched memoirs, letters, diaries, and memoranda written by screenwriters, directors, studio heads, and actors to explore the negative portrayal of Poland during World War II. Biskupski also examines the political climate that influenced Hollywood films". Features: The Polish Presence in American Cinema before 1939; Poland in the Second World War; Radical Hollywood and Poland; The Roosevelt Administration and Film during the War; Hollywood's Version of the War: The Polish Films; Poland: Fleeting, Ambiguous, or Omitted; Hollywood and the American Poles during the War; Why Hollywood Was at War with the Poles. More about the "Hollywood's War with Poland here ... Buy this book from Barnes & Noble

"When God Looked the Other Way: An Odyssey of War, Exile, and Redemption" by Wesley Adamczyk

Often overlooked in accounts of World War II is the Soviet Union's quiet yet brutal campaign against Polish citizens, a campaign that included, we now know, war crimes for which the Soviet and Russian governments only recently admitted culpability. Standing in the shadow of the Holocaust, this episode of European history is often overlooked. Wesley Adamczyk's gripping memoir, When God Looked the Other Way, now gives voice to the hundreds of thousands of victims of Soviet barbarism. - "I have read many descriptions of the Siberian odyssey and of other forgotten wartime episodes. But none of them is more informative, more moving, or more beautifully written than When God Looked the Other Way.” - From the Foreword by Norman Davies, author of Europe: A History and Rising ’44: The Battle for Warsaw

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"KATYN Stalin’s Massacre and the Triumph of Truth" by Allen Paul

“Allen Paul has thoroughly researched the murders, but more important, he has laid bare the massive coverup of the murders and of the Soviet guilt—a coverup that appears to have involved Roosevelt and Churchill, as well as Stalin.” - The Boston Globe.

Twenty years ago, Allen Paul wrote the first post-communist account of one of the greatest but least-known tragedies of the 20th century: Stalin’s annihilation of Poland’s officer corps and massive deportation of so-called “bourgeoisie elements” to Siberia. Today, these brutal events are symbolized by one word, Katyn - a crime that still bitterly divides Poles and Russians. Paul’s richly updated account covers Russian attempts to recant their admission of guilt for the murders in Katyn´ Forest and includes recently translated documents from Russian military archives, eyewitness accounts of two perpetrators, and secret official minutes published here for the first time that confirm U.S. government cover-up of the crime continued long after the war ended.

"Class Cleansing, The Massacre at Katyn" by Victor Zaslavsky

From the Publisher: "Revisiting the events of the 1940 Katyn Massacre, in which some 25,000 Polish prisoners of war were shot by the Soviet secret police on Stalin's orders, Victor Zaslavsky explores a paradigmatic and terrifying example of the policy of class cleansing practiced in the Soviet Union and its occupied territories during World War II. By blaming the Katyn Massacre on the Nazis, the Soviets constructed one of the greatest historiographical falsifications of the twentieth century. Based on secret documents of the Soviet regime that became available only after its collapse, Zaslavsky unearths the methods used to create and maintain the Soviet 'official version' of what happened at Katyn, a process involving the complicity of Western governments and left-leaning historians, which resulted in the upholding of this falsification until the fall of the Soviet Union." About the author: Victor Zaslavsky was born in Leningrad in 1937 and forced to emigrate from the Soviet Union in 1974. He has taught at the University of Leningrad, Memorial University of St John's, Canada, University of California, Berkeley, Stanford Univeristy and Universities of Venice, Rome, Naples and Florence. His work has earned him the 2008 Hannah Arendt Award for Political Thought, and he has been a member of the editorial Board of Telos for more than thirty years. Order this book from Amazon

