the. sergeant of the israeli defense forces. during his service scorched a street fight. if it rains on the kernel of the chilean armed forces participated in keeping down a military revolt. the sergeant of the u.s. army. tried to become an american by digging pardon the. franks and reasons differ but one thing brings them together once they disobey a. dramatic example of the firmness of. courage.

they managed not only to stay alive. but to keep their faces and souls in inhuman circumstances. nine hundred days in besieged leningrad through the eyes of the survivors. more news today violence has once again flared up. these are the images before it has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are today.

broadcasting from the heart of moscow this is our team now let's take a recap of the stories that shape for the. russia's republic of north the city of

mourns of the seventeen victims of thursday's terror attack its capital is a busy market. and as the u.s. marks nine years since the deadliest terror attack the world has ever seen we look at how the ground zero tragedy has led to zero tolerance towards islam and some people in american society. plus top minds gathered to discuss a formula for better peace and democracy and the global policy forum in the slot the russian city which is marking its moment. and the pilots who became the heroes courage under pressure as they managed to crash land a crippled passenger jet in the most russian oil field and everyone on board. next our special report which looks at the massacre of polish citizens in one thousand nine hundred by stalin's regime.

for decades this incident was rooted in speculation and fit the facts were either suppressed or cooped up in one nine hundred forty more than twenty thousand polish prisoners of disappeared and still be a territory without a trace of censorship control and accounting case in general under a strict ban. catchin forest in the smolensk region this is where a mass grave of people in polish military uniform was first discovered that was in one nine hundred forty three during the german occupation. the poles lay in their graves in three or four rows side by side some were even layered on top of one another there. who ordered the execution of the polish prisoners of war when

exactly would they kill. the one witnesses have to say about it off the more than fifty years of silence why would the details of the captain tragedy kept secret for so long. in russia's north west lies among the straight on an island and lakes and again in one nine hundred forty it housed the prison camp where more than five thousand polish on the servicemen and police were in prison. was just a child at the time. she found out how the mona street had been turned into a prison camp for prisoners of war from a relative who was serving in the soviet even in secret police the n.k.v.d. . raging every day a special train was coming to the city a moustache gov should you put

a polish prisoners of war barely had any roof over their heads therefore all. all of them on a street buildings were hastily adapted for their accommodation the triple plank beds were made for that purpose. polish prisoners of war were brought to the soviet union soon after the start of world war two german troops had altered by poland in the autumn of nineteen thirty nine and so obvious entered the country's eastern regions the poles were sent to prison camps in a stara belt and cars outside. the poles were held in order to prevent any potential riots or attempts to restore poland's territorial integrity among them was career officer vida the father of polish film director and j. vida yeah common his fellow on the servicemen were sent to the kaczynski camp in the smolensk region to further that i mean unlike my father most of those taken

prisoner when not korea offices rather they represented the polish intelligentsia but they were university professors high school teachers actors and autists among them. in short all those who had been drafted into the army in one thousand nine hundred thirty nine. in august that year the soviet union in germany signed a non-aggression treaty in moscow which later became known as the molotov rippon trial pact this covert document detailed the partition of eastern europe on september the first nine hundred thirty nine germany attacked poland by september the seventeenth soviet troops entered poland as well this rare footage shows a joint parade in the town of brest the soviet brigade commander chris shane and general good rianne of germany share a viewing platform the polish army had never ceased to exist. they.

