AUGUST 14
1941
Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to die in place of another prisoner in Auschwitz: Kolbe and several other priests of the monastery organized a temporary hospital, where they provided shelter and assistance to Jews fleeing from Nazi persecution. He hid 2,000 in their friary in Niepokalanów. The Nazis permitted him to continue publishing religious material, but he secretly issued a number of anti-Nazi German publications. On February 17, 1941, the Nazis shut down the monastery and arrested Kolbe and four others, sending them to Pawiak prison. On May 28, Kolbe was transferred to Auschwitz as prisoner #16670. When a prisoner escaped from the camp, the Nazis selected ten others to be killed in reprisal. One of them was Franciszek Gajowniczek, who broke down in despair and weeping, " My wife! My children! I will never see them again!" Maximilian Kolbe stepped forward and asked to die in his place. His request was granted ... (PS: After the Germans invaded Poland, Kolbe was arrested and briefly detained by the Gestapo. Kolbe refused to sign the Deutsche Volksliste, which would have given him rights similar to those of German citizens in exchange for recognizing his German ancestry. His father was an ethnic German.)
1944
Operation Tractable, the final phase of the Allied offensive began on August 14, 1944. It was conducted by the 1st Canadian Army and the 1st Armored Polish Division against Army Group B of the Wehrmacht. Their objective was to capture the strategically important French towns of Falaise, and smaller towns of Trun and Chambois The Polish Division, under the command of General Brygady Stanislaw Maczek in their drive for Chambois, enabled the Falaise Gap to be partially closed by Aug 19, 1944 thus trapping about 150,000 German soldiers in the Falaise Pocket. Attacks and counter-attacks continued on Hill 262 between the 1st Polish Armoured Division and the II SS Panzer Corp. Despite the fact that the Gap was narrowed to a distance of only several hundred yards, thousands of German troops were able to escape. For two days of nearly continuous fighting, Polish forces using artillery barrages and close-quarter fighting, managed to hold off seven German divisions. On August 21, elements of the First Canadian Army relieved the Polish survivors and sealed the Falaise Pocket by linking up with the Third US Army. This led to the surrender and capture of the remaining units of the German 7th Army in the pocket.
President Roosevelt sent Stalin a request for US landing facilities in Russia in order to transport supplies to the Poles during the Warsaw Uprising. The Soviets bluntly replied that they did not object to the British and American supply mission, however they would be refused landing facilities once they had completed the mission over Warsaw. In the following three weeks both Churchill and Roosevelt engaged in negotiations with Stalin, and finally on September 9, 1944 Stalin sent a message to the British Ambassador in Moscow, stating that the Soviet Union would not take responsibility for what was happening in Warsaw, but that they would begin their own air supply missions, and give American and British planes landing rights according to pre-determined arrangements.
1980
The Rise of Solidarity: 16, 000 workers went on strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, marking the beginning of the Solidarity movement (Note: The strike was organized by the Free Trade Unions of the Coast, led by electrician Lech Wałęsa. He was a former shipyard worker who had been dismissed in 1976. The strike committee demanded the rehiring of Walentynowicz and Wałęsa, as well as respect for workers' rights among other issues. Moreover, they demanded that a monument be raised in memory of the shipyard workers who were killed in 1970, and for the legalization of independent trade unions. The Polish government tried to impose censorship by blocking all phone connections between the coast and inland regions. The communist media barely mentioned the strike except to indicate some "sporadic labor disturbances in Gdańsk". Regardless, the democratic ideals of the emerging Solidarity movement spread rapidly through Radio Free Europe broadcasts, mass circulation of a series of samizdats, including Robotnik (The Worker), and spreading the word through the grapevine.
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