AUGUST 25
1919
Matt Louis Urban, was a United States Army lieutenant colonel who was one of the most decorated American infantry officers of World War II. He performed valiantly in combat on many occasions despite being wounded in action several times. Urban received over a dozen personal decorations for combat from the U.S. Army, including seven Purple Hearts. In 1980, he received the Medal of Honor and four other personal decorations for combat belatedly for his actions in France and Belgium in 1944.
1937
The Polish Operation was a Soviet campaign of state-sponsored murder of Poles that began on August 25, 1937 and lasted until November 15, 1938. It was the largest ethnic execution and deportation campaign conducted during Stalin's Great Terror against political prisoners in the Soviet Union. It was orchestrated by Nikolai Yezho, head of the NKVD (secret Soviet police). Though Yezho was Stalin's right-hand man, he was eventually arrested and tortured into confessing anti-Soviet activities. Yezho was executed on February 4, 1940. The NKVD archives documented a total of 139,835 Polish victims. Of this total 111,091 Polish people, and even people accused of having ties with Poland were sentenced to death; the remaining 28,744 Poles were sentenced to Soviet labor camps, called "the dry guillotine" where they perished in a slow and agonizing death due to exposure, malnutrition, and overwork. The Polish Operation marked the peak of persecution of the Poles, which had been ongoing for about a decade.
1938
MS Sobieski was launched in Newcastle. The Sobieski was a Polish passenger ship named in honour of the Polish King Jan III Sobieski. The vessel was used in the Allied evacuation of western France in 1940 (Operation Ariel), the Battle of Dakar and the campaign in Madagascar. She was also used to transport the British 18th Division to the defence of Singapore.
1939
Poland and Britain signed the Agreement of Mutual Assistance, formalizing Britain's March 31 declaration of support for Poland. The agreement promised mutual military assistance between the nations in the event either was attacked by a "European country". In a secret protocol of the pact, Britain offered assistance if Poland were attacked, specifically by Germany. Both the Britain and Poland were bound not to enter agreements with any other third countries which were a threat to the other. On the same day that the agreement was signed, Lord Halifax (British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) stated: "We do not think this guarantee will be binding". A British diplomat, Alexander Cadogan wrote in his diary: "Naturally, our guarantee does not give any help to Poland. It can be said that it was cruel to Poland, even cynical". When news of this Agreement filtered to Berlin, Hitler cancelled the invasion of Poland planned for August 26 and moved it up to September 1, in order to give Germany time to break up the unfavourable international alignment.
At 5:30 p.m. on August 25, 1939, Hitler met with the French Ambassador to Berlin, Robert Coulondre. In a report to Georges Bonnet, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Coulonre wrote, "…... Under the circumstances I could make only a brief reply. I told him [Hitler|, first of all, that I knew that all misunderstanding had now been removed; yet that, in a moment as grave as this, I emphatically gave him my word of honour as a soldier that I had no doubt whatever that in the event of Poland's being attacked, France would assist her with all the forces at her command....." Hitler replied, "..... "It is very painful for me to think I might have to fight your country; but the decision does not rest with me. Please tell this to M. Daladier."...... Coulondre stated that he "was unable to prolong the interview any further, and after these remarks I took my leave." (no.242)
Jabłonków Incident refers to the events that took place on the night of August 25-26, 1939, along the Polish-Slovak border. A group of German Abwehr agents attacked a rail station in Mosty with the objective of capturing the Jablunkov Pass, and its strategic railroad tunnel, until the arrival of the German armed forces. But the Germans were repelled by units of the Polish Army. The incident is regarded as the prelude to the German invasion of Poland. The Jabłonków Incident has been named the first commando operation of the Second World War.
1941
Tykocin Pogrom: On the morning of August 25, 1941 the Nazi Germans ordered all Tykocin Jews to assemble in the market square for the purpose of "resettlement" to a ghetto at Czerwony Bór. About 1,400–1,700 people were taken from the square to a killing site in the nearby Łopuchowo forest. The Jewish men were marched on foot, while the women and children were transported by truck. Some local Jews managed to escape and went into hiding, however very few managed to survive. The SS Einsatzkommando firing squad under the command of SS-Obersturmführer Hermann Schaper, executed the prisoners systematically in wave after wave; the victims, including women, children and the elderly, fell into the execution pits as they were shot. The executions were carried out throughout the many towns and villages in the Bialystok region, including Radziłów, Jedwabne, Łomża, Rutki, Wizna, Piątnica, and Zambrów. (Decades after the war, Schaper was brought to justice by German authorities, though initially he was able to deceive them at his first trial in Ludwigsburg.)
