Warsaw Uprising 1944: September 8 POLISH CIVILIANS EVACUATE CITY

Evacuation of Polish Civilians

A ceasefire was in effect today from 12 noon to 2 p.m.  Over 8,000 Polish civilians under the watchful eyes of Polish and German Command, slowly made their way out of the city confines carrying their meager belongings.

The old, the sick, the lame, and women holding their infants, all trudged slowly through the rubble and debris. The destruction of the city has left the people of Warsaw awe-struck.  Wearied souls make their way past buildings that have either been burned or that are still ablaze. One civilian commented that it seemed as though it were "one great wall of fire."

Many civilians who are too old or too sick had to be left behind. In several places along the procession there were many corpses lying in the streets.

600mm German mortar

After the cease fire ended, fighting resumed as German troops attempted a surprise attack on City Centre sector.  Since early this morning, German troops near Srodmiescie North had been on the offensive trying to break into the district from the direction of Nowy Swiat and Krolewska Streets.  Throughout the day Germans have been firing a 600mm mortar every eight minutes.  Casualties are very heavy.

The bombing destroyed the printing plant which had been publishing the famous Polish Information Bulletin. By dawn, the insurgents had to retreat from buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, and from the Police Department on Krakowskie Przedmiescie Street. Germans have taken up postions in the area of Swietokrzyska Street the Holy Cross Church and have captured almost the entire length of Warecka Street.

                Germans bombed intersection of Nowy Swiat and Warecka Street, Warsaw

German troops have reached the area of the Main Post Office in Napoleon Square. Meanwhile a group of insurgents under the command of Major Wlodzimierz Zawadzki "Bartkiewicz"is still in control of Krolewska Street. All around German artillery attacks continue unabated. The crossing of Aleje Jerozolimskie is being hit very hard from Marszalkowka and Nowy Swiat Streets as Germans attempt to destroy the barricade that covers that provides cover for it. Meanwhile in the southern part of Srodmiescie enemy fire is being concentrated in the area of Hoza and Krucza Streets.

Powstanie Warszawskie (00:03:39m) 


 

Since the start of the Uprising there have been reports of widespread Soviet treachery against the Polish Home Army in eastern Soviet-occupied Poland. Russian troops have arrested many Polish soldiers and officers and have either imprisoned or executed them for trumped up charges. While German troops are systematically destroying Warsaw and its' inhabitants, Soviet armies are arresting and killing Polish military leaders in Poland's former eastern frontier.    

Col. Franciszek Studzinski

One of many victims is Col Franciszek Studzinski, code name Kotlina, who is currently held in a Soviet forced-labor camp. The charges are unknown. After the invasion of Poland by Germany and Russia, he fled to Hungary where he was interned in a penal camp, but soon after escaped.  Since August of 1941, he joined the Armia Krajowa and was part of the ZWZ (Pol. Zwiazek Walki Zbrojnej Association for Armed Struggle). By the end of the year he became commander of the post of Tarnopol Province and was able to recruit over 11,000 soldiers to the unit. Since March 1944 he has been stationed in Lwow which is over run by Soviet troops. Within months he was appointed the region's Deputy Commander and by the end of July he began talks with the Soviets in Zytomierz with Col. "Janka" but was viciously arrested and imprisoned in a Soviet forced labor camp.    

 

Tadeusz Zukowski

Tadeusz Zukowski is seen here at the age 22, the photograph taken from Czarnobyle near Wilno. It is from his NKVD file in Lwow dated March 1941/ He was arrested by the NKVD and sentenced to ten years of hard labour in the Magadan Oblast (Kolyma) but he was lucky enough to escape. The NKVD had conducted large-scale executions, a virtual  bloodbath of the Lwow prisons in June of 1941.  In late 1941 Zukowski joined the 2nd Polish Corps formed in Soviet Russia under the command of General Wladyslaw Anders fought in the Italian Campaign of 1944-1945. He was awarded Poland's highest military decoration for bravery on battlefield - the Order of Virtuti Militari. Kolyma is a notorious Soviet labor camp situated in the far reaches of north-eastern Soviet Union.   


Gold and platinum had been discovered there in the early 1930s and since then over a million people of those deported have perished on the way to the labor camp and from harsh conditions: overwork, starvation, malnutrition, mining accidents, exposure to the elements, murder at the hands of the guards, or by "criminal" prisoners. Escape is almost next to impossible because of the severe climate and the remote location. Escapees have often been hunted down by dogs and torn to shreds. Others who were captured were subjected to torture as punishment. Prisoners are not only Polish civilians and military, but other nationalities including Russians who are considered to be enemies of the state - men, women and children.


 

Joseph Stalin Pure Evil (00:05:31m)