SEPTEMBER 19
1657
Brandenburg & Poland signed Treaty of Wehlau. The Treaty of Wehlau was agreement in which John Casimir, King of Poland renounced the suzerainty of the Polish crown over ducal Prussia and granted it to Frederick William (the duke of Prussia and elector of Brandenburg) making him the duchy’s sovereign ruler. William wanted to acquire the duchy by his participation in the Polish-Swedish War of Succession (1600–60). Initially he sided with Sweden, but when he failed to achieve his goal, he entered into the Treaty of Wehlau with King Casimir. According to the terms of the treaty, Frederick William promised to provide Poland with 6,000 troops from Brandenburg for use in the war against Sweden. In return, King Casimir recognized Frederick William and his heirs as sovereign rulers of ducal Prussia. The Treaty of Wehlau was subsequently confirmed by the Treaty of Oliva (1660), which concluded the Polish-Swedish War.
1921
Wojciech Antoni Rostafiński (dob) code-named "Masłowski", was a Polish soldier in the Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army) during World War II. In 1944 he fought in the Warsaw Uprising as a member of Szare Szeregi (Gray Ranks-Boy Scouts) "Rygiel" Group. For his bravery during the Uprising, Rostafiński was awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari. In 1953 Rostafiński moved to United States. He was manager of advanced research projects at NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. During his career, he contributed to the theory of aeronautics and applied mathematics, and his work is listed in the Scientific Citation Index.
1939
Hitler entered the former Free City of Danzig and gave a speech denouncing the Polish government and warning England that Germany would never capitulate even if the war lasted years. The following is a brief excerpt: "…..Britain ought to welcome the fact that Germany and Soviet Russia have come to an understanding, for this understanding means the elimination of that nightmare which kept British statesmen from sleeping because they were so concerned over the ambitions of the present [German] regime to conquer the world. It will calm you to learn that Germany does not, and did not, want to conquer the Ukraine........Germany has there limited but unalterable claims, and she will realize those claims one way or another. Germany and Russia will put in place the hotbed of conflict in the European situation which later will be valued only as a relaxation of tension. If the Western Powers now declare that this must not be, under any circumstances, and if especially England declares that she is determined to oppose this in a three- or five- or eight-year war, then I want to say something in reply: Firstly, Germany, by extensive yielding and renunciation in the west and south of the Reich, has accepted definite boundaries. Germany tried by these renunciations to attain lasting pacification. And we believe we would have succeeded were it not that certain warmongers could be interested in disturbing the European peace.......
1940
Polish underground fighter Witold Pilecki deliberately went out during a Warsaw street roundup (łapanka) and allowed himself to be caught by the Nazi Germans, along with some 2,000 civilians (which included Władysław Bartoszewski). They were detained for two days in the Light Horse Guards Barracks, and suffered beatings with rubber truncheons. Pilecki was sent to Auschwitz and was assigned inmate number 4859. During his imprisonment there he organized the underground Union of Military Organizations (ZOW), which merged with many of the smaller underground organizations already formed at the Camp. ZOW's objectives were to improve inmate morale, provide news from outside, distribute extra food and clothing to members, set up intelligence networks and train detachments to take over the camp in the event of a relief attack by the Home Army, or arms airdrops or an airborne landing by the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. ZOW was an invaluable organization which provided the Polish underground and the Polish Government In Exile with information about the camp operations.
1941
Nazis Germans captured Kiev. The First Battle of Kiev was part of Operation Barbarossa which lasted from August 7 to September 26, 1941 and resulted in a large-scale encirclement by the Nazi Germans of Soviet troops in the vicinity of Kiev. The encirclement was the largest one of its kind in the history of warfare. Much of the Southwestern Front of the Red Army was encircled though small groups of Soviet troops were able to escape the cauldron. The battle was an unprecedented defeat for the Red Army, and surpassed even that of the Battle of Białystok-Minsk (June–July 1941). The encirclement trapped 452,700 Soviet soldiers, 2,642 guns and mortars and 64 tanks. By October 2, about 15,000 escaped from the encirclement. The Southwestern Front casualties were 616,304 killed or captured, and 84,240 wounded or missing during the battle. The 40th Army suffered many losses, while the 5th, 37th, 26th, 21st and the 38th armies, consisting of 43 divisions, were annihilated.
1942
During the previous two days, September 17/18, 1942, nearly 3,000 ethnic Polish men and women were caught and rounded up by the Nazi Germans, in random massive round-ups (Polish: lapanka) throughout Warsaw. The Poles were then transported by the train-loads to Germany as slave labor. Many Poles were taken as hostages in reprisal, while most were sent to concentration camps, or summarily executed.
1944
Warsaw Uprising. On the night of September 19, when no further crossings from the other side of the river could be made, and the promised evacuation of wounded did not take place, units of Armia Krajowa, (Polish Home Army soldiers) and landed elements of the 1st Polish Army were forced to begin a retreat from their positions on the bank of the river. Out of approximately 900 men who made it ashore only a handful made it back to the eastern shore of the Vistula. Berling's Polish Army losses in the attempt to aid the Uprising were 5,660 killed, missing or wounded. From this point on, the Warsaw Uprising can be seen as a one-sided war of attrition or, alternatively, as a fight for acceptable terms of surrender.
1993
Parliamentary elections. Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on September 19, 1993 for the Sejm (Parliament) and the Senate. Roughly 52% of Polish citizens cast their votes, and 95.7% votes in the Sejm elections were confirmed as valid, while 97.07% in the Sentate eletions were confirmed as valid. The elections were won by the Democratic Left Alliance ( 20.4% of the Sejm; 35.7% of the Sentate) and the Polish People's Party (15.4% of the Sejm; 23.2% of the Senate). Both left-wing parties formed a coalition. (Votes for Solidarity: 4.9% Sejm; 19.2% Senate)
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