1943
Witold Pilecki, a member of the Polish underground resistance, reached Warsaw to report to Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK) Headquarters. He had escaped from Auschwitz on April 26-27, 1943 after two years of imprisonment, and gave his eye-witness reports to Section II (intelligence and counter-intelligence) of the Armia Krajowa (Home Army) regional headquarters. He had hoped that the AK, backed by the Allies would launch an attack in order to free the camp prisoners. The AK had already suffered the loss of several underground operatives, including a Cichociemny, Stefan Jasieński. Ultimately it was decided that the AK did not have sufficient strength to capture Auschwitz without Allied help. And the Allies were not receptive to the idea. According to Pilecki's detailed report, (Raport Witolda – Witold's Report) he estimated that "By March 1943 the number of people gassed on arrival reached 1.5 million." This report, over 100 pages in length, included details about the gas chambers, the "selektion", and the sterilization experiments conducted on prisoners and documented that Birkenau had three crematoria cremating 8,000 bodies every single day. Unfortunately, the Office of Strategic Services in London, which received this report, filed it away with a note that the information was considered unreliable. Pilecki's report was later supplemented by another eye-witness account by Jerzy Tabeau (in his "Polish Major's Report"). Tabeau had escaped with Roman Cieliczko on November 19, 1943. These three eye-witness accounts are known as the Auschwitz Protocols, the earliest warnings about the atrocities and mass extermination that took place at the death camp. (Information about Pilecki's underground activities and his persecution by the Soviet NKVD had been suppressed by the communist government after the war. It was only in 1989 that the truth was revealed.) Witold Pilecki is considered to be one of the greatest war time heroes. In the foreword to the book "The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery", the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, wrote the following: "When God created the human being, God had in mind that we should all be like Captain Witold Pilecki, of blessed memory."
1944
Warsaw under Siege while Paris was Liberated: The liberation of Paris was launched by the French Resistance upon the advance of the US Third Army, led by General Patton. On the night of August 24, troops of General Leclerc's 2nd French Armored Division entered Paris and reached the Hôtel de Ville just before midnight, followed by the bulk of allied divisions on the morning of August 25. The German garrisons surrendered after four years of occupation. While Paris was liberated, Warsaw was in flames, and under siege by the Germans. News of the liberation of Paris encouraged the Poles to keep fighting, in the hope that Warsaw would also be liberated. After Stalin's refusal to support the Warsaw Uprising, Churchill telegrammed Roosevelt to propose sending planes in defiance of Stalin and 'see what happens'. On August 26, Roosevelt replied, "I do not consider it advantageous to the long-range general war prospect for me to join you in the proposed message to Uncle Joe." (note: Uncle Joe was their nickname for Stalin)
4th Bombing of Peenemunde: 376 B-17s against the Peenemünde Experimental Station (146), Neubrandenburg Airfield (108) and Anklam Airfield (73); 21 others hit Parow Airfield and 5 hit targets of opportunity; 5 B-17s were lost and 75 damaged; 1 airman was KIA, 9 WIA and 45 MIA. Escort was provided by 171 P-47s and P-51s; they claimed 36-0-28 aircraft on the ground; 2 P-51s were lost. Repairs to Peenemünde Test Stand VII allowed launchings to resume just six weeks after the daylight raid. (Peenemunde was the located of the Nazis V-2 manufacturing and testing center.)
2002
Countess Karolina Maria Adelajda Franciszka Ksawera Małgorzata Edina Lanckorońska was a Polish noble, World War II resistance fighter, and historian. Lanckorońska was active in the Polish resistance and was arrested, interrogated, tortured, tried and sentenced to death at Stanisławów prison. During her incarceration, the local Gestapo chief Hans Krueger confided to her that he had murdered 23 Lwów University professors. She made it her mission to make this confession public knowledge. Because of her family connections, Lanckorońska was spared from execution, but instead was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women. She survived and, immediately after release in 1945, wrote her war memoirs. After the war, she left Poland and lived in Switzerland, and later, until her death, in Rome on August 25, 2002. She was 104. She never returned to Poland. In her last will and testament, Countess Lanckorońska bequeathed her family's enormous art collection to Poland only after her homeland became free again. The Lanckoronski Collection may now for the most part be seen in Warsaw's Royal Castle and Kraków's Wawel Castle. Her book has been published in English, "Those Who Trespass against Us: One Woman's War against the Nazis.".
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