DECEMBER 5 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

DECEMBER 5

1867

Jozef Pilsudski (dob) was a Polish statesman. He was Chief of State (1918–22), "First Marshal of Poland" (from 1920), de facto leader (1926–35) of the Second Polish Republic,  and Minister of Military Affairs. He was responsible for the resurgence of Poland after it was reborn in 1918 (after 123 years of oblivion where the nation was occupied by Russia, Austria and Prussia). During the Polish–Soviet War (1919-1921) Pilsudski's forces were on the verge of defeat, until in August 1920 during the Battle of Warsaw, the Polish forces succeeded in throwing back the invading Russians. In 1923, with the government dominated by his opponents, in particular the National Democrats, Piłsudski retired from active politics.  But three years later he returned to power in the May 1926 coup d'état and became the most powerful leader in Poland. From then on until his death in 1935, he concerned himself primarily with military and foreign affairs. Pilsudski believed in a multicultural Poland and recognized the value of numerous ethnic and religious nationalities, and their co-existence in a strong alliance with independent states of Lithuania and Ukraine. Though Pilsudski was born in Zulow, Lithuania, he referred to himself as "Polish-Lithuanian".

1911

Władysław Szpilman was a famous pianist and classical composer of Polish-Jewish descent. Szpilman was widely known as the central figure in the 2002 Roman Polanski film, "The Pianist", which was based on Szpilman's autobiographical account of how he survived the Nazi German occupation of Warsaw and of Hitler's Final Solution, the Holocaust. Szpilman owed his survival to thirty courageous Polish people who risked their lives in order to shelter him.  On October 31, 1940, Władysław Szpilman and his family, along with all the other Jews living in Warsaw, were forced to move into a "Jewish quarter",  the Warsaw Ghetto.  As soon as the Jews were confined, the Nazi Germans constructed a massive wall around the Ghetto to separate them from the rest of the city.  Szpilman managed to find work as a musician to support his family, all of whom were deported in 1942 to the Treblinka extermination camp where they perished. Szpilman remained in the Ghetto as a labourer, and helped smuggle in weapons in preparation for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.  He stayed until Feb 13, 1943, shortly before the Nazis liquidated the Ghetto and deported the remaining Jews. From his early Berlin years, Szpilman never lost the will to write music, even when he was living in the Warsaw Ghetto. His compositions include orchestral works, concertos, piano pieces, as well as a vast amount of music for radio plays and films, in addition to about 500 songs. More than 100 of these became beloved hits in Poland, as well as about 40 songs for children, for which he received an award from the Polish Composers Union in 1955.  Szpilman's memoir was widely praised by the British press which described it as "a compelling, harrowing masterpiece" and  "one of the most powerful accounts ever written" of Jewish persecution under the Nazi Germans. In a powerful and poignant description, Szpilman wrote about Janusz Korczak, a famous author and teacher,  who chose to walk alongside the children of his orphanage as they were deported, and join them - ultimately escorting them "into the next world",  as Szpilman related. Wladyslaw Szpilman died in Warsaw on July 6,  2000 at the age of 88.

1943

Operation Crossbow was the code name for the British-American military operations to destroy all phases of the German long-range weapons programmes, which included its development, manufacture, and transport. Also targeted were launching sites, and attempts to intercept V-2 missiles in mid-flight.  In May 1943 Allied reconnaissance surveilled the first of 11 large sites under construction in Northern France,  for secret German weapons, as well as six sites for the V-2 rocket. Months later, the Allies discovered the first of 96 "ski sites" for the V-1 flying bomb. Military command deliberated on the extent of Nazi German weapons supremacy - some officials believed that they were merely decoys, while others suspected they were chemical or biological warheads. By August of 1943,  evidence was overwhelming in favor of launching a series of attacks against the V-2 complex, the first being the Operation Hydra attack on Peenemunde.  On December 5, 1943, another series of attacks were launched, code named "Crossbow Operations Against Ski Sites" - the "Noball" code name used for the targets (e.g., 'Noball 27' was the Ailly-le-Vieux-Clocher site;  "Noball No. 93" was in the Cherbourg area, "Noball No. 107" was at Grand Parc, and "Noball V1 site No.147" was at Ligescourt.

