Gestapo – NKVD Conferences The Gestapo – NKVD conferences were a series of meetings organized in late 1939 and early 1940 whose purpose was to enable the German and Soviet security forces ( the Gestapo and NKVD respectively ) to share information regarding their operations in Poland . In spite of their differences on other issues , both Heinrich Himmler and Lavrentiy Beria had common purposes as far as the fate of Poland was concerned , and the conferences discussed coordinating plans for occupation of the Polish nation and in fighting the Polish resistance movement , which was an irritant to both Nazi and Soviet occupiers of Poland . Out of four conferences , the third took place in the famous Tatra Mountains spa of Zakopane in south Poland , and is the most remembered ( the " Zakopane Conference " ) . From the Soviet side , several officers of the NKVD participated in these meetings , the Germans bringing a group of experts from the Gestapo . Prelude . After the signing of the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact on 23 August 1939 , Germany invaded Poland on 1 September and the Soviet Union invaded Poland on 17 September resulting in the occupation of Poland by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany . First Conference . Little is known about this meeting . It reportedly took place on 27 September 1939 in Brześć nad Bugiem , while some units of the Polish Army were still fighting ( see : Invasion of Poland ) . Both sides expected that Polish resistance would start soon , and they discussed ways of dealing with the possible activities of such resistance . Second Conference . This meeting took place some time at the end of November 1939 , probably in Przemyśl — a city which — between September 1939 and June 1941 — was divided into German and Soviet parts . Apart from talks of fighting Polish resistance , the Soviets and the Germans discussed ways of exchanging Polish POW s . Also , first discussions about the occupation of Poland were started . Some historians claim this meeting took place in Lwów . It is also claimed a meeting was held in December . Third Conference . This one is the best known , and took place in Zakopane , starting on 20 February 1940 in the villa " Pan Tadeusz " , located at the " Droga do Białego " street close to the entry to the Białego Valley . The German side was represented by Adolf Eichmann and an official by the name of Zimmermann , who later became chief of the Radom District of the General Government . The Soviet delegation was headed by Grigoriy Litvinov and — among others — Rita Zimmerman ( director of a gold mine in Kolyma ) and a man named Eichmans , creator of an efficient way of killing in the back of the head . According to several sources , one of the results of this conference was the German " Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion " ( see : German AB Action operation in Poland ) , elimination of Krakow intelligentsia Sonderaktion Krakau and the Soviet Katyn massacre In his 1991 book " Stalin : Breaker of Nations " , British historian Robert Conquest stated : " Terminal horror suffered by so many millions of innocent Jewish , Slavic , and other European peoples as a result of this meeting of evil minds is an indelible stain on the history and integrity of Western civilization , with all of its humanitarian pretensions " . Also , Professor George Watson from Cambridge University concluded in his " Rehearsal for the Holocaust ? " commentary ( June 1981 ) that the fate of the interned Polish officers may have been decided at this conference . This is however disputed by other historians , who point out that there is no documentary evidence confirming any cooperation on that issue , that the existing Soviet documentation actually makes such a cooperation improbable and that it is reasonable to say that Germany did not know about the Katyn massacre until the corpses were found . Fourth Conference . The fourth and last meeting took place in March 1940 in Krakow ( according to some historians , it was part of the Zakopane Conference ) . This event was described by General Tadeusz Bór - Komorowski , commander of Armia Krajowa in his book “ Armia Podziemna ” ( “ The Secret Army ” ) . In it , he describes how a special delegation of NKVD came to Krakow , which was going to discuss with Gestapo how to act against the Polish resistance . The talks lasted for several weeks . Bor - Komorowski ′ s description is disputed by Russian historian Oleg Vishlyov , who , based on the original Soviet documents , claims that the conference was not between NKVD and " Gestapo " , but between Soviet and German commissions dealing with refugees in both occupied territories and the topic of discussion was ' refugee exchange ' . According to that author the conference had nothing to do with repressions against Poles or with the Katyn massacre . In fact , some historians point out that , in spite of other coordinated actions , there is no evidence of direct German - Soviet cooperation in the Katyn massacre itself . = References =