Start of the sale:
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 8:26 AM
Item n°155107367
Sale ends:
Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 7:06 PM
The Katyn Forest Massacre, was a war crime mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the Soviet secret police NKVD under the orders of Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Politburo in April–May 1940.The number of victims is estimated at about 22,000, the most commonly cited number being 21,768. The victims were murdered in the Katyn Forest in Russia, the Kalinin and Kharkov prisons and elsewhere. About 8,000 were officers taken prisoner during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, 6,000 police officers, with the rest being Polish intelligentsia arrested for allegedly being \"intelligence agents, gendarmes, landowners, saboteurs, factory owners, lawyers, officials and priests.\"
Nazi Germany announced the discovery of mass graves in the Katyn Forest in 1943.The revelation led to the end of diplomatic relations between Moscow and the London based Polish government-in-exile. The Soviet Union continued to deny responsibility for the massacres until 1990, when it officially acknowledged and condemned the perpetration of the killings by the NKVD.
The modern Polish investigation of the killings covered not only the massacre at Katyn forest, but also the other mass murders in surrounding areas. Polish organisations, such as the Katyn Committee and the Federation of Katyn Families, consider the victims murdered at the locations other than Katyn as part of the overall massacre.
THIS PROPAGANDA STAMP SET WAS ISSUED BY THE POLISH UNDERGROUND SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT AS A DIVERSIFICATION STATEMENT AGAINST MARTIAL LAW WHICH HAD BEEN DECLARED BY THE COMMUNIST AUTHORITIES IN POLAND. IT IS A VERY RARE AND COLLECTABLE ITEM . THE UNDERGROUND MEMBERS WHO ISSUED THIS STAMP RISKED A LOT, BECAUSE IF CAUGHT THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPRISONED WITHOUT TRIAL.
THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO OWN A UNIQUE PIECE OF HISTORY. IT IS A MUST FOR EVERY SERIOUS HISTORIAN AND COLLECTOR OF THIS PERIOD AND WILL MAKE AN INTERESTING ADDITION TO YOUR COLLECTION.
General Wojciech Jaruzelski announced the introduction of martial law in a speech first broadcast on radio and television at 6:00 am on December 13, 1981. In order to isolate members of the opposition (from the Solidarity movement), 52 internment centers were created. A total of 10,132 internment orders were issued against 9,736 people during the period of martial law.
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