World War II Behind Closed Doors (35 page)

A street in Warsaw. The Germans destroyed the city in the summer and autumn of 1944.

Lieutenant General Władyslaw Anders commander of the Polish II Corps in the British army. He had successfully negotiated the release of thousands of his fellow Polish soldiers from the Soviet Union.

Nikonor Perevalov, an officer in the NKVD, who took part in the deportation of the entire Tatar nation from the Crimea in May 1944.

The ‘Big Three’ – Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill – meet for the first time at the Tehran Conference in November 1943. This – not Yalta – was the most decisive Allied meeting of the war.

The remains of Tadeusz Ruman's plane, which he just managed to crash-land back at his RAF base in southern Italy after a tortuous trip to Warsaw to provide aid during the uprising.

Zbigniew Wolak (bottom left) with friends in Britain immediately after the war. Shortly after this picture was taken he decided to return to Soviet-controlled Poland.

Soviet forces in front of the ruins of the German parliament, the Reichstag, in May 1945.

Halina Szopińska, a member of the Polish underground Home Army, who was captured and tortured by the NKVD in December 1944. She then served ten years in prison.

John Noble and his father. Both of them were imprisoned by the Soviet authorities after the war in ‘Special camp Number 2’ – the Soviet name for the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald.

Two soldiers of the Red Army during the Battle for Budapest in the early weeks of 1945. The behaviour of some of the Soviet troops in the aftermath of this battle would become infamous.

Dinner at the Yalta Conference, February 1945. Churchill is flanked by Molotov (far right) and a sick-looking President Roosevelt. The latter's poor condition was remarked on by many who attended the conference.

VE (Victory in Europe) Day in London, May 1945. These happy scenes were far removed from the reality that prevailed in much of Eastern Europe, particularly Poland, where, under the Soviet occupation, there was a good deal less to celebrate.

The Victory Parade held in London on 8 June 1946. Notable by their absence from this vast celebration were the fighting forces of Poland. The Polish soldiers who had fought with the British were not invited to participate.