needed i never saw my father from that moment on there was no word from him until he. taken prisoner by the soviets so. most of the police officers and frontier troops were sent to the stash called camp one of three used for polish prisoners of war a down built by the poles to link the island to the lakeside still serves as a reminder of that time that the poles stayed for just over six months in april nine hundred forty the first groups of prisoners would then taken to an unknown destination the poles move to the nearby railway station across the frozen ice of lakes and again i knew our there were they were actually very joyous seeing the guards told them that they were being sent closer to the polish border board so that they could be handed over to the polish government when the time come when i meet you. some secret from reporters dostum guards sent to and kev ed the

headquarters. of the prisoners of war are in good spirits it is apparent they have a strong desire to leave the camp pain behind are envious of the ones who are about to leave they think they're going home. is proceeding in an orderly manner without incident. isabella sonnier scums because grandfather. worked to the polish prosecutor's office. when soviet troops entered poland on september the seventeenth one thousand nine hundred thirty nine he was arrested after being branded a suspect. when he was put in a p.o.w. camp in jeddah one opportunity to send a letter that was in late one nine hundred thirty nine years ago once a week my granny sent to past college to the address of the prison camp my grandad had given her. for some time the past god simply disappeared without a trace. but starting with the spring of one thousand four take the boy sent back

to the board to mark address on. nineteen forty three the pick up between the soviet union and hitler's germany. it was then that secret burials were found in the village of canton near smolensk the german on his medical course at the bodies of more than four thousand polish army officers had been found seven ditches in a forest. they had been examined under the supervision of professor again brooks a well known anthropologist from breslin versity but slater told the international red cross committee about his findings. you know it's really on april thirteenth one thousand nine hundred forty three radio berlin announced that polish army officers and policemen had been shot and killed by the end of a day in one nine hundred forty the soviets refuted it two days later they claimed

that the polish officers had been executed by the germans third in the autumn of one thousand nine hundred forty one for your award. in one thousand nine hundred three dimitri was thirteen years old he's lived in the county in forest area all his life the german authorities took him and many other local people to the exhumation site. dmitri thinks the message was clear. nothing would have happened if the germans had uncovered anything it was a political matter a polish army had been formed insolvent territory so the aim was to show those poles that they had no business fighting on the russian side could see what they've done you'll be in for it to. in the polish capital warsaw the so-called catalysts began to appear towards the end of spring one nine hundred forty three. people queued for hours in front of news stands to reason the new names were added to the

list every day. when they still have said that the name of my granddad appeared on one of the lists shortly after such an ist were made public and then gin my father often said he remembered the day when hello and that he had become an orphan after his father's death and his mother's death six months before. in late one nine hundred forty three soviet troops drove the germans out of the smolensk region soon another medical commission this time led by the well known soviet surgeon nicholai but then started work in the canton sanest it's time to find evidence that the polish prisoners have been killed by the germans in nine hundred forty one after they'd invaded the soviet union. when a german made water pistol was found there that became the main argument in support of the claim that it was the germans that executed the polish officers the theory

that it was the nazis the kill them was based on this discovering the onions. and tom and of seeing is a former political prisoner whose father belonged to lennon's in a circle. he sent up a goon like museum commemorating the victims of political repressions. a friend who worked at the institute of forensic studies told how evidence in the counting case had been faked in the soviet union in one nine hundred forty four. the woman was on duty at bet chimey she saw the remains being pulled out of boxes and the pockets being stuffed with newspapers and letters bearing falsified dates the aim was to create the impression that all that had happened in one nine hundred forty one rather than in one nine hundred forty all the evidence it was supposed to

demonstrate that nobody but the germans were to blame. around the same time a man hunt was on the way to spot locals who believe that the poles had been executed by the n.k.v.d. needless to say they also met a tragic fate yes but if you know and if i had believed the russians had killed them i would have been dead for sure. after the soviet medical commission led by but then could finished its work in nine hundred forty four a memorial cross was erected in cutting the inscription read polish prisoners of war executed by hitler's troops in one thousand four hundred rest in peace here among those attending the unveiling were polish on the service because to speak division who were fighting on the soviet side. in delegates in cotton represented various units including my fifth regiment and the second infantry division which everybody said they had no doubt that the crime had been committed