DECEMBER 1 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

DECEMBER 1

1656

Polish King John II Casimir made alliance with Habsburgs.  On December 1, 1656, Casimir signed an alliance with Ferdinand III of Habsburg in Vienna, in an effort to break the deadlock of the war between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Kingdom of Sweden.  The declaration was really Ferdinand III's intention to mediate a peace rather than to  provide military assistance. However, the terms did not come into effect until after Ferdinand's death on April 2, 1657. At such time the treaty was renewed and amended on May 27 by Ferdinand's successor Leopold I of Habsburg, who provided John II Casimir with 12,000 troops, albeit, maintained at Polish expense.  In 1655, Charles X Gustav of Sweden invaded and occupied western Poland–Lithuania, the eastern half of which was already occupied by Russia.  The rapid Swedish advance became known in Poland as the Swedish Deluge.

1925

Signing of the Locarno Treaties  The Locarno Treaties were the result of seven negotiations formally signed on December 1,  1925 by Western European Allied powers, and the new states of Central and Eastern Europe. They sought to secure the post-war territorial settlement, and restore normalizing relations with defeated Germany (the Weimar Republic) following World War I.  The Treaty established European borders to fall into two categories:   western, which were guaranteed by the Locarno treaties, and eastern borders of Germany with Poland, which were open for revision. In addition the  Treaty also stipulated that Germany would never go to war with the other countries.

1942

Eyewitness report of Warsaw Ghetto liquidation. A war time news periodical reported "A Polish Policeman's Story & A Voice of Protest from Poland" (Polish Fort-Nightly Review, edition 57, Dec 1, 1942) reported eye-witness details of the nightmarish events and despair of the Jews trying to survive in the Warsaw Ghetto, and "the monstrous liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto"....  "In order to speed up the liquidation of the Jews “round-ups” in the streets are being largely resorted to, Gestapo men and “White Guards” (i.e. Soviet prisoners of war who have gone over to service with the Germans) drive around the streets, often using for this purpose rickshaws drawn by Jews and fire from their “tommy” guns wherever they see people in any numbers."...." The Jewish Community has to undertake the work of picking out Jews for deportation, but the Jewish police are responsible for seeing that the “contingents” are handed over to the Germans."....All the Polish groups working underground are condemning these monstrous crimes in the secret literature printed illegally. Among other leaflets now in the possession of the Polish Government is one published by the group known as the Front for the Restoration of Poland."...."Everybody is perishing, Rich and poor, old people and women, men, youngsters, infants. Catholics died with the names of Jesus and Mary on their lips, equally with the orthodox Jews. All guilty of having been born in the Jewish nation are condemned by Hitler to extermination."...."we can do nothing, we can save nobody. But from the bottom of our hearts, filled with compassion, loathing and horror, we protest."....."He who does not understand this, he who would dare to connect the proud and free future of Poland with a base rejoicing in the misfortunes of his fellows, is neither a Catholic nor a Pole.”

1943

The Big Three inTehran.  From November 28 to December 1, 1943, the Big Three ( Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin) met at the Tehran Conference:  Among other issues on the agenda, the allies discussed Poland and agreed to Stalin's demand that Poland's eastern border be re-drawn according to the Curzon Line. (Stalin had pressured the allies to accept a revision of Poland’s eastern border with the Soviet Union to coincide with the line set by Lord Curzon in 1920. (Roosevelt excused himself from any discussion about Poland, over concerns on the effects on Polish voters in the USA in his upcoming 1944 election campaign.)  As compensation to Poland, the Big Three agreed to shift the German-Polish border to the Oder and Neisse rivers. This was ratified in the Potsdam Conference of 1945.

1989

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was received at the Vatican by Pope John Paul II. Among their discussions was the question of religious freedom in the USSR.  The following is an excerpt, translated from the minutes taken at this meeting: (Gorbachev) "....We welcome your mission on this high altar, we are sure that it will leave a great footprint in history. I am familiar with your addresses to the world, with your reflection upon its problems. I even noted that we often use similar expressions. This means that there is agreement at the source—in our thoughts. I do not know why, but I was sure that this meeting would take place. Not only because it is in the interest of humanity, although this is important as we are contemporaries. But first and foremost it is because we have a great deal of unifying thoughts and concerns...."  (John Paul II) "......I would like to speak about the elements related to the word “perestroika,” which has deeply touched all aspects of life for the Soviet people, and not only them. This process allows us together to look for a way to enter a new dimension of people’s common existence, which would reflect to a greater degree the requirements of the human spirit, of different nations, of the rights of individuals and nations. The efforts you are making are not only of a great interest to us. We share them.......one of the fundamental human rights is the freedom of conscience, from which stems religious freedom......"