The narrative that ultimately did emerge – largely based on initial survivor accounts – acquired the status of sacred canon. To the general public, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is the story of Mordechai Anielewicz and his band of Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa [ZOB], Jewish Combat Organization, fighters resisting the Germans." Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Fraternal Enemies, Chapter 2: The Founding of the ZZW, Chapter 3: In the Ghetto, Chapter 4: The “Transfer” – Summer of 1942, Chapter 5: After the Massacre, Chapter 6: The Resistance of January 1943, Chapter 7: Last Preparations, Chapter 8: The Uprising, Chapter 9: Agendas and Obfuscations, Appendix 1: Documents Concerning Iwanski, Appendix 2: Documents Concerning, Tadeusz Bednarczyk Order this book from Barnes & Noble

"Forgotten Survivors: Polish Christians Remember the Nazi Occupation" Edited by Richard C. Lukas

From the Publisher: "Wanda Lorenc watched horrified as the first Wehrmacht soldiers stormed into Warsaw. Jan Porembski witnessed the mass executions of Polish civilians. Barbara Makuch became a courier for the Polish underground until she was caught and tortured. Jan Komski was thrown into the very first transport to Auschwitz and observed its rapid expansion firsthand. But, unlike the nearly three million other Polish Christians (and three million Polish Jews) who died during World War II, they survived.
Richard Lukas presents the compelling eyewitness accounts of these and other Polish Christians who suffered at the hands of the Germans. They bear witness to unspeakable horrors endured by those who were tortured, forced into slavery, shipped off to concentration camps, and even subjected to medical experiments. Their stories provide a somber reminder that non-Jewish Poles were just as likely as Jews to suffer at the hands of the Nazis, who viewed them with nearly equal contempt." Order this book from Barnes & Noble

"Stalin, the Russians, and Their War 1941-1945" by Marius Broekmeyer

“The death factory at Majdanek, [concentration camp] near Lublin, left a terrible impression in Poland” says I. M. Tsidilkovski. “when we entered Majdanek, the air was still permeated with nauseating smell of burning. Simonov, who wrote the first article on Majdanek, says that the scene “wiped out everything that was in my memory before”. He describes the camp, the ovens, the piles of little children’s shoes, the administration lying spread over the ground, sees that there, in May 1943, Jakob Borghard, born in Rotterdam on 10 November 1918, was killed. The Russians forced thousands of German soldiers to see the camp and its horrors. “I can remember, “ noted Rybakov, “how we liberated German concentration camps in Poland. Cheering triumphantly, the prisoners from other countries set off free, for their Fatherland. And how the people from SMERSH registered our prisoners of war, emaciated, tortured, gloomy prisoners, interrogated them, drove them into trucks and sent them off to fresh investigations and interrogations; after all, according to Stalin, they were traitors. Finally, our NKVD boys had some real work.”

"The Whispers - Private Life In Stalin's Russia" by Orlando Figes

From the Publisher: "How could human feelings and emotions retain any force in the moral vacuum of the Stalinist regime?" That's the question with which Orlando Figes begins The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia. The answer is revealed in spellbinding, often harrowing tales of endurance, love, idealism, betrayal, and grief. Eschewing published memoirs in favor of personal testimony, the author of A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924 draws from countless letters, journals, documents, and interviews with ordinary Russians to capture life under the evolving Soviet regime from the period just after the revolution through the tumult of the "Five Year Plan," the living nightmare of the Great Terror, the Second World War, and the cycles of reform and repression which characterized Soviet life in the postwar period.
These stories don't merely record the horror of purges, denunciations, and mass arrests; Figes also portrays the idealistic fervor of the revolutionary generation, and the tragic beauty of simple family life under the shadow of an implacable power. His painstaking and inclusive method yields a majestic -- at times overwhelming -- profusion of narrative truth." Order this book from Barnes & Noble

"Stalin and His Hangmen" by Donald Rayfield

From the Publisher: "Stalin did not act alone. The mass executions, the mock trials, the betrayals and purges, the jailings and secret torture that ravaged the Soviet Union during the three decades of Stalin’s dictatorship, were the result of a tight network of trusted henchmen (and women), spies, psychopaths, and thugs. At the top of this pyramid of terror sat five indispensable hangmen who presided over the various incarnations of Stalin’s secret police. Now, in his harrowing new book, Donald Rayfield probes the lives, the minds, the twisted careers, and the unpunished crimes of Stalin’s loyal assassins." Order this book from Barnes & Noble

