World War II ended in Europe in May, 1945.\u00a0 Sort of.<\/p>\n
I say \u201csort of\u201d because military operations didn\u2019t exactly end with the fall of Nazi Germany.\u00a0 In many areas, operations continued \u2013 sometimes against other targets.<\/p>\n
This article discusses one such Soviet operation:\u00a0 the August\u00f3w roundup.\u00a0 Or, in Polish:\u00a0 the Oblawa augustowska<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n . . . <\/strong><\/p>\n After Nazi Germany surrendered, the Soviet Union occupied much of eastern and central Europe.\u00a0 They immediately set about installing Communist regimes loyal to Moscow in the nations they occupied.<\/p>\n One of those nations was Poland.\u00a0 The Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa<\/a><\/em>) \u2013 the armed wing of the Polish Underground State<\/em><\/a>, loyal to the western-oriented Polish Government-in-Exile<\/em><\/a> \u2013 realized early on they were hopelessly outgunned by the Soviet Army.\u00a0 Wishing to avoid a civil war they could not win, they formally disbanded on 19 January 1945 to avoid further bloodshed.<\/p>\n However, not all persons laid down their arms and meekly accepted Communist rule.\u00a0 This was unacceptable to the Soviets, who permitted no political dissent within occupied Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n So the Soviets took action.\u00a0 Between 12 and 28 July 1945, the Soviets \u2013 with assistance from elements of the puppet Polish communist government\u2019s security forces \u2013 rounded up former members of non-communist resistance organizations and their sympathizers in the Suwalki and August\u00f3w regions.\u00a0 Estimates of how many individuals were seized during this operation range from approximately 2,000 to around 7,000.<\/p>\n Those seized were held in Soviet-run internment camps.\u00a0 The last internees were released in 1956.<\/p>\n Well, that’s not entirely accurate.\u00a0 Almost 600 of those seized by Soviet and Polish communists during the operation were never heard from again \u2013 including 27 women, some of whom were pregnant, and 15 teens.<\/p>\n These nearly 600 individuals . . . simply disappeared.\u00a0 They are believed to have been taken to the Soviet Union, executed, and their remains disposed of \u2013 simply because they were believed to be opposed to Communist rule in Poland.<\/p>\n The precise number of those who disappeared is not known with absolute certainty.\u00a0 However, recent research puts a very tight bound on the number of individuals who disappeared:\u00a0 either 592 or 593.<\/p>\n If that sounds somewhat familiar, it should.\u00a0 Exactly the same thing happened during the Kaytn massacre<\/a><\/em>, only on a larger scale.\u00a0 In fact, the July 1945 postwar incident is known in Poland as \u201clittle Kaytn\u201d (Podlaski Katyn<\/em>).<\/p>\n Like the Kaytn massacre, the incident was denied for decades by both the Polish and Soviet Union\u2019s Communist governments.\u00a0 However, unlike the Kaytn massacre, for this latter incident the victims\u2019 precise fate and final resting place remains unknown.\u00a0 While documentation has been found in former Soviet archives indicating that the massacre in fact did take place<\/a><\/em>, that documentation does not seem to provide sufficient details to identify the location(s) involved or the methods used.<\/p>\n . . . <\/strong><\/p>\n Why write this and post it here?\u00a0 Well, for a couple of reasons.\u00a0 The first is for historical interest.<\/p>\n As for the second reason:\u00a0 the next time someone says that \u201cCommunism poses no threat\u201d, ask him or her to comment on the August\u00f3w roundup.<\/p>\n Then ask him or her to comment on the Kaytn massacre \u2013 which was much the same, except that it claimed 22,000<\/em> Polish lives vice nearly 600 in the name of Communism.<\/p>\n Then remind them that Hitler\u2019s heinous Nazi regime murdered in cold blood (e.g., war casualties excluded) barely 1\/3 as many individuals<\/a><\/em> as did the Soviet Union did in their internal pogroms, intentional famines, purges, massacres, and labor camps between 1917 and 1991. All of those nearly 62 million Soviet dead<\/em> were murdered in the name of Communism.