NOVEMBER 15 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

NOVEMBER 15

1920

The Free City of Danzig (now Gdansk) was a semi-autonomous city-state that was created on November 15, 1920  in accordance with the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I.  The city region comprised of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland), and about 200 towns and villages in the surrounding areas. The Free City was to be represented abroad by Poland and was to be in a customs union with it. The German railway line that connected the Free City with newly created Poland was to be administered by Poland, as were all rail lines in the territory of the Free City.  A separate Polish post office was established, besides the existing municipal one.  However, the territory was under the mandate of the League of Nations, and the role of High Commissioner was held by various representatives of member nations. The city existed until 1939 when WWII broke out, and Germany annexed the City into the German Reich.  During the interwar period the Germans openly attacked the Polish minority with racist slurs and harassment. German students attacked the Polish consulate, and were praised for it by the Nazi authorities.  Several disputes between Danzig and Poland arose; the Germans of the Free City protested against the Westerplatte depot, the placement of Polish letter boxes within the City,  and the presence of Polish war vessels at the harbour.

1939

Anti-Nazi demonstration at Czech funeral for Jan Opletal.  Opletal was a medical student at Charles University in Prague, who was shot by the Nazis on October 28, 1939 during an anti-Nazi demonstration during Czechoslovak Independence Day.  He died two weeks later from severe injuries.   On November 15, 1939 his funeral procession made its way through Prague. There were more than 3,000 students present during the memorial and chapel services. Hundreds of students followed his casket afterwards, with more citizens joining along the way.  By the time the procession reached the station for transport to his native village in Moravia, the crowd had swelled to thousands of people, chanting the Czech hymn Kde domov můj.   But upon arrival to Charles Square, the mourners were confronted by the Czech police, and had to find safety in one of the campus buildings.  The authorities permitted them to leave only in small groups under close surveillance, but the students later rallied together in a procession of several thousand students, and attempted to break through the city center, in another anti-Nazi demonstration.  Consequently, the Reichsprotektor Konstantin von Neurath, the Nazi-representative heading the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia,  instigated the so-called Sonderaktion Prag on November 17, 1939. He ordered all Czech universities and colleges to be closed, had 1,850 students arrested and ordered the execution of nine student leaders, including František Skorkovský.  More than 1,200 Czech students were interned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.  The murder of Jan Opletal and closure of the Prague University led to solidarity demonstrations at the University of Belgrade on November 18,  1939.  Today International Students' Day is observed every November 17 in remembrance of the students who were killed or sent to concentration camps for opposing the Nazis.

1940

The Nazi Germans closed the Warsaw Ghetto on November 15, 1940.  The wall reached a height of 3 metres and topped with barbed wire.  Any Jews caught trying to escape from the ghetto were shot on sight.  German policemen from Battalion 61 held victory parties on days when large numbers of Jews were murdered at the ghetto wall.  The borders of the ghetto were gradually reduced as the imprisoned Jews began to succumb to the ravages of infectious diseases, starvation, and frequent executions.  Over 400,000 Jews were imprisoned within the ghetto walls. In an area of 3.4 km2 (1.3 sq mi), an average of 9 people were crammed into each room, barely subsisting on meager food rations.  An average daily food ration in 1941 for Jews in Warsaw was restricted to 184 calories, compared to 699 calories allowed for the gentile Poles and 2,613 calories for the Germans  From the Warsaw Ghetto, Jews were deported to Nazi German death camps. In the summer of 1942, under the guise of "resettlement"  at least 254,000 Ghetto residents were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp.   At least 300,000 Jews of the ghetto were killed by bullet or by gas, in addition to the 92,000 victims who perished from starvation and related diseases.

1943

Gypsies were deported to concentration camps. Himmler declared that Gypsies and  those who were of mixed Gypsy heritage were to be considered on “the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps.”  The Nazi plan was the elimination from Germany, and from all annexed territories, people of races which were considered inferior, such as gypsies, Jews, Slavs, and hardened criminals.  The camp authorities segregated the Roma people in a section of the camp called, the "Gypsy family camp." They were forced to wear brown or black triangular patches, symbolizing "asocials", or green patches symbolizing professional criminals.   Approximately 23,000 Roma, Sinti and Lalleri were deported to Auschwitz.  Just as there were organized Jewish resistance in almost every large ghetto and concentration camp, the Roma also attempted to resist Nazis attempts to exterminate them. A documented case occurred at Auschwitz in May 1944, when Nazi SS guards attempted to liquidate the Gypsy Family Camp. They were "met with unexpected resistance". The Roma refused to come out when ordered to do so, and were armed with crude makeshift weapons, such as shovels, and iron pipes that were used during forced labor.  The SS withdrew for several months, rather than confront them directly.  Instead the SS transferred about 3,000 Roma to Auschwitz I, and other concentration camps, and then moved in against the remaining 2,898 prisoners, exterminating nearly all of them, mostly the ill, the elderly, women and children in the gas chambers at Birkenau.  At least 19,000 of the 23,000 Roma sent to Auschwitz were murdered there.