"The Soviet Story" Produced by Edvins Snore

From the Publisher: The 1st edition DVD release of the award-winning documentary by director Edvins Snore which tells the story of the Soviet regime and how the Soviet Union helped Nazi Germany instigate the Holocaust. Other subjects covered by the film include: - The Great Famine in Ukraine (1932/33) - The Katyn massacre (1940) - The SS-KGB partnership - French Communists and the Nazis - Soviet mass deportations - Medical experiments in the GULAG. The Soviet Story was filmed over 2 years in Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Germany, France, UK and Belgium. The film includes recently uncovered archive documents as well as interviews with former Soviet Military intelligence officials. As a result, The Soviet Story presents a truly unique insight into recent Soviet history, told by people, once Soviet citizens, who have first-hand knowledge of it.

"The Chief Culprit - Stalin's Grand Design to Start World War II" by Viktor Suvorov

Viktor Suvorov reveals how Stalin conspired with German leaders to bypass the Versailles Treaty, which forbade German rearmament. Secretly, the Soviet Union trained German engineers and officers as well as provided bases and factories for war. In 1939, the nonaggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany allowed Hitler to proceed with his plans to invade Poland, fomenting war in Europe. Stalin emerges as a diabolical genius consumed by visions of a worldwide Communist revolution at any cost, the leader who wooed Hitler and Germany in his own effort to conquer the world. The author debunks the myth that the Soviet Union was a victim of Germany's aggression. Instead, he insists that Stalin neither feared Hitler nor mistakenly trusted him. Suvorov argues that after Germany occupied Poland, defeated France, and started to prepare for an invasion of Great Britain, Hitler's intelligence services detected the Soviet Union's preparations for a major war against Germany. In 1940, Germany drafted a preemptive war plan, which it launched in June 1941, the invasion of the USSR. Buy this book from Amazon.com

"Bloodlands, Europe Between Hitler & Stalin" by Timothy Snyder

From the Publisher: "Americans call the Second World War 'The Good War.' But before it even began, America’s wartime ally Josef Stalin had killed millions of his own citizens - and kept killing them during and after the war. Before Hitler was finally defeated, he had murdered six million Jews and nearly as many other Europeans. At war’s end, both the German and the Soviet killing sites fell behind the iron curtain, leaving the history of mass killing in darkness.

Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred: between Germany and Russia, when Hitler and Stalin both held power. Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlands will be required reading for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history." Order this book from Barnes & Noble

"New Lies For Old" by Anatoliy Golitsyn

VERY RARELY disclosures of information from behind the Iron Curtain throw new light on the roots of communist thought and action and challenge accepted notions on the operation of the communist system. We believe that this book does both these things. It is nothing if not controversial. It rejects conventional views on subjects ranging from Khrushchev's overthrow to Tito's revisionism, from Dubcek's liberalism to Ceausescu's independence, and from the dissident movement to the Sino-Soviet split. The author's analysis has many obvious implications for Western policy. It will not be readily accepted by those who have for long been committed to opposing points of view. But we believe that the debates it is likely to provoke will lead to a deeper understanding of the nature of the threat from international communism and, perhaps, to a firmer determination to resist it.

The author's services to the party and the KGB and the unusually long periods he spent in study, mainly in the KGB but also with the University of Marxism-Leninism and the Diplomatic School, make the author uniquely well qualified as a citizen of the West to write about the subjects covered in this book.

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"An Abiding Legacy" by Chris Piechowski

From the Publisher: "An Abiding Legacy" is the eagerly anticipated sequel to Chris Piechowski’s gripping and emotionally charged novel "Poles Apart: From Darkness, Fire and Chains" (978-1780030272). Set amidst the chaos and turmoil of the Second World War, "An Abiding Legacy" charts the incredible and courageous exploits of an elite covert group known simply as the Silent and Unseen, who had been charged by Winston Churchill to ‘set Europe ablaze’.

