FEBRUARY 6 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

FEBRUARY 6

1633

Coronation of King Wladyslaw IV Vasa on February 6, 1633. Władysław was successful in defending the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth against invasion, most notably in the Smolensk War of 1632–34, in which he participated personally. He supported religious tolerance and carried out military reforms, such as the founding of the Commonwealth Navy. He was also a renowned patron of the arts and music. He failed, however, to realize his dreams of regaining the Swedish crown,  and gained fame by defeating the Ottoman Empire, strengthened royal power, and reformed the Commonwealth.

1910

Roman Czerniawski (dob) was a Polish Air Force Captain and Allied double agent during World War II, using the code name Brutus.  In 1940 he volunteered to create an allied espionage network in France. He established it with Mathilde Carré who recruited the agents as some French declined to work for a Pole. This network was code-named Interallie. After the Fall of France, he evacuated to England where he met General Sikorski, who decorated him with Poland's highest award, the Virtuti Militari. But on November 17, 1941, Czerniawski parachuted back into France. He was immediately arrested by the Nazi Germans, and imprisoned along with others. Apparently, Mathilde had been captured and agreed to cooperate with the Nazis, in order that her life be spared. Subsequently, the Germans offered him safety and sent him to England as an agent. MI5 took him into employ as a Double Agent using the code name "Brutus".  He was arrested again for an act of mutiny against Polish authority, and imprisoned for a couple of months.

1945

Only 800 Jews Survived in Lodz; 70,000 were killed by Germans since Russian Offensive:  Journalists description of events: " ...Of the 250,000 Jews who resided in Lodz before the war, and the tens of thousands who were here there from all parts of occupied Europe, only 800 survived, the correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency found upon arriving in this industrial center...  From survivors, the correspondent learned that the Germans had sent almost 70,000 Jews from Lodz to the death camp of Oswiecim since last August, when the Red Army broke through to the Vistula River. When deportations were no longer possible, the Gestapo murdered Jews in the ghetto itself. As late as January 16, when Russian tanks were already breaking into the outskirts of the city, the last batch of victims were machine gunned in the Jewish cemetery after being forced to dig their own graves. As this correspondent walked through the vast barbed-wire-enclosed slum area which constituted the ghetto he found many empty house in which tables were set for dinner, with the food untouched. The inhabitants had been dragged to their death in the last minute frenzied massacres that preceded the fall of the city..."

1989

The Round Table Talks began on February 6, 1989 at 2:23 pm CET.   The Solidarity opposition delegation negotiated with officials of the communist Polish government, in the Council of Ministers Office. The meetings, co-chaired by Lech Wałęsa and Kiszczak, resulted in radical changes in the shape of Polish government and society, establishing semi-free elections in 1989. By the end of August 1989 a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed, and in December 1990 Walesa was elected President.  It gave momentum to events in Poland which led to the fall of the European communist bloc. The communist governmental system was dismantled, and Poland emerged into a modern, and independent democratic nation state.  Consequently, the Yalta accords from World War Two, became null and void.