The Katyn Order

The Katyn Order by Doublas W. Jacobson is a wild swing through the history of World War II as it plays out in the fall of Warsaw and the subsequent invasion by Russian troops.  The fate of Poland as a country lies in the balance.  A Soviet-controlled communist government is ready to take over and the only possible way to prevent this is to reveal to the world the Soviet order to murder over 27,000 Polish officers, revolutionaries and nationalists in the Katyn Forest in 1940.  The German army discovered evidence of the massacre in 1943 and the controversy about who was responsible began with accusations and counter accusations between them and the Russians.  Jacobson brings alive the unspeakably horrific and hopeless conditions of the Warsaw uprising, telling the story of a small group of dedicated Polish nationalists fighting with the Armia Krajowa  against vastly superior and ruthless German forces.  A small group of survivors is forced underground but they continue their resistance against the Red Army and security forces.  Adam Nowak is a Polish-speaking American trained as an assassin who the British Intelligence sends into Poland to work with the resistance movement. After the uprising fails,  his objective is to find a copy of Stalin's order to execute the Poles.  Trying to stop him is NKVD agent Tarnov, who has a personal interest in destroying any record of the massacre--he was responsible for carrying it out.  The story is filled with tales of violence, treachery and heroism.  It is also the story of a Polish resistance fighter who falls in love with Adam Nowak and struggles to both help him and stay alive in post-war Krakow.  Heavy, compelling stuff.