As a former senior policeman, Piechowski uses his well-honed investigative and interview skills to write with incredible insight, transporting the tension and peril of the War onto every page. This authentic and thoroughly researched novel chronicles a perilous, action-packed journey that is sure to appeal to fans of Lee Child, Andy McNab, and those who enjoyed Poles Apart.  

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"The Engineer" by Jan Kusmirek

From the Publisher: "This is a powerful and compelling thriller, the story of a young boy of Polish descent, born in Canada who is unable to escape the burden of history. Teddy Labden finds that try as he might he cannot escape his immigrant past and the mystery of his father's record in Eastern Europe. Whilst England draws him ever closer to her bosom Teddy meets a darker side of life full of connections and coincidences that lead him into the dangers of the Secret Service. When the fog of war interrupts his playboy existence Teddy begins to see that like a cog in a machine he can be used or he can become the engineer of events. Through a variety of affairs he looks for the love and affection that is missing in his life. But can he find it? His Polish upbringing forces him to take unexpected sides with consequences that put his life in danger from the Russian agents embedded in MI6. He becomes involved in the fringes of the political assassination of the Polish Prime Minister, but who gave the orders? Teddy is helped by a variety of friends to survive in a world of intrigue hidden from ordinary men and women. "The Engineer" is the first part of his trilogy which concerns events and personalities that moulded the lives of the ordinary people in Europe who sought no more than a better life through revolution and change in the twentieth century." (364 pages, ISBN 9781907084010), published by Derwen. Order this book from Amazon

"Stolen Lives" by Jan Kusmirek

From the Publisher: "This is a gripping story of espionage, love and conflict in Eastern Europe in the years immediately following World War II. Poland had been betrayed by the Allies and in the ensuing Civil War, unreported in the West, its pleas for help went unheeded. Forests echoed with sounds of gunfire as Partisans of many nationalities fought against the Red tide, dying for the freedom America promoted but failed to assist. In the chaos created by the Red invasion of Eastern Europe millions became refugees and others were displaced by Stalin's ethnic cleansing and replaced in their homelands by ethnic Russians. The British and Americans hid behind the Iron Curtain they blamed on Stalin but which they themselves had created. Teddy Labden, now a freelance agent working with British, American and the Free exiled Polish secret services, works to uncover who has fed the Soviets the military intelligence that has allowed the Iron Curtain to descend. The forests become silent and pro-Western Partisans, men and women, are eliminated. Teddy vows to seek revenge and, with the help of the mysterious Witek, assists in the assassination of Stalin. Like so many others, Teddy loses his wealth, his love, his country and his sanity. The politicians have no love for Teddy or ordinary people as they continue to steal people's lives in the name of a meaningless freedom, in order to maintain a political elite without honour. This is the second novel in the trilogy "Chronicles of Love & Honour" and continues the story of 'THE ENGINEER'." (362 pages, ISBN 9781907084041), published by Derwen. Order this book from Amazon

"A Man Without a Breath" by Philip Kerr

From the Publisher: Berlin, March, 1943. A month has passed since the stunning defeat at Stalingrad [...] Now word has reached Berlin of a Red massacre of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk [, Russia ...] For once, both the Wehrmacht and Propaganda Minister Goebbels want the same thing: irrefutable evidence of this Russian atrocity [...] Both parties agree that the ensuing investigation must be overseen by a professional trained in sifting evidence and interrogating witnesses [...] And so Bernie Gunther is dispatched to Smolensk, where truth is as much a victim of war as those poor dead Polish officers. Smolensk, March, 1943. Army Group Center is an enclave of Prussian aristocrats who have owned the Wehrmacht almost as long as they’ve owned their baronial estates [...] The wisecracking, rough-edged Gunther is not a good fit [...] But he has a far bigger concern than sharp elbows and supercilious stares, for somewhere in this mix is a cunning and savage killer who has left a trail of bloody victims....Order this book from Amazon