by the germans. after the end of world war two poland joined the socialist bloc from then on any discussion regarding canton was to blue. in contrast to the official soviet memorial in canton people in poland flocked to warsaw to commemorate the. countrymen who died in captivity relatives of the dead had to hold a memorial services in secret but not any longer. like our father for it's in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven jews this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us the silence lasted nearly half a century many relatives of the executed polish prisoners of war didn't live long

enough to learn the secret truth of the count in tragedy. wealthy british style rolls in the basket on the sets. is not the. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy cause a report on hunger for the full story we've got it first hand the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers. for many years the most senior economist officials had access to the soviet archives for most of the documents

a top secret. solve it president mikhail gorbachev hold of this folder containing reports on the counting executions to be removed from the archives and handed over to. the most valuable document is a memo sent to stalin by. the people's commissars of internal affairs in april nine hundred forty. eight stalin the polish prisoners are trying to continue their counterrevolutionary to it is in the camps each of them is only looking for an opportunity to join this struggle against the soviet government then the us asar feels it's necessary it's applied to them as special procedure execution by a firing squad signed beriah people's commissar of internal affairs of the u.s.s.r. if. that was the first time that soviet leader mikhail gorbachev officially declared that the soviet government was to blame. he offered his

condolences and gave me a folder of documents containing a lists executed polish officers and asked them to the next day i went to cotton balls and paid tribute to the memory of those who were killed. now it was necessary to find the secret graves of the prisoners. the trail led investigators to the town of a stash gulf where one of the concentration camps used to be. there was still a few surviving witnesses to help the team and it was proved once again that in april nine hundred forty the poles were taken away by railroad. and nobody saw the life again what is carefree shareholder shover shares were brought here to this railway junction. they were put into boxcars. and taken away in this direction my trains. much later we found

out. that they had been taken to the city of colleen in one of. the train journey to kalinin took twenty four hours in one hundred forty the communist official michelle conlin was among other high ranking officials indorsing the execution of the poles. the building standing opposite the monument to calin in . the n.k.v.d. regional headquarters this is where the lives of the polish prisoners were cut short. more than fifty years later dimitri took the round the local n.k.v.d. was interrogated by investigators from the military prosecutor general's office. nasser showed me the talker of archive documents proving his guilt realized that it was in vain to deny anything and gave a detailed true testimony. my men didn't shoot more than three hundred people

a day only once did they shoot as many that had to be done under the cover of darkness because the nights were now too short. so they brought two hundred fifty people at a time and we shot them during the night. those about to be shot were taken to the basement one by one supposedly to have their papers checked but once there they were stripped of their personal belongings and valuables then did it occur to the prisoners that they were never going to leave that place alive. one questioned by investigators. told them the guns used for executions had been brought from moscow. sheen was the ex superintendent of the central directorate if they knew of and had a trunk full of walter pistols with him if they gave them to the executioners just shortly before the accident then the guns were collected in order to prepare them

for more shootings. after the biography of a polish prisoner of war was completely identified two men would say to him by the arms and lead him into a cell just like this one the walls of the cells were covered with filth of cloth noise a third man fired a shot from a walther pistol at the back of the head of the prisoner. when dimitri talkative was interrogated in one thousand nine hundred one he agreed to sketch a route leading to the site where the bodies of executed polish officers had been buried there was a building here with seanie and k b t officials relaxed talkative dasha a country house was nearby. it's a very place by the riverside. spent a lot of time relaxing here on the wives and children of minor officials who live

here and large ditches only thirty meters from the houses were filled with thousands of bodies. the technology of covering up traces of math executions was worked through down to the minute detail but in the polish case uncovered them then had to do their job as fast as they could the bodies of polish prisoners were tossed into large ditches and covered with earth and. the land surrounding what used to be the n.k.v.d. death as in the fed region was examined in the summer of one nine hundred ninety one the first horrific finds were uncovered a few days later the investigators job was made easy a jew to the fact that there is compact clay soil in the region which. doesn't allow air to filter through. the bodies in that mass graves showed almost no signs of decomposition there was an easily identifiable polish military uniform on some of them others were clad in the uniform of polish police their bodies and arms were

