Forum Topic

Katyn Memorial

You report on the Armenian Genocide Memorial event last Saturday, with a team photo of local Prominente.  Where's the report on wreath laying at the Katyn Memorial,in Gunnersbury Cemetery on Sunday 28th April, to the 22,000+ of Polish soldiers slaughtered by the Russians in 1940?

Robert Shaw ● 395d3 Comments

In relation to the Katyn Massacre, I believe that if Sir  Starmer with the Lego hair, if he had been in the Soviet system, he would have been a venal Soviet flunkey lackey boy in covering up that massacre, and blaming it on the Soviets one time Nazi allies.Before, and up to the Labour Party's defeat in the 2019 General Election, Sir Starmer with the Lego hair seemed like quite a keen sychophant of the then party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn himself was/is a deluded apologist for Hitler's one time ally in the Moscow Kremlin, and its present incumbent - Vladimir Putin. Sir Starmer with the Lego hair, is now saying that he did not think that Labour would have won that election is devoid of principle and is scarcely believable.If Sir Starmer with the Lego hair had been within the British Establishment during the Cold War, I feel sure he would buckled under Soviet pressure to not establish the Katyn Massacre Memorial. I think that Sir Starmer with the Lego hair has an authoritarian Soviet mindset. It was displayed during the Covid outbreak, when he wanted a more authoritarian severe lockdown, suggesting that he does have not much regard for hard won freedoms and democracy.These freedoms were fought for during World War Two. In contrast, Rishi Sunak did not want the severe lockdown that Sir Starmer with the Lego hair wanted. Therefore, Rishi Sunak has more regard and respect for hard won freedoms and democracy, despite his early departure from the recent D-Day commemorations.Another indicator of Sir Starmer with the Lego hair's  authoritarian Soviet mindset is the way he spent three and a half years blocking Brexit after the Referendum of 2016, and paralysing Parliament. Sorry for straying away from away from original thread, but I do believe that the authoritarian mindset of some people in authority can ultimately lead to events like Katyn.

Anthony Hawran ● 338d

Excellent summary, thanks. We visited the memorial a few years ago. The cemetery is rather isolated and hemmed in, unfortunately, as it is between A406, A4 and Chiswick roundabout. Despite that, it is well-kept and rather peaceful.

Mike Paterson ● 394d

The Katyn Massacre was carried out by the Soviet Union, in 1940, when they were allies of Hitler and the German Third Reich. Attention has to be drawn to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, 23/08/1939, that was the green light to start World War Two, and attacking Poland by the Nazis, and later by their Soviet allies.After late June 1941, when the Soviet Union stopped being Hitler's ally, it had to take on the burden of fighting and then defeating their one time ally. This helped establish the Soviet Empire in Central Europe, including Poland. The Warsaw Pact was part of this process.It seems that since Hitler's one time Soviet ally in the Moscow Kremlin helped defeat the German Third Reich, a lot of people in the West overlook Soviet cruelty. They do not seem to have much appreciation of this. The Katyn Massacre was/is one such case.As back ground information, the Katyn Monument in Gunnersbury Cemetary, unveiled on 18/09/1976, is there thanks to the efforts of the then leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, Malby Crofton. During WW2, he was a liason officer with the Polish 2nd Corps under British command, that fought in North Africa and Italy. The 2nd Corps was started in the USSR, after it stopped being Hitler's ally, from former Polish POW in Soviet captivity, that survived and managed to get evacuated into Iran.During the period of the Cold War, successive British governments objected to plans by the UK's Polish community to build a major monument to commemorate the massacre. The Soviet Union did not want Katyn to be remembered, and put pressure on Britain to prevent the creation of the monument. However, there were some people, like Malby Crofton that appreciated Poland's effort in defeating Hitler, even though Poland did not regain its independence until the Soviet Empire of Hitler's one time ally in the Kremlin collapsed, from 1989 to 1991. It was only then, in 1990, that the Soviet Union officially acknowledged and condemned the killings by its NKVD security services, as well as the subsequent cover-up.

Anthony Hawran ● 394d