JANUARY 2 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

JANUARY 2

1937

Poland received French loan:  French loan was accepted by the budget commission of the Sejm. (Note: In the early 1920s, the Polish government planned the construction of the Polish Coal Trunk-Line, a rail line connecting the Polish part of Upper Silesia with Baltic Sea coast. It was one of the largest investments of the Second Polish Republic, funded by the Polish government, until 1930. With the Great Depression looming over budgetary problems, and doubts over the completion of the project, the Polish government decided upon the French-Polish Rail Association to take over construction of middle sector of the line.)

1939

Father of Polish Nationalism: Roman Dmowski, a Polish politician and statesman died. He was called the "Father of Polish Nationalism". He was a controversial figure during his career, and since his death. He truly believed that only a Polish-speaking, Roman Catholic could be a "good Pole". Dmowski was openly anti-semitic. Dmowski admired Italian fascism. In the summer of 1926 Dmowski wrote a series of articles admiring Mussolini and the Italian fascist model, and helped organize the Camp of Great Poland (OWP), a broad anti-Sanacja front modeled on Italian fascism that was known for its anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence. Later he nonetheless tried to ensure that OWM would not blindly imitate the Italian or German models.

1944

A Soviet "liberation" The 1st Ukrainian Front captured Radovel northwest of Korosten and came within 18 miles of the pre-war Polish border


Operation Tempest was launched:. It consisted of a series of Polish anti-Nazi uprisings launched during World War II by the largest resistance movement in Poland, the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK). Operation Tempest (Polish: akcja „Burza”, sometimes referred in English as Operation Storm) was a series of anti-Nazi uprisings conducted during World War II by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK), the dominant force in the Polish resistance. The Polish resistance planned on seizing control of Nazi-occupied Polish cities and regions while the German armies were preparing their their defenses against the advancing Soviet Red Army. The civil authorities of the Polish underground anticipated taking back power before the arrival of the Soviets.

1945

Allies Raided Nuremberg: RAF bombers conducted heavy raids on Nuremberg and Ludwigshafen; in both cities over 2,300 tons of bombs were dropped. Some ninety percent of Nuremberg's old medieval town center was destroyed.

1947

(additional entry for January 2)

The Milch Trial was the second of 12 trials of the United States Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (not to be confused with the Nuremberg Trials). It was also called the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials". In this trial, held from January 2 to April 14, 1947, SS Nazi Field Marshal of the Luftwaffe Erhard Milch was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.  Among the charges against Milch was his involvement in the use of prisoners as slave labor in Nazi German enterprises, subjecting prisoners to fatal medical experiments, and forcing prisoners to participate in war operations in violation of the Geneva convention. On April 17, 1947, Milch was sentenced to life imprisonment at Rebdorf Prison, near Munich. However, in 1951 his sentence was commuted to 15 years of imprisonment.  Then, in June 1954 he was paroled and became a free man. He lived the rest of his life n Dusseldorf, and died in 1972.