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By Prisoner-of-War Physicians and Pharmacists

Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment

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Document 25

Petition from POW Physicians and Pharmacists to Marshal Kliment Ye. Voroshilov Regarding Their Illegal Detention

30 October 1939, Starobelsk

To the Commander in Chief of USSR Forces

Citizen Marshal Voroshilov

The physicians and pharmacists of the Polish Army who are concentrated in the prisoner-of-war camp at Starobelsk, Voroshilovgrad Oblast, numbering 130 men (104 physicians and 26 pharmacists), take the liberty of stating to you, Citizen Marshal, the following:

All the physicians and pharmacists were captured by Soviet troops while they were carrying out their physician duties, either in hospitals or in military units. On the basis of the international Geneva Convention regulating the rights of physicians and pharmacists during military operations,

The first Geneva Convention, “For the Amelioration of the Condition of Sick Armed Forces in the Field,” was signed by representatives of sixteen countries in Geneva on August 1864. It mandated respect for the neutrality of civilians and medical personnel, as well as hospital ships marked with a red cross. This was reaffirmed in the Geneva Convention on the treatment of POWs, dated 27 July 1929, which was not signed by the USSR, although the Soviet government claimed to respect it.

we request that you, Citizen Marshal, either facilitate sending us to one of the neutral states (United States of North America, Sweden) or send us to our places of permanent residence.

For UPV instructions on detaining certain categories of POWs, see doc. 22.

Starobelsk 30 October 1939

On the same day, a similar appeal was addressed by the same group to Beria. These letters were forwarded to him together with a report by the Special Operations Group in Starobelsk, consisting of Boris Trofimov, M. F. Yefimov, and Yegorov, who wrote: “In case a favorable resolution is reached with regard to the issue raised by the POWs, please advise whether we should recruit agents from among these POWs.” It is not known whether this message reached Beria, but on 1 December, Soprunenko informed the camp's commandant and Chief of Special Operations Yefimov, “The issue of the physicians-officers will be resolved simultaneously with the rest of the POWs on the same terms”; KD1/87, n. 1, p. 414; KDZ1/87, unnumbered note, p. 228. See also the UPV instruction to Berezhkov of 10 November 1939 that UPV directives, not the Geneva Conventions, were to guide his work, in KD1/103; KDZ1/103.

[Followed by 112 signatures in Polish]

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