64th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising

1st of August 1944 at 5PM started the Warsaw Uprising. People from Polish capital fought to gain freedom. Freedom which they had been enjoying only for 21 years. They didn’t want to live under occupation either German or Russian

I heard the airraid sirens at 5 in Krakow.

Mathias Schenk was German soldier who was fighting in Warsaw Uprising as a sapper. On that page

cba.pl/powstanie_warszawskie_moj_warszawski_szal.htm

We can read his impressive and shocking story. It's in polish. Unfortunately, because of my poor english skills, I can't translate it to english.

good for them

thanks for reminding us of this important anniversary

My grandfather died on this day in 1944 in the Rising - 13 went up, 12 came back. RIP Dziadek - would have given anything to meet you and hear your stories.

In answer to some of the critics on this forum on our preoccupation with histroy, I suppose this is why some of us find it cathartic to discuss these things.

It turned rather bad for them...

I love Warsaw. It's my favourite city in Poland.

Tomorrow is the 65th anniversary of the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Uprising





This reminds me of Ireland's en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Rising

Here's th translation:
warsawuprising.com/witness/schenk.htm

Here is Vatela's link:

warsawuprising.com/witness/schenk.htm

Schenk's story is worth reading; it dispels the idea that it was only the "Nazis."

In lesser cultured countries folk often confuse the Warsaw Uprising with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

I believe the '43 version doesn't take a capital letter for the word 'uprising'.

Polish and proud. God bless Poland.

When walking the streets of Warsaw today, it's difficult to absorb that the city was totally laid to waste, ruins, and rubble. It boggles the mind. Against all odds, without any Marshall Plan aid money from the USA, the determined Poles have rebuilt Warsaw into a beautiful city once again, though they really had no choice and in many cases no voice in some of the select architectual styles and city planning due to the lack of funding and the ruling communists of that time.

The Poles achieved the impossible, when others were sure that constructing a new city on top of rubble could not be accomplished. Congratulations to the Poles (Catholic, Jewish, and of other faiths) who took part in both the hopeless uprising of 1944 and the ghetto uprising of 1943, rebuilt and repopulated their historical city.

Godzina 'W'

Even the normally less than "nice" about Poles daily depress (express) ran a two page centre spread on the "Polish heroes who defied the nazis" today.

If God forbid, our country will be overrun by mad occupants once again and youngsters lead by romantic fools rise again without any real hopes for victory and without any political sense at all ( Third Reich already lost this war at that time) ,those Poles who celebrate this event these days will have their little share of responsibility in this tragedy. Romantic myths containing catastrophes should be crushed and not cultivated.

PS: Why not replace independent day by anniversary of partitions of Poland? I think that second option better fit to current mental developments in Poland...

A couple more videos about "godzina w":





Wow i've never seen anything like it.

Pure patriots.

Is it true that the Red Army waited until after the uprising to enter Warsaw?

Yes. Stalin did not give the order to Rokossovsky to support the insurgents.

The Poles had depended on their Western allies, but Stalin would not permit the allies to land, and it was too far to fly from Britain without a stopover. Stalin had referred to the Home Army (AK) as 'criminals', he'd already prepared Polish Communist followers - The Lublin Committee - based in Moscow- to take control after the war ended. They were referred to as the Government, where as the Government in exile in London were referred to as emigres.

AK had estimated it could manage five days of fighting before it would run out of ammunition. Quite a feat to last 63 days! After the war many AK were rounded up and shot.

Many fled to other countries in Europe. In one case, a colonel, had lost his wife when the column Sigismund 3 fell on her. She was holding their sons hand. He survived. The father lived in England and for many years could not be in touch with his son for fear of reprisals.

Whereas many speak of victory, for Poland the end of the war was a defeat. What was there to celebrate? Having regained its independence in 1920 after partitions by neighbours, the Poles had fought to keep that freedom. Communism did not mean freedom.

caprice49

Thanks for that brief synopsis, Caprice. I have a book on the Warsaw Rising, I have to get around to reading it.

Couple of photos from Powązki Military Cemetary in Warsaw on 1 August 2009.
They were so young..

If it's by Norman Davies on the battle for Warsaw in 1994 it's well worth the read. A respected historian who has understood that not everyone can cope with a sentence full of consonants (Polish i.e.) and has used easy abbr. for those who find Polish challenging. His books are easy to read. (This does mean that any book written on the Ghetto uprising in Warsaw in 1943 is less readable, but there were two uprisings, which even the broadsheet newspapers seemed to have missed when referring to 1944 uprising).

It is the preoccupation with Jews as the only group of people worth discussing during WWII. Maybe they do own the media? I have noticed there is very little in the media about communist crimes.

Maybe the media reflects what people want to read?


Maybe the media have grasped what you can not: it is impossible to be a communist and a Jew.

Wyborcza for example, most senior reporters are Jews.

Right. You get that empty feeling when you don't get a holocaust story every morning.


Jews seem to of different opinion: ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3342999,00.html

Uh, Harry you know so little about Jews it's pathetic. Have you EVER heard of Atheist Jews? Read up on Jews around the WWW and get a bit of an education.

I love how you can in one breath complain about the lack of media attention to a certain subject and in the next quote a media article about that very subject!


But I love even more how the biggest moron on this site is trying to tell me things about Jews and Polish history from 1919 to 1989!

Dear lady, you may wish to note that the term is "Jewish atheism". A Jewish person who does not practice his religion is not a Jew.

Harry instead of condescending to me why not do some research of your own? Why not read some of the fascinating information available with just a few taps at your keyboard and mouse clicks and see for yourself. It's all on the www if you will let go of your ego some, open up your mind and read what the Jews write about themselves.


Talking about yourself again? Harry you really are all ego.

I know for a fact that such articles are very rare. But, without looking, I will bet I can find an article on the Jewish Holocaust in today's press. And tomorrow...