Page 26 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • May 20, 2009 The NKVD is also shown torturing Polish women at Lvov, once part of Austria-Hungary. When the Germans invaded the eastern half of Poland during the war with Russia, most of the Lvov survivors were shot to prevent them from testifying. The Nazi propaganda team had a field day making films about how the “Soviet beasts” had tortured and murdering innocent people. They were telling the truth, as they did about other Stalinist atrocities. They did the same thing, which leaves them without any moral legs to stand on, but does not invalidate the similar Stalinist atrocities. Where did the Western allies stand on all this? Churchill hated Bolshevism, but he was so committed to saving the British Empire from Hitler – who would have let him keep it in return for a free hand in Eastern Europe – that he signed up with Stalin, who also wanted Eastern Europe and, eventually, the world. Churchill said, after the Germans unearthed the murdered Polish officers at Katyn, that he suspected the Russians were guilty but that there was no point in morbidly poking around the three-year-old graves at Smolensk. FDR and his underlings lied like it was going out of style. The Red Cross, a group of American P.O.W. officers and a commission of physicians from Nazi-occupied countries all testified that Katyn was a Soviet atrocity, but FDR dismissed them all. He could handle Stalin, he told his supporters. In “handling” him, he handed him Poland, the country Britain had gone to war to defend, and the part of Germany that was home to the professional officers who made several offers to depose or assassinate Hitler if they could sign a separate peace with the United States and Britain. Lost in all this were the victims of Hitler’s obsessive Holocaust, the Jews of Eastern Europe. German and Polish sympathizers had been telling the British and the Americans about death factories designed to destroy whole populations since 1942. Nothing happened. At one point, Jewish sympathizers ransomed 10,000 Jews for all the gold and jewelry they could gather, and the SS kept its word and dropped the Jews off alive in Switzerland. The plan to rescue a million Jews for 10,000 trucks was dropped because Stalin might have been offended. The plan to bomb the railroad tracks taking deportees to death at Auschwitz was also dropped. The harrowing picture of World War II is that the most influential leaders on the Allied side did not care how many Jews Hitler murdered or how many Poles Stalin murdered. They just wanted to win the war for political and economic, rather than moral or humanitarian, reasons. I don’t know if “Behind Closed Doors” will cover this aspect of the odd politics of World War II, but some of the most ardent isolationists – Senator Guy Gillette of Iowa, Senator Ed Johnson of Colorado, and Representative Hamilton Fish of Dutchess County, New York, FDR’s own congressman – were the strongest advocates of going public with the Holocaust rumors and warning the Nazi administrators that they would be held responsible after the war. The New Dealers vetoed and undermined the attempt and FDR lumped Gillette and Fish together with far more plausible candidates such as Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh as “Nazi sympathizers” after they tried to save the Jews while FDR ignored them. I don’t get it. Valuable in terms of eminent production quality and of new disclosures, “Behind Closed Doors” offers a startling look at a U.S. ally who killed twice as many people as Hitler and still got to be TIME magazine’s Man of the Year for 1942. The subtitles may put some people off, but every American who cares about this country should see this series. Let’s hope nothing like it ever happens again. Let’s not be too sure that it won’t. Last week, I switched on “Behind Closed Doors” on PBS. The series started with the first two broadcasts, but I could have stayed up all night and watched all six of them. “Behind Closed Doors” tells the story of the interaction between two of the worse tyrants in history, Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, and of the interaction between Stalin and two of the people generally esteemed to be great heroes of Western civilization: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Nothing in the world is going to rehabilitate either Hitler or Stalin, two of the worst monsters ever to stalk the Earth. But there is a lot of information in “Behind Closed Doors” that not only puts Hitler and Stalin on just about the same level, but also contaminates both FDR and Churchill as people who looked the other way while Stalin was torturing and murdering the people they were pledged to save. Much of this has been told before in hard copy, but the superb documentary by Laurence Rees of the BBC makes it all almost palpable. The series is done with a mixture of historical reenactment by skilled actors who look like the heroes or villains they portray interspersed with black-and-white movies and stills. The whole thing fits together in a compelling narrative. The one thing American audiences may find a little disconcerting is that the reenactment scenes, which comprised about two-thirds of the shows, take place with English narration, but with the appropriate conversations in Russian, German, or Polish. I know this era reasonably well, but there were a few shockers even for me. Most people who know history at all know that the Hitler-Stalin Pact paved the way for the last and most brutal partition of Poland, the one that led to the deaths of millions of Polish Jews by Nazi and collaborator forces and millions of other Poles, some by the Germans and some by the Russians. But who knew that Stalin had pledged to make an attack on the West if Hitler couldn’t handle Britain, France, and Poland by himself? Here is a pledge from Stalin to Hitler that I saw here for the first time anywhere. Stalin: “If, against all expectation, Germany finds itself in a difficult