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It happened 65 years ago - 7/31/2009 6:43:06 PM

stella41b

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As you travel around the city you can still see evidence. You can tell which buildings survived, for the walls of many of them still bear the pockmarks from shells and even the stanchions which carry the overhead wires above tramlines in some places still bear dents from bullets. On the East West Route, in the middle of the pavement there is a metre high fragment of a brick wall. This is the best of the remnants of the solid brick wall which once surrounded the Warsaw Ghetto. The few bits of the 'old' Warsaw which survived are mainly in the centre. Everything else was painstakingly rebuilt, including the Old Market Square in the centre.

There is a timeless quality about Warsaw. Starting in the present day in the centre you can travel in any direction, and if you overlook the modern cars parked in the streets and travel among the stone built tenement blocks and massive concrete blocks of flats in sprawling housing estates you reach a point where time no longer matters. You could be in the 1990's, the 1980's, the 1970's or even 1950's.

But Warsaw is not just a city rich in history, it is home to a legend. That legend is honoured by a monument in its Muranow district, a monument with a short length of railway track on which is mounted a wagon half filled with crosses. That legend was arguably the defining moment of the Second World War when the people joined together to stand up against the odds to stand together and fight against the tyranny of the occupying forces. That legend is of course the Warsaw Uprising which broke out August 1st 1944.

It was organized by the National Army (Armia Krajowa) and the elite of the Warsaw Underground in what was known as Operation 'Storm'. It's aim was to regain post-war sovereignty as a succession to the sovereignty before the Second World War rejecting the puppet government under the Soviets which was then the Polish National Liberation Committee in Lublin and additionally to keep the eastern border. It was also an attempt to negate the agreement the Allies reached at the Teheran Conference which placed Poland in the hands of Joseph Stalin.

On the 29th July 1944 via Moscow radio the Union of Polish Patriots appealed to the people of Warsaw to rise up against the occupying Nazi forces. At 3pm, 8.55pm, 9.55pm and 11pm on the 30th July this broadcast was repeated by the 'Tadeusz Kosciuszko' radio station. This took place when the Red Army was advancing towards Warsaw in eastern Poland. With regard to its own successes and advances, the Red Army estimated that the Warsaw Uprising wouldn't last much longer than a few days.

It actually lasted 63 days. Polish losses amounted to around 10,000 killed, 7,000 missing, 5,000 injured soldiers and between 120,000 and 200,000 civilian casualties. Those killed were mostly young Poles, including a very large majority of the Warsaw intelligentsia.

The losses suffered by the occupying Nazis amounted to around 10,000 killed, 6,000 missing, 9,000 injured, at least 300 tanks and armoured cars destroyed.

On the 1st August as the Uprising broke out SS-Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler acting on the instructions of Adolf Hitler ordered the destruction of Warsaw and the extermination of its residents. This order, according to the testimony of Erich von dem Bach at the Nuremburg trials in 1946 was as follows:

1. Captured rebels are to be killed, irrespective of whether they are fighting in accordance with the Hague Convention or not.

2. Those not involved in the fighting, including women and children, were also to be killed.

3. The entire city of Warsaw was to be razed to the ground - all the houses, buildings, streets, everything.

As a result all the residents in the western district of Wola were exterminated, which also took place to the south west in Ochota, to the south in Mokotov, and in the centre of the city. Nazi commanders also allowed rape, robbery and torture to take place. Summary executions of those captured took place in the evenings.

During the Uprising about 25% of the buildings in Warsaw were destroyed and at the end special Nazi destruction squads (Vernichtungskommando) burnt and destroyed a further 35%. This with the 10% destroyed in 1939 and the 15% destroyed as a result of the uprising and liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto meant that by the end of the Second World War 85% of what was Warsaw was destroyed and lay in ruins. Centuries of national, historical and cultural artefacts were either lost, destroyed or stolen.

