Warsaw Uprising in "bullets" - Day 56
The Warsaw Uprising broke out at W-hour (1700 hrs sharp) on August 1, 1944, as the largest resistance operation in German-occupied Europe and a unique one on a global scale. It was planned to last a few days, but ran for as long as 63 days.
The following events took place on September 25 (Monday):
- Two negotiators in the person of previously-captured Home Army soldiers are sent by Germans to suggest that the Warsaw insurgents capitulate Mokotow district. No response is sent back to Germans.
- The enemy murders the injured and staff of hospitals at 17 Czeczota and Lenartowicza streets.
- In the night, soldiers, civilians along with civilian authorities withdraw through the sewers from Mokotow to central Warsaw's Srodmiesie district, where situation remains stable.
- Polish athlete and a notable Warsaw Uprising photographer, the Champion of Poland in javelin throw (1934) and gymnastics (1935), lieutenant Eugeniusz Lokajski (nom de guerre 'Brok') is killed in the ruins of 129 Marszalkowska St. He is known for having represented Poland in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, where, although seriously injured in a training session, places 7th with a 66,36 m throw. Despite the fact that it is Lokajski who take more than a thousand photos depicting the Warsaw Uprising, one of the most memorable and telling pictures of the time is actually taken of him (from his camera), as he stands in a helmet, in the yard of a bombarded 124/128 Mraszalkowska St. building, holding a little stranded kitten.
NOTE 1: The Home Army-organised (see: NOTE 2) Warsaw Uprising broke out on August 1, 1944, as the biggest resistance operation in German-occupied Europe. Initially intended to last several days, it continued for over two months before its suppression by the Germans. The uprising claimed the lives of 18,000 insurgents and around 200,000 civilians.
After the insurgents surrendered and the remaining 500,000 residents were expelled, the Germans methodically burned down and blew up Warsaw house by house. By January 1945, app. 90 percent of the buildings and city infrastructure was destroyed.
NOTE 2: The Home Army (AK) was the main resistance movement in Poland when it was occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II. It was formed from the Union of Armed Struggle (ZWZ) (see: NOTE 3), which in turn evolved from a clandestine organisation called the Polish Victory Service (SZP).
The SZP was launched on the night of Sept. 26, 1939, by a group of senior officers led by Gen. Michal Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski, with the participation of Warsaw Mayor Stefan Starzynski. It became the nucleus of a nationwide resistance movement known as the Polish Underground State.
The Home Army, whose allegiance was to the Polish government-in-exile, was one of the largest and best organised resistance movements in Europe, with the total number of fighters put at anywhere from 200,000 to 600,000.
In his book God's Playground. A History of Poland, prominent historian Norman Davies said that, "the Home Army could fairly claim to be the largest of European resistance [organisations]".
The so-called Polish Underground State, which operated from 1939 to 1945 and by many was looked up to as a model of conspiracy administration, was subordinated to the Polish government-in-exile to have been first based in France and subsequently in Great Britain. In Poland, the government-in-exile had an impressively developed administration with secret courts and prosecutors, underground schools, universities as well as publishing houses.
The Home Army was the armed wing of the Polish Underground State. Along with various combat activities, the AK was also widely involved in rescuing Jews, among others, by means of the famous 1942-founded Council to Aid Jews (Rada Pomocy Zydom) codenamed 'Zegota' - the only organisation in Europe and a unique one on a global scale established to defend and provide help to Jews in ghettos and elsewhere.
The successive commanders of the AK were generals Stefan Rowecki (until June 30, 1943) Tadeusz Komorowski (until Oct. 2, 1944) and Leopold Okulicki (until Jan. 19, 1945).
The culmination of the AK's armed struggle came with the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The AK's wartime losses totalled about 100,000 soldiers killed in fighting or murdered, and about 50,000 taken to the Soviet Union and imprisoned.
In early 1942, the Home Army had about 100,000 soldiers; by the summer of 1944 the number had risen to 380,000. These included 10,800 officers. Poland’s famous Silent Unseen elite special-operations paratroops were also part of the Home Army.
The Home Army's activities did not end with the end of WW II. After 1945 the AK's so-called Enduring Soldiers fought the Soviet regime.
Under communism, AK soldiers were persecuted by Poland's authorities, especially during the Stalinist period. Many of them were handed death penalties; others spent many years in prison.
NOTE 3: The Union of Armed Struggle (ZWZ) was an underground force formed in Poland following the invasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939. On February 14, 1942, it transformed into the Home Army (AK). (PAP)
