ideology. A national agricultural policyncannot afford to bow before any “universalistnideology.”nStephen B. Miles writes from FallsnCity, Nebraska.nHISTORYnConversation innWarsawnby George WatsonnSeveral Nazi concentration camps,nas I explained in a recent Chroniclesnarticle called “Buchenwald’s SecondnLife” (July 1989), were used bynthe Soviet occupying authorities innEast Germany for some five years afternthe war, and for their original purpose.nThat was once a secret, but we arennow in a wholly new age. Somenmonths after the article appeared thenBerlin Wall came down, in Novembern1989; and some months after that, innMarch 1990, East Germans began tondig for bodies at at least one of thenSoviet camp sites, Oranienburg nearnBerlin. The sudden liberation of Easternnand Central Europe means that annew era of archaeology has begun, andnof the grirnmest kind — much of it, innthe most literal sense, digging up, andnfor much of which the quarry is humannbones and human flesh.nNo reliable figure has ever been putnon Communist exterrninations west ofnthe Soviet borders after 1945. The firstneight years, down to Stalin’s death inn1953, were Stalinist, and in The GreatnTerror (1968) Robert Conquest suggestednan estimate of 25 to 30 millionndeaths within the Soviet Union in thenage of Lenin and Stalin. Beyond thenSoviet Union strictly conceived — innPoland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania,nthe Baltic states, and East Germany—nthe human toll since 1945 isnanyone’s guess. Until quite recently,nno Communist killing-field exceptnKatyn has ever been dug up under the ‘neyes of neutral witnesses. New detailsnare, however, now coming to light,nnamely about Nazi-Soviet cooperationnin mass-murder during their joint occupationnof Poland in 1939-41.nA photo has recently been discoverednin a Kracow library that tells angood deal. It is from a Nazi-sponsorednGerman-language newspaper publishednthere during the occupation, thenKrakauer Zeitung of April 25, 1940, ornabout two weeks after the Katyn massacrenof Polish officers by the SovietnNKVD. April 1940 was six monthsnafter Hitler and his Communist alliesncompleted the dismemberment of Polandnthat began World War II. Thenphoto is coolly headed “Discussion ofnGerman-Russian Refugee ExchangenControl,” and it shows two officers,none Soviet and one Nazi, with a youngnman between them, presumably anninterpreter, seated at a table in Warsaw.nThe interpreter is speaking to the Russian,nand the picture is subtitled: “Asnalready announced, the Soviet LiaisonnCommittee has begun work on thenGerman-Soviet exchange of refugeesnin Warsaw: our photograph shows thenleader of the Soviet committee, GeneralnYegnarov, to the left, and on thenright the representative of the Germanncommittee, Herr Schon.” The articlenthat follows is a routine Nazi protestnagainst foreign propaganda about thenoccupation of Poland: “German specialncourts are not blood courts: foreignnatrocity propaganda refuted — onlyntwelve death sentences out of 15,000nhearings.” The purpose of the wholenstory is evidently to impress Poles withnthe fact that the two occupying powersnare cooperating intimately and in detail,nand that all resistance is nownuseless.nIts interest, however, is far-reaching.nIt was once supposed that the Molotov-RibbentropnPact of August 1939,nwhich secretly awarded east Poland andnthe Baltic states to the Soviet Union,nwas limited to governmental and ambassadorialncontacts, that it led to nonmore intimate collaboration than that,nand that the Communist and Nazinregimes continued to treat each otherndown to Hitler’s invasion of Russia innJune 1941 with polite disdain. Thatnmyth should never have been believed.nA former Polish prime minister, fornexample, Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, hasnshown in The Pattern of Soviet Dominationn(1948) that an agreement wasnmade between Moscow and Berlinnsoon after the joint occupation of Polandnto exchange prisoners. The situationnwas potentially embarrassing tonboth sides; Early in 1940 the Sovietsncomplained to their allies that nearlyn30,000 Ukrainians had been collectednby the Nazis to be trained for the Germannarmed forces, though Soviet citizens;nand in exchange they offerednsome thousands of Polish officersnwhom they still held prisoner. ThenNazis at first accepted, then rejectednthe proposal, mindful (perhaps) ofntheir grand design of emptying PolandnAdvertise In.nChroniclesnA MAGAZINE OF AMERICAN CULTUREnEach month Chronicles offers a sophisticated, welleducatednaudience unavailable anywhere else. Ournexclusive advertising space is uncluttered andnsurrounded by award-winning graphics and design.nFor your free information packet please contact LeannnDobbs or Cathy Corson at 815/964-5054.nnnAUGUST 1990/57n