Bulgarian pathologist Marko Markow, who in the spring of 1943 as a associate of the global Medical Commission investigated Katyń graves, standing before the Nuremberg tribunal as a witness, has repeatedly missed the truth. For example, erstwhile he stated that the bodies of Polish officers had rested in the ground since autumn 1941, which would mean that they were murdered by the Germans.
Member of the global Medical Commission – Doctor Vincenzo Palmieri, prof. of Forensic medicine and Criminology at the University of Naples, dictating the results of body examination of his assistant Maria Pietras.
O Katyn crime The planet learned in April 1943. Mass graves publicized Germanysoon after they were discovered in the Katyń Forest close Smolensk. In order to analyse the found remains, Germany decided to set up an global Medical Commission, which included experts from 12 countries – in peculiar those that were someway related to the Reich, namely Belgium, the Protectorate of the Czech Republic and Moravia, Denmark, Finland, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy and neutral Switzerland.
The experts sent from these countries spent 3 days in Katyn in late April 1943. They were exhuming, performing autopsy, examining objects found in the pits of death. Based on these studies, they compiled a protocol stating that the victims in mass graves were murdered in the spring of 1940. These areas were then within the limits of the russian Union, which meant that Moscow was liable for the execution of thousands of Polish officers.
In a postwar conversation with Gustav Herling-Grudziński, a journalist, but besides a prisoner of Gulag, an Italian delegate of the global Medical Commission Vincenzo Palmieri, noted: “No 1 of our 12 had any doubts, not a single reservation fell. [...] We edited the ruling by 3:00 in the morning to agree on the smallest amendments and nuances of all signatories. The ruling is indisputable. [...] The crime was Soviet, there are no 2 sentences.” erstwhile the committee completed its work in Katyn, experts from 12 countries – including Markow – signed the protocol. The case was clear: they agreed with the conclusions contained in it, especially concerning who is liable for the death of Polish soldiers.
Soviet manipulations
Prosecutor Yuri Pokrowski, deputy chief prosecutor from the russian Union, appearing on 14 February 1946 before The Nuremberg global Military Tribunal, presented a comprehensive catalogue of German crimes at POWs. An accusation of a peculiar species weight was added to the list of charges: German work for mass execution of Polish officers in Katyń Forest. According to the russian thesis of the crime, German soldiers were to execute in September 1941. with – as stated in the indictment documentation – the "537th working battalion" (in fact, the 537th Communications Regiment) stationed allegedly in the Katyń area.
In the indictment, Pokrowski cited the alleged motions. the Burdenko Committee. The squad led by Surgeon Nikolai Burdenko was established by the Stalinist authorities in January 1944, a fewer weeks after the reflection of Smolenszczyzna at the hands of the Wehrmacht. The study drawn up by the committee served to sanction Katyn lies: it contained many falsified evidence, including falsified dates on the papers found on the victims and forced evidence of alleged witnesses, which were to clearly confirm German work for the crime.
At the same time, russian propaganda attacked the earlier findings of the global Medical Commission, established by the Germans in 1943. The fact that the 3rd Reich stood behind the first exhumations in the Katyn Forest was a convenient pretext for Moscow to accuse Western experts of succumbing to “goebbels propaganda”.
Not this time of year
Hearings related to the Katyn thread were held in the first days of July 1946. Witnesses from the German side, including Colonel Friedrich Ahrens, commander of the 537th Army Group Communications Regiment, stood before the Nuremberg tribunal. He and his subordinates proved that in the autumn of 1941 their unit had no logistical facilities to carry out mass executions. In fact, Ahrens himself took command only at the end of November of that year, which is about 2 months after the time when, according to the Soviets, the crime occurred.
On the left in a uniform Gerhard Buhtz, a German medical examiner leading the exhumations in Katyn. The second on his right (without a hat) Marko Markow.
The Soviets besides appointed their own witnesses – among them was 1 of the members of the Burdenka committee, Prof. Wiktor Prozorowski. A typical of the global Medical Commission of 1943 was besides interviewed as a witness – mentioned Dr. Marko Markow. He stated before the tribunal that the state of decomposition of bodies exhumed in Katyn indicated that they lay in the ground for no more than a year and a half (this would mean autumn 1941, the time of the German occupation).
He besides said that the protocol identifying the Soviets as perpetrators had signed under clear German pressure, fearing for his life. During the interrogations, however, he admitted that the bodies of buried officers were wearing winter clothing, which was contrary to the russian thesis that the Polish soldiers were to be shot at the turn of August and September 1941.
Markov's evidence as a direct associate in the 1943 exhumation was to be a crowning proof of the russian version of the events. However, they proved inconsistent with the evidence of others questioned, documents, and established chronology. During his stay in Katyn at the end of April 1943, Markow had the chance to see the burial site of Polish soldiers in detail, as well as to learn about papers and newspapers which had already been discovered.
He carried out an autopsy on 1 exhumed body number 827 (the triggers had the following numbers given before identification). The papers published by the Germans after the commission's work was completed, described as an unestablished identity, after the ephods only stated that it was a lieutenant. After returning to his native country, Markow took up his work. Problems began in the fall of 1944. Soviet-supported communists ruled the country by then. With the power of the Red Army behind them, which occupied Bulgaria practically without 1 shot, they conducted Stalin's order. Arrested Markov became an highly valuable conquest for the powerful in Bulgaria.
In February 1945 Markow was accused of becoming a tool of “fascist manipulation” in front of a russian and spirited folk tribunal in Katyn. Suitablely worked by russian interrogation specialists, he cancelled the first findings of April 1943. Instead, he presented arguments consistent with the russian version of events according to Burdenko's report, which blamed the Germans for the crime. That was enough: he was exonerated in the trial and released.
In Marków's favour, it besides worked that he did not give interviews to the press or radio, i.e. he did not participate in propaganda actions, as argued by the folk tribunal, which was taken by Nazi Germany towards the russian Union. The evidence submitted to the People's Court in Sofia was then repeated during the Nuremberg trial. There, however, he was questioned by non-Soviet service officers who knew what to say, but lawyers, and these saw quite a few contradictions in his testimony.
Significant silence
The inconsistency of russian witnesses' evidence raised deep skepticism in the judges of the Nuremberg tribunal. They feared that a detailed examination of this thread could lead to an open conflict with the USSR. Eventually, the tribunal, not wanting to straight accuse the ally of the crime, took an evasive step: he completely omitted Katyn in the final sentence. Germany was so not accused of carrying out this crime, and the russian version of the events was not accepted and sanctioned. However, the Court did not dare to point out the responsibility of the russian Union – the Katyn crime was so not settled during the Nuremberg trials, while the perpetrators remained at large.
On the another hand, in the circumstances of the time, the rejection of the russian prosecution meant nevertheless designation of russian work for Katyn crime – although not explicitly. Only in the early 1990s did the Russian authorities admit to doing so. The direct inspirers bearing moral work and the executioner did not endure any punishment.
Quotes come from Gustaw Herling-Grudziński's book, the "Diary written at night", from its passages published in the letter "Kultura" No. 4/367 from 1978.