It's generally accepted that the Warsaw Uprising lasted 63 days and ended 2nd October 1944 when the National Army stopped its offensive action. However negotiations in Ozarow Mazowieckie near Warsaw took longer than expected and the ceasefire wasn't signed until the 3rd October. You could also claim that the Warsaw Uprising lasted 66 days because the Warsaw Underground was still functioning and prisoners were still being taken on the 5th October.

The precise number of Polish victims was never documented and is difficult to estimate. The most common figure of 200,000 comes from the international press conference organized by the Polish National Liberation Committee on 28th August which due to the lack of reliable sources became accepted as the official figure. However in the 1960's this figure changed to 250,000 but nowadays most historians believe it to be around 120,000-130,000.

Those captured during the Uprising including around the time of the ceasefire were taken to a special camp in Pruszkow (just south west of Warsaw) . Around 550,000 came from Warsaw alone, from around Warsaw (both left and right banks of the Vistula River) there were a further 100,000, and from a similar camp in Ursus came another 50,000. After selection some 100,000 ill were released from the camp. The Nazis broke the ceasefire agreement transporting around 165,000 people to slave labour in Germany and sending a further 60,000 to concentration camps in Ravensbruck, Auschwitz and Matthausen.

There's a great deal of controversy about the meaning of the Warsaw Uprising, its taking place and the effectiveness of the decisions taken by the National Army at the start. Some of the arguments centre around the costs of the Uprising (destruction of the city, the loss of an entire generation of young Poles) and some as to why the Uprising took place.

For some years the propaganda of the communist Republic of Poland, including the official version in school textbooks published up to around 1956 tried to present the Warsaw Uprising as an irresponsible decision which caused an untold amount of damage and which didn't have any particular military significance. It was never mentioned that the Red Army acting on orders from Joseph Stalin held back from mounting an offensive on Warsaw on the 5th and 6th of August, the decision being taken for political reasons. The Red Army stayed in position in Radzymin (north east of Warsaw) for 44 days until the first Soviet rocket attacks which took place 13th and 14th September. Despite many promises the Red Army never came to the assistance of those fighting in the Uprising, basically so as not to support any of the aims for independence which went against Soviet plans for post-war Poland.

However after 1989 in more recent post-communist times numerous historical publications have tried to look at the Warsaw Uprising in a much more objective light also working to verify some of the propaganda of former times. However it's also worth watching out for opinions which go to the other extreme and the 'Warsaw Uprising cult'.

Most common arguments critical of the Uprising include:

that the Nazis knew about the date of the Uprising from the start.
that the Uprising was very badly planned and organized, with practically none of the planned military objectives being achieved.
that the Uprising caused huge losses and suffering to the civilian population of Warsaw and also led to widespread destruction of that part of Warsaw found on the left bank of the Vistula.
that the badly prepared strategy of the Uprising had virtually no military significance.
that none of the political objectives were achieved. It didn't strengthen Mikolajczyk's position with Stalin, but weakened it. It further isolated the position of the exiled Polish government in London on the international arena. It caused the British to cross the National Army off the list of those sponsored with the supply of weapons for resistance fighting and also caused Roosevelt to give Stalin free rein when it came to the affairs of Eastern Europe.

Most common arguments supportive of the Warsaw Uprising include:

that the Warsaw Uprising is a symbol of heroism, sacrifice and resilience of those who took part being the biggest in [Polish] history fight for freedom as a value higher than life, injury and all material comforts. It would be a mistake not to acknowledge this and even worse to exclude this from spiritual values.
that the Warsaw Uprising was unavoidable.
that the Warsaw Uprising was 'the hardest battle of the Second World War and just as hard as the Battle of Stalingrad' (said by Heinrich Himmler to Nazi generals)
that the Uprising had considerable military significance. Those who took part in the Uprising caused the Nazis heavy losses, which according to the testimony of Erich von dem Bach 'in the first few days entire [Nazi] units were completely destroyed in a way which the Nazi leaders could never have predicted'.

Sources:

Polish Wikipedia.
Polish National History Institute (Instytut Pamieci Narodowej)
Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Dni Walczajacej Stolicy - Kronika Powstania Warszawskiego

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