I really don't know what you expected them to do. None of the Poles who were captured seemed to be under the impression that they would be exterminated. By the time they would have figured out what was happening, it would already have been too late.
It's funny you link the one scene from that movie that I thought about the most; and that was precisely what I based my comment on. If they had taken from the prison camp out into the middle of nowhere, there can't be anything good to come of it.
Yes, you make a good point insofar that the way they massacred them gave no indication that a massacre was taking place, but it just would have seemed like history and circumstance would have been a huge red flag, especially for officers.
More specifically, I'm reminded of Xenophon's reaction to an almost identical circumstance he and the rest of the ten thousand Greek mercenaries found themselves in, wherein their officers were also captured after being lured in under the auspices of a treaty. All of the officers were then executed in similar fashion, beheaded. The rest of the men were given the option of surrender or death, but opted to flee back to Greece instead, as they knew the outcome would be death even if they surrendered.
I suppose that's the rub: even surrounded by enemies on all sides and put in a predicament where they were offered surrender, once the officers were killed the remaining men fought their way back home.
In Katyn, the first red flag should have been that they weren't being transported back home. The second red flag is being transported to the middle of nowhere. And the third red flag is having the troops systematically removed from the train cars without returning.
It's just interesting to me that even thousands of years ago, the promise of surrender or death immediately triggered Xenophon and his men into recognizing that death was going to be inevitable regardless while they were trapped in enemy territory, and opted to fight and flee instead. Just like, most people here recognize that the enemy encroaching on our freedoms (globally) still want us dead even if we comply. It's not a matter of if we should fight back, but rather, when.
It's funny you link the one scene from that movie that I thought about the most; and that was precisely what I based my comment on. If they had taken from the prison camp out into the middle of nowhere, there can't be anything good to come of it.
Yes, you make a good point insofar that the way they massacred them gave no indication that a massacre was taking place, but it just would have seemed like history and circumstance would have been a huge red flag, especially for officers.
More specifically, I'm reminded of Xenophon's reaction to an almost identical circumstance he and the rest of the ten thousand Greek mercenaries found themselves in, wherein their officers were also captured after being lured in under the auspices of a treaty. All of the officers were then executed in similar fashion, beheaded. The rest of the men were given the option of surrender or death, but opted to flee back to Greece instead, as they knew the outcome would be death even if they surrendered.
I suppose that's the rub: even surrounded by enemies on all sides and put in a predicament where they were offered surrender, once the officers were killed the remaining men fought their way back home.
In Katyn, the first red flag should have been that they weren't being transported back home. The second red flag is being transported to the middle of nowhere. And the third red flag is having the troops systematically removed from the train cars without returning.
It's just interesting to me that even thousands of years ago, the promise of surrender or death immediately triggered Xenophon and his men into recognizing that death was going to be inevitable regardless while they were trapped in enemy territory, and opted to fight and flee instead. Just like, most people here recognize that the enemy encroaching on our freedoms (globally) still want us dead even if we comply. It's not a matter of if we should fight back, but rather, when.