situation then she can be sure that the Soviet people will come to Germany’s aid and will not allow Germany to be strangled. The Soviet Union wants to see a strong Germany and we will not allow Germany to be thrown to the ground.” Shortly, Hitler and Stalin each began to destroy those segments of the Polish population they regarded as their natural enemies. Hitler began to re-concentrate, and eventually exterminate, the Jews while the NKVD, ancestor of the KGB, began to round up those Poles they thought might give them trouble: known patriots and intellectuals, priests, and the Polish officer corps. Polish laws made it mandatory that all Polish college graduates become reserve officers, and when the Russians rounded up the Polish Army, they had their hands on most of the healthy educated males. They killed them. The first episode shows Soviet executioners shooting Polish prisoners at Kharkov Prison. A Russian death squad commander, in a talking-head interview made in recent times, regrets the fact that his own NKVD killers were so demoralized that they later committed suicide or went crazy. Killing brave men in cold blood does that to people, unless they are insane when they start. Can ‘Behind Closed Doors’ open up some closed minds? Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: The Midland Park Volunteer Ambulance Corps would like to publicly thank the members of the Midland Park Lions Club for its recent donation of new CPR training manikins. The new units have replaced our out-dated 15 year old training mannequins. Without the generous support of the Midland Park Lions Club, this purchase would not have been possible. The new units will enable us to keep our training updated and in house. We would like to encourage everyone to visit the Lions Club International website at www.lionsclubs.org. to learn more about this group. Steve Lockhard, publicity chair Mike Junta, president Midland Park Volunteer Ambulance Corps Dear Editor: I would like to publicly say thank you to the members of the Wyckoff Township Committee who have honored me to replace Chief John Ydo as the Wyckoff Chief of Police. The trust and confidence they have placed in me is humbling. My sincere thanks also go to the many family, friends, coworkers and members of the Wyckoff Fire Department who attended my swearing in on April 19. I look forward to serving this wonderful community in yet another capacity. The Wyckoff Police Department is comprised of very dedicated and professionally trained sworn and civilian personnel, and it is my goal as your chief of police to provide Wyckoff with the best law enforcement services possible. Chief Benjamin C. Fox Wyckoff Police Department Dear Editor: For 26 years, it was my privilege to serve the Borough of Franklin Lakes in municipal government: First, as a councilperson for 14 years and then as mayor for 12 years. During that time, I always tried to do what I thought was best for Franklin Lakes. I had the honor of serving with many fine men and women during that time, and I am proud of the things that we, together, were able to accomplish for our community. In that same spirit, I write to you today to offer my unqualified support for Bill Smith and Frank Bivona in the upcoming Republican primary for borough council. Bill and Frank both possess outstanding management skills and leadership qualities needed in Franklin Lakes. I truly believe they would be an asset to our town council and the people of Franklin Lakes. If you have supported me in the past, I ask that you support Bill and Frank for council. They are dedicated and con- Lions’gift scientious and open-minded. They can resolve the budget issues and employee furlough issues. They are exactly what our town needs right now to get Franklin Lakes back on the right track. I am absolutely thrilled that Bill and Frank are a team. It is truly a winning ticket for Franklin Lakes. G. Thomas Donch Former mayor, Franklin Lakes Dear Editor: Senior citizens who were planning to attend the Freeholder public meeting to voice their concerns over the lack of bus transportation had their hopes dashed when their bus and driver were not permitted to take them. Initial inquiries at the local level were referred to the county. A group of frustrated seniors had planned to attend the meeting to raise the issue. The use of our bus was denied, so we could not attend. We have been put in a Catch 22 situation. Shame on you. Frances Healy Midland Park Dear Editor: To quote Patrick Henry, “these are the times that try men’s souls.” Frank Bivona and Bill Smith have the experience, knowledge and discipline required to help lead Franklin Lakes through the difficult period that we will face. Members of the current borough council, while well intentioned, have inflicted financial hardship on our community because of their lack of experience and foresight. Their inability to “see the forest for the trees” has cost each taxpayer in Franklin Lakes a substantial amount of money. Their lack of knowledge and ability to solve problems in a methodical and organized way has caused financial hardship to the borough’s loyal, hardworking employees. Members of the current council have put the borough’s loyal, hardworking employees’ portion of the American Dream in jeopardy. In the past two years the current inexperienced elected officials have increased expenses, lost revenue, reduced service, cut recreation programs and now furloughed employees. They have failed to submit for reimbursement of almost $400,000 in Green Acres grant funds allocated to our borough. You and I must now pay for their mistake with our hard-earned tax dollars. These inexperienced elected officials failed to apply in a timely manner for over $1,700,000 in approved Green Acres grant funds. The Green Acres Program has now exhausted its funds. You and I will be forced to pay for their mistake (continued on page 27) County puts brakes on free speech Chief Fox thanks supporters The cost of inexperience Endorses Smith and Bivona