almost intact and this is how we lifted fossilized remains. seventy three sixty five brought into downplays. polish forensic scientists joined counterparts in identifying the bodies many of the personal items and papers that once belonged to the dead prisoners were later taken to a trade crackles institute a forensic studies for further examination. helps me to realize many things when i study all these items glosses lighters cigarette cases i imagine how they lived wrote letters missed each other play dice and smoke cigarettes each item reminds of a real person and i start to understand what life in the camp was like. there is a memorial museum in the forest it features documents and accounts of the poles

buried here and also of the soviets who died during stalin's reign of terror the death penalty was handed down to more than five thousand people in the callinan region their graves were found side by side with those of polish prisoners. in the us it's impossible to identify the bodies of soviet prisoners soviet victims of oppressions were taken to the burial place in underwear or stark naked later in a bid to cover up their tracks and used a special acid and line to dissolve human remains in the soil. several times a year activists from the med name a complex in northwest russia go on an expedition through villages in the very known in soviet times as cullinan they meet relatives of the locals like the poles were executed at medway or. these people in the relatives of dead polish offices have something in common. left of them murdered loved ones or

a few faded photos. i remember my father saw obs when i saw him in prison. i adored him and he loved me. many years have passed since the relatives of the victims of the repressions were first interviewed gradually historians came to the conclusion that the poles had no chance of escaping death stalin's terror machine was crushing friend and foe alike making no distinction between them and caught in just two cases in point. given that system of government many polish officers and men had no chance of survival any prisoner discussing poland's future was immediately classified as a suspect at the time of stalin's reign of terror the people of any other nationality would have been dealt with in the same manner if they had found

themselves in the same situation. twenty six seventeen years since the execution of the polish prisoners of. a memorial service was held in the county forest on april seventh the ceremony was attended by relatives of the dead and leading political figures. of the polish military cemetery in cotton on april the seventh the prime ministers of russia and poland put an end to ask who was standing nearby my father thought it was a historic moment and he's thought it. but marking the anniversary was to take a tragic turn the plane carrying polish president lech kaczynski and many other senior officials crashed near as he tried to land the. relatives of the wartime prison victims heading for the memorial ceremony that they died along with the president. simply incredible family couldn't believe it

when tragedy struck again this time on april the tenth two thousand and ten my mother kept saying this can't be true my granddad was murdered and my father was killed in an air crash almost in the same place the two sides are separated by only a few dozen committees. for many in russia the air crash was a personal tragedy for days people brought flowers to the polish embassy in moscow a russian state television channel showed on jay vidas poignant film captain walk. by the admits he had a hard time making it there was not a single collection of stories about canton for that reason in his works based on memoirs including his mother's recollections of the fine good as a young man in the movie i'm happy to know that the film caught him has been shown

to such a vast audience war or so that they could evaluate it and hear what a polish film director has to say i'm fine quote all of those who made this possible that this is a good step forward towards reconciliation between us. a stash called at first sight nothing seems to have changed here over the years the great grandchildren of those who saw all the polish prisoners of war now play in the yards. morris carpels is eighty five he's been teaching in the local school of his working life for a long time he could not share his memories with anyone and finally the days come when a documentary about the events of nine hundred forty will be shown on russian television several years ago film director came here in person to listen about how the polish

prisoners were brought from the a stosh called camp to their place of execution boris became blind two years ago now he can only listen to what the film has to say so what sort of lists are they. they give the names of people taken out of the camp up the city look at sort of people could easily go astray or their families and the army wanted to see if it was you know. i keep a diary. and ours don't catch fire no. buttons all that will be left of us is the buttons on our uniforms. which of course i feel sympathy with on j. ride and the polish people. as it turns out grief unites nations what we feel compassion for the polish people because of that tragedy. grief brings us closer together. it's too soon.