AUGUST 6 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

AUGUST 6

1939

Nazi officers murdered 36 villagers in the town of Żywocice, in the  Zaolzie area of Czechoslovakia. In the early hours of August 6, 1939, the town was surrounded by the German Army and the Landwache. The townspeople were ordered to register as ethnic Germans and be documented on the "Volkslite".  Those who refused to comply were singled out and were hunted down by the Landwache and Gestapo. They were dragged out of their homes and executed with one gun shot in the nape of the neck. Some tried to flee but were shot on sight. The prelude to the massacre occurred two days earlier when members of a local Polish resistance unit (Armia Krajowa) under the command of J. Kamiński killed two officers of the Teschen command of the Gestapo and their driver.  The Gestapo retaliated against the village residents when a search for the Polish fighters turned up fruitless. The liquidation operation was under the command of Q. Magwitz,  head of the Teschen headquarters of Gestapo. He targeted innocent victims who had no involvement in the guerilla operation and whose only demand was the preservation of their Polish or Czech identity.

1942

Fifteen thousand Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto were deported to Treblinka in a single day as a result of the German food giveaway.  The Jews lined up for several days for the chance to get some bread. But they were deceived by the Nazis, as there was no bread, but only deportation to the death camp. By August 27, there were a total of 53,750 Jews deported. This was called the Gross-Aktion Warsaw, the secret Nazi plan of mass extermination of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. It began on July 22,  1942 during which the Nazis made daily patrols rounding up Jews, marched them through the streets of the Ghetto to Umschlagplatz station square, from where they were "resettled". Unbeknownst to the Jews, the trains were destined for Treblinka death camp.

1944

Polish Ambassador called on the Lt. General McNarney to present an urgent request from the President of Poland for supplies to be furnished to the Polish Underground Army fighting the Germans in Warsaw. The Polish requested that either General Eisenhower be authorized to send in supplies by air or that German munitions captured by Soviet forces be sent to Warsaw from the United States bases in the Soviet Union. The Ambassador's memorandum also stated that arms and ammunition which Churchill had promised to parachute to Warsaw had not been sent because of technical difficulties.


In response to the Warsaw Uprising that broke out on August 1st, the Nazi Germans attempted to prevent a similar uprising in Krakow, by rounding  up all young Polish men.  Karol Wojtyla (who later became Pope John Paul II) narrowly escaped capture. He and other seminarians took refuge in the Bishops Palace in Krakow at the invitation of Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha.  On August 1st, 1944, the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa, or AK) launched the Warsaw Uprising, Operation Ostra Brama, and Operation Tempest had previously been launched in July 1944 by the AK, as part of a Polish national uprising to take back control of Nazi-occupied cities and regions, ahead of the arrival of Soviet troops. The Lwow Uprising started on July 23, 1944 against the German occupation of the city of Lwow (now Lviv, in Ukraine). Although the Krakow Uprising was planned, it was never carried out. Archbishop Sapieha opposed the idea of an uprising and asked German General Harpe to proclaim Krakow an "open city", in the hopes that it would save the civilians and historic buildings.  The next day Harpe agreed to safeguard the city and the buildings, but warned that if there were an uprising, Krakow would then be destroyed.  The Nazis had chosen Krakow as the capital of the General Gouvernment, where there were about 10,000 German troops stationed. Krakow dates back to the 7th century and has been the center of Polish academia, literature, culture, and artistic life. Jagiellonian University, situated in Krakow, is one of the oldest universities in the world and among the most distinguished institution of higher learning.

1945

U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima: At precisely 08:15 on August 6, 1945, the "Little Boy" atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It fell for 44.4 seconds, at which time the barometric triggers set off the firing mechanism.  The bomb detonated at an altitude of 1,968 ± 50 feet (600 ± 15 m) with an explosive energy of about 15 kilotons of TNT (63 TJ).  Civilian casualties were about 66,000 people killed and 69,000 injured in varying degrees.   The bomb was dropped by a Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr.  commander of the 509th Composite Group of the USAAF.  Sixteen hours later,  President Harry Truman warned Japan to "expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth" unless they submitted to an unconditional surrender. The Japanese remained defiant publicly, though secretly were making entreaties to the Soviet Union to mediate more favorable terms on behalf of Japan.