"Woytek the Soldier Bear" by Garry Paulin

This is a story about a remarkable bear who displayed almost human characteristics....and yet it is a story about so much more. It is a story that gives a glimpse into Poland's history during very dark times. Readers will gain a fascinating insight into the people's courage and bravery during these times of great upheaval. Sadly, these times in Poland's history have been largely forgotten or ignored whilst the country was under Communist rule. Voytek`s story will take you through the Second World War from 1942 and on to 1963. From the mountains in Persia (Iran) where Voytek was born....To the middle east and his adventures!........To the Battle for Monte Cassino (Italy), regarded as one of the hardest fought battles of WWII.....and finally to Scotland, Voytek`s new home. Read the "Daily Mail" article about Wojtek the Soldier Bear here ... More photos and articles about "Woytek" can be found at:

"Wojtek The Soldier Bear" - In The Ranks Of Victors, "The Soldier Bear", "Smarter than the average bear"

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"Russian Historical Propaganda in 2004-2009" by Aleksander Marek Szczyglo (b. October 27, 1963 – d. April 10, 2010 in Smolensk, Russia)

The origins of modern Russian historical propaganda can be traced back to the period of deep political and economic crisis during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin. Principal aim of historical propaganda initiated by his successor is to base self-identity of the citizens of Russian Federation on superpower idea and to create convenient political climate in Kremlin’s relations with the former communist bloc countries. Disinformation plays key role in historical propaganda – similarly to every other type of propaganda. The following techniques are applied: intoxication (denying, reversing facts); manipulation (true thesis used in such a way that leads to false conclusions); modification of motives or circumstances (describing motive or reason for particular action in a way that they become advantageous only to one party); and interpretation (particular selection of words that evoke positive or negative association among the recipients). Russian historical propaganda embraces broad spectrum of disinformation techniques. In practice, it is accomplished by thematic campaigns with participation of the Russian (as well as selected – western) mass media, including the Internet. Download "Russian Historical Propaganda" Here

"Russian Image Management. Making Unpleasant Historical Truths About Poland Disappear: The KGB’s latest intelligence coup, and NATO’s latest intelligence disaster" by Eugene Poteat, LL.D, President, Association of Former Intelligence Officers.

"Into this sordid history comes the recent misbegotten idea by the Polish people to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 1940 slaughter of 22,000 Polish officers and others in the Katyn Forest (near Smolensk, Russia) carried out by the Soviet secret police: an event long denied by the USSR, and continued by modern propagandistic, Putin-inspired Russian “historians.” The slaughter came under orders from Lavrentiy Beria, head of the NKVD, and endorsed by Stalin and the Politburo. Beria was Vladamir Putin’s KGB predecessor. The Katyn forest victims included 8,000 military officers, the rest being doctors, professors, lawmakers, police officers, public servants, landowners, factory owners, lawyers, priests, and anyone considered Poland’s “intelligentsia.” [...] The trip to Smolensk [by Polish President Lech Kaczynski, and other dignitaries] was expected to highlight Russia finally admitting culpability in the massacre, after long having blamed it on the Germans, an atrocity they had tried to conceal for over 70 years. As for the reception committee, it had different ideas. Putin wasn’t looking forward to such an occasion. Incuded in this poisonous reception brew was President Kaczynski’s well-known public criticism of Moscow and Putin, a habit that has ended the lives of others within Russia — and abroad. A few discouraging Russian requirements — such as that Kaczynski could not attend in any official capacity — did not halt the Poles. Kaczynski would go anyway on non-official, “personal” business. To Russians, such a distinction would be meaningless, not lessening the possible international excoriation of such an event. A problem ripe for a modern, Russian solution: a tragic, “natural” accident." Download "Russian Image Management" here ... Read Russian Image Management On-Line ...