The Pope in Poland

Press, 16 June 1979, Page 14

The Pope in Poland

Sir, — M. Creel’s strange assertion (June 14) that Poland feels “a very great debt” to the Russians ignores history. The Red Army invaded" Poland, allied with the Nazi Wehrmacht, on September 17, 1939. Stalin helped Hitler rape Poland. Should Poles be grateful to the Russians who executed 10,000 young Polish leaders in the Katyn Forest (1941)? Today there is indeed “an unbreakable alliance with the Soviet Union,” guaranteed by numerous Soviet divisions occupying Poland. Poles know that Russia would invade again; Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968) prove that. Over the years, the Polish Communist leaders have grown increasingly isolated from the workers and from the Church. Gomulka was brought down by popular protest, and last year the workers, supported by the Church, forced Gierek to abandon repressive new measures. Gierek’s continuation as a Kremlin vassal is now precarious. The Church and the workers are too strong for him. — Yours, etc., REV. R. OPPENHEIM. June 14, 1979. Sir, — It is an insult to the Polish people that you should publish M. Creel’s letter (June 14) stating that the Soviet Army “liberated” Poland from the Nazis. The U.S.S.R. has been just as savage to Poland as Hitler’s Germany ever was. Has the correspondent never heard of the Russo-German pact of 1939 when the Communists and Nazis divided Poland between them? Has he never heard of the massacre in the Katyn Forest when thousands of Polish officers were murdered by the Russians? Books and articles on this terrible incident are easily obtainable. Has he never heard of the Warsaw uprising against the Nazis at the end of the war when the Russians refused to lift a finger or a gun to help the Poles? They sat unmoving on the outskirts of the city while its brave inhabitants fought a hopeless battle; and they “liberated” it only after the uprising had been crushed. — Yours, etc., HELEN GARRETT. June 14, 1979. Sir, — The excuses put forward by M. Creel (June 14) for the Pope’s triumphant visit to Poland are transparently clear. The populace who turned out to greet him wherever he went and the Pope’s utterances on human rights obviouslv embarrassed the Government and most Communist regimes as well. The chance of any mass uprising by the Poles is impossible of course, bordered by the U.S.S.R. and memories of what happened in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, etc. And' as they are not allowed a democratic vote, they are resigned to Soviet influence and Marxist socialism. — Yours, etc.. D. R. BUSSEY. June 14, 1979.