OCTOBER 3 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

OCTOBER 3

1882

Karol Maciej Szymanowski (dob)  was the most famous and most celebrated Polish composer of the early 20th century.  Szymanowki was a member of the late 19th to early 20th-century modernist movement Young Poland.  His early compositions were influenced by the late Romantic German school as well as the early works of Alexander Scriabin, as can be discerned by the Étude Op. 4 No. 3 and his first two symphonies. His work developed an impressionistic and partially atonal style, represented by the Third Symphony and his Violin Concerto No. 1.  In his third period of work, he was influenced by the folk music of the Polish Górale people, including the ballet Harnasie, the Fourth Symphony, and his sets of Mazurkas for piano.  His most popular opera was King Roger, composed between 1918-1924.  Karol Szymanowski was awarded the highest Polish national honors, which included the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and other distinctions, as well as numerous international honours.

1940

The Vichy government under Petain, in collaboration with Nazi Germany, passed the first set of anti-Jewish laws called the Statut des Juifs ("statute on Jews") to resolve the so-called Jewish question France and its territories. The Statut made slight modifications to the term of the law,  adopted the Nazi definition of a Jew, as had been established in the German Nuremberg Laws. Jews in France were deprived of their civil rights, fired from their jobs, and forbidden to work in professions, such as teachers, journalists, lawyers. (see June 2, 1941) Jews were also excluded from the army,  commercial and industrial activities, and the civil service.   On October 4, 1940, another law on "Aliens of Jewish Race" was promulgated simultaneously with the Jewish status laws; it decreed the immediate internment of foreign Jews.  According to the law, 40,000 Jews were interned in various camps in the Zone libre, the Southern Zone: Nexon, Agde, Gurs, Noé, Récébédou (fr), Rivesaltes, and Le Vernet.

1942

Successful Rocket Launch:  Nazi Germany made the first successful test flight of its V-2 rocket on October 3, 1942 - it reached an altitude of 84.5 kilometres (52.5 miles). On 22 Dec. 1942, Hitler signed the order for mass production to begin. A production line was at the ready at the Peenemunde Army Research Center (Germany) when the British RAF launched an massive attack against the Peenemunde on August 17-18, 1943, code named Operation Hydra. The Germans moved production to the underground Mittelwerk in the Kohnstein where 5,200 V-2 rockets were constructed using slave-labor from the concentration camps. The V-2 (or Aggregat 4 (A4) was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile, and was superior to the previous (V-1) version, as it travelled faster than the speed of sound. Nazi Germany launched over 1,500 V-2 rockets against London, killing over 7,500 citizens, and devastating the city, as well as many other coastal cities and towns in Britain.

1944

Many Polish insurgents, including soldiers of  Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army ) were arrested by the notorious Soviet NKVD or UB political police and interrogated and imprisoned on various trumped up charges - among which included false accusations that the Poles were "collaborating" with the Nazis, that the Poles were "enemies of the Soviet state" etc.  The Polish Underground never collaborated with Nazi Germany, and had fought against the occupiers from the first day of the war to the very end.  The Soviets arrested vast numbers of Poles and imprisoned them in the gulags, many others were executed.  Between 1944 and 1956, all the fighters of  Battalion Zośka, among many other Polish fighters,had been incarcerated in Soviet prisons and falsely accused of numerous so-called "crimes". (See also March  28, 1945, Trial of the 16) (Editors note:  In Norman Davies' book, "Europe at War", he writes that it was "obscene" that there was no official protest from any of the Allied countries.)