NOVEMBER 25 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

NOVEMBER 25

1795

Stanisław II Augustus Poniatowski was coronated on November 25, 1795.  He was King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and the last ruling monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1764 to 1795.  He remains a controversial figure in Polish history. Though he was recognized as a great patron of the arts and sciences, and was praised for initiating and supporting progressive reforms, the Poles criticized that his reforms did not go far enough and that he was overly cautious, the latter which he overtly admitted.  He did not stand up against the partitions nor prevent the destruction of the Polish state. His election to the throne was marred by Russian interference and intervention.  ( The Russians spent about 2.5 million rubles to help in his election.)  In the years following the Second Partition of Poland, he was accused of weakness, subservience, and even of treason.  (nb. After Poniatowski arrived at the Russian imperial court in Saint Petersburg in 1755, he became romantically involved with the future empress of Russia, Catherine the Great.  Due to her influence, and connivance, Poniatowski was elected King of Poland in 1764.  His attempts to implement reforms were futile, and were met with fierce opposition from Prussia, Russia and Austria, all of which intended to keep the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth weak.  )

1937

The ORP Błyskawica was commissioned on November 24, 1937 and served during World War Two. She was the second of two Grom ("Thunderbolt") class destroyers built for the Polish Navy by J. Samuel White, of Cowes, in 1935–37. These ships were among the most heavily armed and fastest destroyers operating during World War II.  On August 30, 1939, just two days before the war broke out, the Blyskawica, along with the destroyers Grom and Burza, secretly withdrew from the Baltic Sea and sailed to Britain. This was in  accordance with the secret Peking Plan, in order to avoid open conflict with Germany and possible destruction of its navy. They reached Leith, Scotland at 17:30 on September 1, 1939, just as Nazi Germany was unleashing its Blitzkrieg on Polish territory.  On September 7,  1939, the Blyskawica joined the British Royal Navy's Home Fleet, and attacked a Nazi U-Boat. The Blyskawica is the only Polish Navy vessel to have been decorated with the prestigious Virtuti Militari, Poland's highest military order for heroism and leadership. She is now preserved as a museum ship in Gdynia and is the oldest preserved destroyer in the world. 

1944

As Soviet troops were advancing closer, Himmler ordered the destruction of Auschwitz gas chambers and crematoria.  The Nazi SS forced the prisoners to dismantle the structures and dynamite them. (Editors note:  There are still revisionists who claim that Himmler's decision to stop the cremation of the Jews, in defiance of Hitler's orders, could have been due to some sudden manifestation of, consciousness or awareness. This is not true. The only reason for ceasing the gassing operations, was to systematically dismantle the ghastly "evidence" of the Nazi killing machines,  Please refer to primary sources of information, that is, archived documents related to the Nuremberg Trials, the Auschwitz Trials, and the International Military Tribunal. )

1947

Auschwitz Trial began in Krakow on November 25, 1947.  Poland's Supreme National Tribunal brought to court 40 former Auschwitz staff as well as the commandant Arthur Liebehenschel, as well as 34 men and four women who had functioned as guards or doctors in the camps.  On December 22, 1947, the trials ended with 23 death sentences, 7 life sentences, and 9 prison sentences which ranged from three to fifteen years. The only person that was acquitted was Hans Münch, an SS doctor who had several former prisoners testify on his behalf.  The following is an explanation given of the Jury Decisions:  "......Torturing of prisoners [of Auschwitz] already tormented to the extreme [by extrajudicial means], is the evidence of inhuman savagery perpetrated by those defendants who as a result of the trial were sentenced to death. The listed violent crimes committed by named defendants, who all took smaller or larger part in the mass murder of prisoners, also reveal that the accused were involved in the acts of killing for pleasure, and not pursuant to orders of their superiors. If it were not for their expressed desire to kill, they would have otherwise displayed elements of sympathy for the victims, or at least show indifference to their plight, but not torture them to death....."

1990

Lech Wałęsa won in Poland's first popular election. The first round of elections was held on November 25,  1990, with a second round on December 9.  This was the first direct presidential elections to be conducted in the history of Poland, and the first free presidential elections since the May Coup of 1926. Prior to World War II,  the Polish presidents were elected by the Sejm. During the Communist era (1952 to 1989), the presidency was replaced by the State Council of Poland, which dealt with most of the presidential duties, and whose chairman was regarded as equivalent to a president. Lech Walesa, leader of the Solidarity movement (Solidarnosc)  won the first round, but since he did not win 50% of the vote, it lead to a runoff election, where he faced his opponent Stanislaw Tyminski, a Polish-Canadian businessman, in the second round. Walesa defeated him easily. ( Despite Tymiński's defeat, he had not only humiliated Mazowiecki (one of the best-known and most-respected figures in Polish politics), but also forced Wałęsa (who at that time was a national hero) into a runoff. After the election Tymiński tried to establish a new political party, but quickly disappeared from the political scene in Poland.)

2005

Polish Minister of National Defence Radek Sikorski officially opened the Warsaw Pact archives on November 25, 2005 to the public. Sikorski commented that some of the documents indicated that the Soviets were prepared to use nuclear weapons in Europe as part of a war with NATO. Also revealed were maps of possible nuclear strikes against Western Europe, including nuclear annihilation of 43 Polish cities by Soviet-controlled forces. He also reported that he was going to donate more than 700 files that were previously secret until now to the Polish National Remembrance Institute.   This is vital information that sheds light on the real events, and how Poland was "kept as an unwilling ally of the Soviet Union during the Cold War."  Other documents shed new light about the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.