Report on alleged killing of 10,000 Polish officers by Russians in Smolensk area. OWI radio treatment

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Annex - 2 To: All Desks From: New York Office of Control Subject: Notes on 5:30 p.m. Meeting, April 16, 1943 A Special Guidance was issued today on how to treat the Smolensk "massacre" story. We are to show up this story for the propaganda trick it is and we are to use stories rebutting it. lie have two suggestions for playing this story: (1) Following the reverses in North Africa, Hitler and Mussolini held & secret conference. Coming in quick succession after this meeting was the revival of the tri-partite pact for the Baltic nations, the Smolenek "massacre", the exaggerated claims of U-boat successes. All this designed to distract people's minds from the Axis defeat in North Africa. And as still another link in this campaign we have Hitler's scheduled speech before the Reichstag. (2) We can reply indirectly by pointing out that the Czechs, whose position in many ways is analogous to the Poles, are fighting side by side with the Russians and any other item showing Russia's relations with the other United Nations. DECLASSIFIED Authority owl Gunelines 4/12/73 DTH NLE with Date 6/30/04

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