2015

Polish President Vetoed Constitution: Andrzej Duda became President of The Republic of Poland:  Duda is the sixth and current President of Poland, holding the office since August 6,  2015.  Before his tenure as President, Duda was a member of Polish Lower House (Sejm) from 2011 to 2014 and the European Parliament from 2014 to 2015. His presidency has not been without controversy: On November 16, 2015, based on Art. 139 of the Constitution of Poland, Duda pardoned former Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) head Mariusz Kamiński and three CBA officers convicted by a court of 1st instance in the so-called Land Affair, making this the first pardon granted by a president before reaching a final verdict.  According to some lawyers (including Professors Jan Zimmermann. Andrzej Duda's doctorate promoter, Leszek Kubicki, former Minister of Justice, and Andrzej Zoll,  former president of the Constitutional Tribunal) Duda has breached the Constitution of Poland. In other instances, President Duda has refused to swear in the five Constitutional Tribunal judge candidates selected by the Sejm of the VII cadence, and the three of those mentioned that were selected since November  7, 2015 whose election was declared constitutional.  In July 2017, about 50,000 people demonstrated in Warsaw against changes in the justice system. On July 24, Duda informed the public he had decided to veto two controversial judicial bills backed by the government and passed by both houses of the Polish parliament.
 

JULY 28 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

JULY 28

1920

The territorial dispute between Poland and Czechoslovakia over Cieszyn Silesia was settled at the Spa Conference, in Belgium on July 28, 1920.  The western part of the disputed territory was given to Czechoslovakia while Poland received the eastern part, thus creating a Zaolzie region with a substantial Polish minority.  Czechoslovakia also agreed to cede to Poland 13 villages (especially Nowa Biała, Jurgów and Niedzica; 195 km²; pop. 8747) in northwestern Spis and 12 villages in northeastern Orava (around Jabłonka; 389 km²; pop. 16133). The Czechoslovak authorities officially regarded their inhabitants as exclusively Slovak, while Poles pointed out that the dialect used there belonged to Polish language. The Polish government was not satisfied with this result.  The conflict was resolved by the Council of the League of Nations on March 12, 1924, which decided that Czechoslovakia should retain the territory of Javorina and Ždiar and which entailed an additional exchange of territories in Orava - the territory around Nižná Lipnica went to Poland, the territory around Suchá Hora and Hladovka went to Czechoslovakia. The new frontiers were confirmed by a Czechoslovak-Polish Treaty on April 24, 1925 and are identical with present-day borders.

1942

Jewish partisans formed the ZOB resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto:  On Wednesday, July 22, 1942  the Nazis had began the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto.  The Jews immediately called on the Jewish Public Committee to discuss the situation and decide upon what measure could be taken. Opinions were divided. The Zionists, and the left-wing parties called for active intervention in any way possible. The majority however wanted to wait until the situation became clearer. Rumours were already circulating that 50,000 to 70,000 Jews would be deported from the Ghetto. On July 28, 1942, a meeting was held and it was agreed to set up the Jewish fighting Organization (YKA, Yidishe-Kamf-Organizatsie). The organization signed proclamations in the Polish language with the initials ZOB ( Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, meaning Jewish Fighting Organization.) The members of the Command were: Bresler, Cukierman, Zivia Lubetkin, Mordecai Tenenbaum and Josef Kaplan. At that time there was only one pistol in the entire Ghetto district. The Jews sent a delegation outside to the Aryan side to make contact with the Poles;   Tosia Altman, Plotnicka, Leah Perlstein and Arie-Jurek Wilner, took great risk to make the passage outside to obtain weapons for the ghetto uprising. ( if the Nazis detected them, they would have have been shot on spot.)