<\/p>\n Then remind them that new research indicates that the Soviet Union murdered nearly 15,000,000 fewer individuals in cold blood<\/a> <\/em>(e.g., war casualties excluded) than did Communist China during the 20th Century.\u00a0 All of those nearly 77 million Chinese dead<\/em> were murdered in the name of Communism.<\/p>\n Add three other Communist governments (Cambodia, North Vietnam, and North Korea), and the number of those murdered by Communist regimes in the name of Communism is just short of 144 million<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Let me repeat that last point.\u00a0 Almost one hundred and forty-four million dead<\/strong><\/em> – not<\/span> including wartime casualties.<\/p>\n All murdered in the name of Communism.<\/p>\n And even that is only a partial total of those murdered due to state policy in the name of Communism.\u00a0 It only includes the top five Communist slaughterhouse states.<\/p>\n Now, after telling them that . . . ask them if they really<\/span> expect you to believe Communism poses no threat.<\/p>\n If they still answer \u201cyes\u201d, well, simply walk away.\u00a0 That answer means you’re dealing with either a damned liar – or a willfully ignorant damned fool.\u00a0 The Soviets might have termed them a polezniye duraki<\/i><\/span><\/a> (e.g., a \u201cuseful fool\u201d).\u00a0 Or as the concept is more often expressed in English:\u00a0 a \u201cuseful idiot\u201d.<\/p>\n . . .\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThose who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Author’s Note<\/span>:\u00a0 to be correct, the letter \u201cl\u201d in all occurrences of the Polish word \u201cOblawa\u201d above should have a diagonal bar accent.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this site’s character set doesn’t support that Polish-language character.\u00a0 The same is true for the word \u201cSuwalki\u201d above.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![barely 1\/3 as many individuals<\/a><\/em> as did the Soviet Union did in their internal pogroms, intentional famines, purges, massacres, and labor camps between 1917 and 1991. All of those nearly 62 million Soviet dead<\/em> were murdered in the name of Communism.<\/p>\nThen remind them that new research indicates that the Soviet Union murdered nearly 15,000,000 fewer individuals in cold blood<\/a> <\/em>(e.g., war casualties excluded) than did Communist China during the 20th Century.\u00a0 All of those nearly 77 million Chinese dead<\/em> were murdered in the name of Communism.<\/p>\nAdd three other Communist governments (Cambodia, North Vietnam, and North Korea), and the number of those murdered by Communist regimes in the name of Communism is just short of 144 million<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\nLet me repeat that last point.\u00a0 Almost one hundred and forty-four million dead<\/strong><\/em> – not<\/span> including wartime casualties.<\/p>\nAll murdered in the name of Communism.<\/p>\nAnd even that is only a partial total of those murdered due to state policy in the name of Communism.\u00a0 It only includes the top five Communist slaughterhouse states.<\/p>\nNow, after telling them that . . . ask them if they really<\/span> expect you to believe Communism poses no threat.<\/p>\nIf they still answer \u201cyes\u201d, well, simply walk away.\u00a0 That answer means you’re dealing with either a damned liar – or a willfully ignorant damned fool.\u00a0 The Soviets might have termed them a polezniye duraki<\/i><\/span><\/a> (e.g., a \u201cuseful fool\u201d).\u00a0 Or as the concept is more often expressed in English:\u00a0 a \u201cuseful idiot\u201d.<\/p>\n. . .\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cThose who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\nAuthor’s Note<\/span>:\u00a0 to be correct, the letter \u201cl\u201d in all occurrences of the Polish word \u201cOblawa\u201d above should have a diagonal bar accent.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this site’s character set doesn’t support that Polish-language character.\u00a0 The same is true for the word \u201cSuwalki\u201d above.\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World War II ended in Europe in May, 1945.\u00a0 Sort of. I say \u201csort of\u201d because … Oblawa Augustowska<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/powerkills\/DBG.TAB1.2.GIF\"){kind=link}