Vhy should I? I have always believed anything is posale in America.'
'But I fear, Baron, the very men you are now trying to influence are the same ones who had allowed these things to take place. They will never do anything positive to free our people.'
'I do not understand what you mean, Professor,' said Abel. Vhy will they not help us?'
The professor leaned his back in his chair. 'You are surely aware, Baron, that the American armies were given specific orders to slow down their advance east to allow the Russians to take as much of central Europe as they could lay their hands on. Patton could have been in Berlin long before the Russians but Eisenhower told him to hold back. It was our leaders in Washington - the same men you are trying to ' persuade to put American guns and troops back into Europe - who gave those orders to Eisenhower!
'But they couldn't have known then what the U.S.S.R. would eventually become. The Russians were then our allies. I accept that we were too weak and conciliatory with them in 1945, but it was not the Americans who directly betrayed the Polish people.'
More Szymanowski spoke, he leaned back again and closed his eyes wearily.
'I wish you could have known my brother, Baron Rosnoviki. I had word only last week that he died six months ago, in a Soviet camp not unlike the one from which you escaped.'
Abel moved forward as if to offer sympathy, but Szymanowski raised his hand.
'No, don't say anything. You have known the camps yourself. You would be the first to realise that sympathy is no longer important. We must change the world, Baron, while others sleep.' Szymanowski paused. 'My brother was sent to Russia by the Americans.'
Abel looked at him in astonishment 'By the Americans? How is that possible? If your brother was captured in Poland by Russian troops . . .'
'My brother was never taken prisoner in Poland. He was liberated from a German war camp near Frankfurt. The Americans kept him in a D.P. camp for a month and d= they handed him over to the Russians.'
'It can't be true. Why would they do thatT 'The Russians wanted all Slavs repatriated. Repatriated so that they could then be extermiinated or. enslaved. The ones that Hitler didn't get, Stalin did. And I can prove my brother was in the American Sector for over a month.'
'But,' Abel began, 'was he an exception or were there many others like him?'
'He was no exception: there were many others,' said Szymanowski without apparent emotion. 'Hundreds of thousands. Perhaps as many as a million.
I don't think we will ever know the true figures. Ies most unlikely the American authorities ever kept careful records of Operation Kee Chanl.'
~Operation Kee Chanl? Why don't people ever mention this? Surely if others malised that we, the Americans, had been sending liberated prisoners back to die in Russial they would be horrified.'
'There is no proof, no known documentation of Oper - ation Kee Chanl. Mark Clark, God bless him, disobeyed his orders and a few of the prisoners were warned in advance by some kindly disposed G - Ls, and they managed to escape before the Americans could send them to the camps. But they are now lying low and would never admit as much. One of the unlucky ones was with my brother. Anyway, ies too late now.'
'But the American people must be told. I'll form a comknittee, print pamphlets, make speeches. Surely Congress will listen to us if we tell them the truth.'
!Baron Rosnovski, I think this one is too big even for you!
Abel rose from his seat, 'No, no, I do not underestimate you, my friend. But you do not yet understand the~ mentality of world leaders. America agreed to hand over those poor devils because Stalin demanded as much. I am sure they never thought that there would be trials, labour camps and executions to fol - low. But now, as we approach the fifties, no one is going to admit they were indirectly responsible? No, they will never do that. Not for a hundred years. And then, all but a few historians will have forgotten that Poland lost more lives in the war than any other single nation on earth, including Germany.'
'I had hoped the one conclusion you might come to was that you must play a more direct role in politics!
'I have already been considering the idea but cannot decide what form it should take., 'I have my own views on that subject, Baron, so keep in touch.'
The old man raised himself slowly to his feet and embraced Abel. 'In the meantime do what you can for our cause, but don't be surprised when you meet closed doors.'
The moment Abel returned to The Baron, he picked up the phone and told the hotel operator to get him Senator Dougla!e office. Paul Douglas was Illmoi!e liberal Dernocratic senator, elected with the help of the Chicago machine, and he had always been helpful and responsive to any of Abers past requests, mindful of the fact that his constituency contained the largest Polish cornmunity in the country. His assistant, Adam Tornaszewicz always dealt with his Polish constituents.