Stalin decreed Order No. 227 on July 28, 1942 in which his slogan, "Not One Step Back" became the rallying cry of the renewed Soviet resistance against the German invasion.  At the outset of Hitler's Operation Barbarossa, the Soviets experienced very heavy losses, accompanied by a massive retreat by as well as desertion from the Red Army.  Stalin intended Order No. 227 to re-establish discipline, and demand courage of the men in the Soviet Army.   Stalin wrote, "The enemy throws new forces to the front without regard to heavy losses and penetrates deep into the Soviet Union, seizing new regions, destroying our cities and villages, and violating, plundering and killing the Soviet population. Combat goes on in region Voronezh, near Don, in the south, and at the gates of the Northern Caucasus. The German invaders penetrate toward Stalingrad, to Volga and want at any cost to trap Kuban and the Northern Caucasus, with their oil and grain. The enemy already has captured Voroshilovgrad, Starobelsk, Rossosh, Kupyansk, Valuyki, Novocherkassk, Rostov on Don, half Voronezh. Part of the troops of the Southern front, following the panic-mongers, have left Rostov and Novocherkassk without severe resistance and without orders from Moscow, covering their banners with shame...... it is time to finish retreating. Not one step back!.....Military councils of the fronts and first of all front commanders should..... Unconditionally remove from their posts and send to the High Command for court martial those army commanders who have allowed unauthorized troop withdrawals from occupied positions, without the order of the Front command..... From within each Front from one up to three (depending on the situation) penal battalions.... where commanders and high commanders and appropriate commissars of all service arms who have been guilty of a breach of discipline due to cowardice or bewilderment will be sent, and put them on more difficult sectors of the front to give them an opportunity to redeem by blood their crimes against the Motherland........"  Stalin decreed similar punishment to soldiers under their command.

1943

Jan Karski met with President Roosevelt:  Polish resistance fighter, Jan Karski personally met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Oval Office, to report to him the situation in Poland. Karski was the first eyewitness of the atrocities committed against the Jews in concentration camps. However, during their meeting, Roosevelt asked about the condition of horses in Poland but did not ask one question about the Jews. Karski met with many other government and civic leaders in the U.S. including Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, Cordell Hull, William Joseph Donovan, and Rabbi Stephen Wise.  Later Justice Frankfurter expressed his skepticism of Karski's report when he said, "I did not say that he was lying, I said that I could not believe him. There is a difference."  Karski presented his report to the American media, to bishops of various denominations (including Cardinal Samuel Stritch), members of the Hollywood film industry and artists, but without much result.  When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, Karski was arrested and forced on a POW train but managed to escape. He joined the resistance movement in Warsaw (the  SZP, and later Armia Krajowa (Home Army) and served as an underground courier. His harrowing experiences led him to the most dangerous mission of all - to infiltrate a concentration camp on a fact-finding mission.  Disguised as an Estonian camp guard, he visited Belzec death camp.  In 1942 Karski began issuing reports to Polish, British and U.S. governments on the situation in Poland, the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Holocaust of Polish Jews. He had also carried out of Poland a microfilm with further information from the underground movement on the extermination of European Jews in German-occupied Poland.

1944

SECRET AND PERSONAL FROM PREMIER J. V. STALIN TO THE PRIME MINISTER, Mr W. CHURCHILL (no. 306) " Your messages of July 25 and 27 concerning the departure of Mikolajczyk have reached me. Mr Mikolajczyk and his companions will be given every help in Moscow.  You know our point of view on Poland, which is a neighbour of ours and relations with which are of special importance to the Soviet Union. We welcome the National Committee of the democratic forces on Polish soil, and I think the formation of this Committee signifies a good beginning for the unification of those Poles who are friendly towards Great Britain, the U.S.S.R. and the United States, and for overcoming the resistance of those Polish elements who are incapable of uniting with the democratic forces.  I realise the importance of the Polish question to the common cause of the Allies, and that is why I am willing to help all Poles and to mediate in achieving understanding among them.  The Soviet troops have done and are continuing to do all in their power to accelerate the liberation of Poland from the German invaders and to help the Polish people regain freedom and achieve prosperity for their country."  (July 28, 1944 )

JULY 23 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

JULY 23

1942

Jews gassed at Treblinka: The Treblinka extermination camp opened in occupied Poland, east of Warsaw. The SS kept secret the fate that would befall them, and they were sent to their deaths unaware until the very last moment what was happening. The Jews were told that they were being sent to the camp, but that they first had to undergo disinfection and bathe. After the victims undressed, they were taken into the gas chamber (which were made to look like showers, and they were locked into the tightly-sealed chambers which were then filled with Zyklon B gas. After they were killed, Sonderkommando prisoners dragged the corpses out of the gas chambers. They cut off the women’s hair and removed all metal dental work and jewelry. Then they burned the corpses in pits, on pyres, or in the crematorium furnaces. Bones that did not burn completely were ground to powder and then dumped, along with the ashes, in the rivers Soła and Vistula and in nearby ponds, or strewn in the fields, or used as landfill on uneven ground and in marshes.


