DEATH IN THE FOREST: KATYAN FOREST MASSACRE, J.K. Zawodny 1st/1st 1962 - SIGNED

  DEATH IN THE FOREST: THE STORY OF THE KATYN FOREST MASSACRE, by J.K. Zawodny ~ First Edition / First Printing, 1962 HC/DJ ~ SIGNED

 Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame 1962

A rare, SIGNED, first edition, first printing from 1962 of "Death in the Forest: The Story of the Katyn Forest Massacre" by J.K. Zawodny, in overall excellent condition. 235 pages, and illustrated with black and white photographs. A gripping story of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, who ordered the executions of over 22,000 Polish officers and citizens during the early days of World War II. The book is in mint condition with the author's dedication on the first blank page. The uncut dust jacket is in very good condition, and still shows its original price, and has some chipping on the top fore-edge near the spine.

"Death in the Forest" should be read by any individual who does not choose to, or cannot, accept the atrocities of war and the inhumanity of man to man." -DJ

Please see below for more information on the Katyn Forest Massacre.

Katyn Forest Massacre

The Katyn massacre (Polish: zbrodnia katy?ska, mord katy?ski, "Katy? crime"; Russian: ????????? ???????? Katynskij rasstrel, "Katyn shooting") was a series of mass executions of Polish nationals carried out by the NKVD ("People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs", a Soviet secret police organization) in April and May 1940. Though the killings took place at several different locations, the massacre is named after the Katyn Forest, where some of the mass graves were first discovered.

The massacre was prompted by NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all captive members of the Polish officer corps, dated 5 March 1940, approved by the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, including its leader, Joseph Stalin. The number of victims is estimated at about 22,000. The victims were executed in the Katyn Forest in Russia, the Kalinin and Kharkiv prisons, and elsewhere. Of the total killed, about 8,000 were officers imprisoned during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, another 6,000 were police officers, and the rest were arrested Polish intelligentsia that the Soviets deemed to be "intelligence agents, gendarmes, landowners, saboteurs, factory owners, lawyers, officials, and priests".