Karbowski Kazimierz
Bull Soc Sci Med Grand Duche Luxemb. 2004(1):41-61.
On April 13th 1943, the German radio announced that a common grave containing the corpses of Polish officers was found in the forest of Katyn, near Smolensk. Further enquiries showed that the dead bodies were those of officers imprisoned by the Russians in autumn 1939 and about who nobody had news since Springtime 1940. The CICR refused to deal with this problem without the agreement of the Soviets. So the Germans called together a committee of international experts to examine the grave in Katyn. Prof. Francis Naville, director of the medico-legal Institute of the University of Geneva, was the only expert really neutral in that commission. He had the merit to prove quite clearly that these criminal executions were ordered by Stalin. After the Second World War, Prof. Naville was criticised for having accepted to participate to the mission to Katyn by Jean Vincent, a deputy of the Swiss labour party (communist party) who claimed that the massacre of Katyn had been done by the Germans. Prof. Naville got no support from the CICR, who "did not want to know" who was responsible in order to avoid diplomatic complications with the Soviet Union. Only in 1989 the discovery of Prof. Naville was accepted and confirmed by the Soviet authorities.
1943年4月13日，德国电台宣布在斯摩棱斯克附近的卡廷森林中发现了一座掩埋着波兰军官尸体的集体坟墓。进一步调查显示，这些尸体是1939年秋天被苏联囚禁的军官的，自1940年春天以来就音信全无。红十字国际委员会在未得到苏联同意的情况下拒绝处理这一问题。于是德国人召集了一个国际专家委员会来检查卡廷的坟墓。日内瓦大学法医学研究所所长弗朗西斯·纳维尔教授是该委员会中唯一真正中立的专家。他成功地清楚证明了这些处决是斯大林下令进行的。第二次世界大战后，纳维尔教授因接受瑞士劳工党（共产党）议员让·文森特的邀请参与前往卡廷的任务而受到批评，让·文森特声称卡廷大屠杀是德国人所为。纳维尔教授没有得到红十字国际委员会的支持，该委员会“不想知道”谁应为此负责，以免与苏联产生外交纠纷。直到1989年，苏联当局才接受并证实了纳维尔教授的发现。