Czerniakow Committed Suicide:   Adam Czerniaków was the head of the Warsaw Ghetto Judenrat. He committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill one day after the Nazi Germans began the mass deportation and extermination of Jews in the Grossaktion Warsaw.  The Judenrat, or Council of Jews was comprised of the elite of the Jewish community, and they served as a self-enforcing intermediary council. Essentially the Judenrat enforced rules that were imposed upon them by the Nazi Germans. This applied to all Jewish Ghettos in German-occupied Poland. The Nazis established the Judenrat to facilitate their administrative control over Jewish communities throughout the occupied areas. Later the Nazis assigned the Judenrat to take control of the administration of "resettlement" of the Jews, in other words, the Judenrat was compelled to choose which Jews would be deported to the death camps. According to Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum has written: "...the Judenrat had no influence on the frightful outcome of the Holocaust; the Nazi extermination machine was alone responsible for the tragedy, and the Jews in the occupied territories, most especially Poland, were far too powerless to prevent it." (Editors note: The members of the Judenrat eventually succumbed to the same fate in the death camps.)

1944

The Lwów Uprising was an armed insurrection launched by Armia Krajowa, the Polish Home Army resistance, against the Nazi Germans who invaded the city of Lwow, Poland. (now Lviv, Ukraine). The Polish Underground had a secret plan, code-named Operation Tempest, that would involve an all-out countrywide Uprising against the Nazi Germans. It was to have occurred just ahead of the expected Soviet advance on the Eastern Front. The Lwów Uprising lasted until July 27 and resulted in the so-called "liberation" of Lwow when the Soviet troops marched in and occupied the city. Shortly afterwards, Polish soldiers were rounded up and arrested by the Soviets; some Polish soldiers were forced to join the Red Army while others were deported to the north-most reaches of the Soviet wasteland.


SECRET AND PERSONAL FROM PREMIER J. V. STALIN TO THE PRIME MINISTER, Mr W. CHURCHILL (no.301)  " Your message of July 20 received. I am now writing to you on the Polish question only.  Events on our front are going forward at a very rapid pace.  Lublin, one of Poland's major towns, was taken today by our troops, who continue their advance.  In this situation we find ourselves confronted with the practical problem of administration on Polish territory. We do not want to, nor shall we, set up our own administration on Polish soil, for we do not wish to interfere in Poland's internal affairs.  That is for the Poles themselves to do. We have, therefore, seen fit to get in touch with the Polish Committee of National Liberation, recently set up by the National Council of Poland, which was formed in Warsaw at the end of last year, and consisting of representatives of democratic parties and groups, as you must have been informed by your Ambassador in Moscow. The Polish Committee of National Liberation intends to set up an administration on Polish territory, and I hope this will be done.  We have not found in Poland other forces capable of establishing a Polish administration. The so-called underground organisations, led by the Polish Government in London, have turned out to be ephemeral and lacking influence. As to the Polish Committee, I cannot consider it a Polish Government, but it may be that later on it will constitute the core of a Provisional Polish Government made up of democratic forces.  As for Mikolajczyk, I shall certainly not refuse to see him.  It would be better, however, if he were to approach the Polish National Committee, who are favourably disposed towards him." (July 23, 1944 )

JANUARY 18 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

JANUARY 18

1919

Ignacy Jan Paderewski was the Prime Minister of Poland as well as Foreign Minister from January 18 to November 27, 1919 and represented Poland at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. He played an important role in meeting with President Woodrow Wilson and obtained the explicit inclusion of establishing an independent Poland as point 13 in Wilson's peace terms in 1918 (the Fourteen Points). Paderewski was also a renown Polish pianist and composer and fervent spokesman for Polish independence. He was a favorite of concert audiences around the world.

1940

Palmiry Massacre: 255 Jews in Warsaw were arrested at random by the Nazi Germans. Over the next week they would be taken to the Palmiry Forest outside the city and shot dead. (Note: Between December 1939 and July 1941 more than 1700 Poles and Jews – mostly the inmates of Pawiak prison – were executed by the SS and the Ordnungspolizei in the forest glade near Palmiry. The best documented of these massacres took place on 20–21 of June 1940, wherein 358 members of the Polish political, cultural and social elite were murdered in a single operation.)

1943

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising:  The Nazi Germans began their second deportation of the Jews, which set off a violent armed uprising by the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.  Jewish fighters of the ŻZW, joined by elements of the ŻOB, put up an armed resistance, engaging the Germans in direct exchanges of gunfire. Though the ŻZW and ŻOB suffered heavy losses (including some of their leaders), the Germans also took casualties, and within a few days the Germans halted the deportation. Only 5,000 Jews were removed, instead of the 8,000 planned by SS Globocnik. Hundreds of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto were ready to fight, adults and children, though sparsely armed with handguns, homemade molotov cocktails, and a few weapons that were smuggled into the Ghetto by the Polish underground. Many of the Jewish insurgents knew that their actions was a futile effort to save themselves, but that they fought the battle for the honour of the Jewish people, and a protest against the silence and apathy of its allies. The ZZW and ZOB were Jewish resistance organizations. The former had close ties to Armia Krajowa.

1945

The Germans ordered the evacuation of the remaining 60,000 inmates of Auschwitz concentration camp ahead of the advancing Soviets. Some were deported by rail while others were forced to march in freezing temperatures.


The Soviet-controlled Polish Committee of National Liberation moved from Lublin to Warsaw.


Soviet troops captured Krakow, Poland

WARSAW GHETTO 1943: THE JEWISH UPRISING - 28 DAYS OF RESISTANCE

Warsaw Ghetto Burning

On April 19 sixty-nine years ago, hundreds of Jewish men, women and even children of the Warsaw Ghetto launched an Uprising against the Nazi Germans. For twenty-seven days, the Jews fought with all their might bearing what few weapons and arms they had against the overwhelming Aktion of the German Wehrmacht. It was the largest Jewish resistance movement of World War Two.

On April 20, 1943, the SS Police Leader of Warsaw Ghetto sent a telegram to the High SS and Police Leader East, Cracow. It read as follows:

GERMAN TANK USED AGAINST WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

Progress of the Ghetto Aktion on April 19, 1943. Closing of ghetto commenced at 03.00 hrs.

At 06.00 hrs. the Waffen-SS was ordered to comb out the remainder of the ghetto at a strength of 16/850.(referring to officers and men)

As soon as the units had entered, strong concerted fire was directed at them by the Jews and bandits.  The tank employed in this operation and the two SPW [heavy armored cars] were attacked with Molotov cocktails. The tank was twice set on fire. This attack with fire by the enemy caused the units employed to withdraw in the first stage. Losses in the first attack were 12 men (6 SS men, 6 Trawnicki men**).

About 08.00 hrs. the units were sent in again under the command of the undersigned. Although there was again a counterattack, in lesser strength, this operation made it possible to comb out the blocks of buildings according to plan. We succeeded in causing the enemy to withdraw from the roofs and prepared elevated positions into the cellars, bunkers and sewers. Only about 200 Jews were caught during the combing-out operation. Immediately afterwards shock-troop units were directed to known bunkers with orders to pull out the occupants and destroy the bunkers.

NAZIS WAIT AS JEWISH FIGHTER EMERGES FROM BUNKER

About 380 Jews were caught in this operation. It was discovered that the Jews were in the sewers. The sewers were completely flooded, to make it impossible to remain there. About 17.30 hrs. very strong resistance was met with from one block of buildings, including machine-gun fire. A special battle unit overcame the enemy, and penetrated into the buildings, but without capturing the enemy himself. The Jews and criminals resisted from base to base, and escaped at the last moment through garrets or subterranean passages. About 20.30 hrs. the external closure of the ghetto was reinforced...

NAZI GERMANS SMOKE OUT JEWISH RESISTANCE - WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

The Warsaw Ghetto was established on October 2, 1940 by Dr. Fischer, Governor and Head of the Warsaw District. All Jews in the surrounding area were ordered to move to residences within the designated areas by the end of the month. For the next year and a half thousands of Jews were deported from nearby cities and towns and herded into the ghetto until eventually there were from 300,000 to 400,000 Jews crowded into an area of only 1.3 square miles. (3.4 squared km).

MAP OF WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING 1943

On November 16,1940, the Germans sealed the Ghetto by building a high wall around it, topped by barbed wire and guarded by armed sentries. Any Jew caught leaving the ghetto compound was shot on sight. Living conditions were deplorable; typhus was rampant, and food limited to barely 184 calories per day per person. The Jews were being starved to death. Over 100,000 ghetto prisoners died.

NAZI POSTER - DEATH PENALTY TO JEWS OUTSIDE GHETTO AND TO POLES WHO HELPED THEM

HEAVILY ARMED NAZIS GUARDING ENTRANCE TO WARSAW GHETTO

CONSTRUCTION OF WALL - WARSAW GHETTO

JEWISH CHILD DIES IN THE STREET - WARSAW GHETTO

JEWISH BABY DIED OF STARVATION - WARSAW GHETTO

The first deportations began on July 23, 1942 and lasted until September of that year. It was carried out on the pretext of "relocating" the Jews to work camps, but instead they were being sent to their deaths at Treblinka. From 254,000 to 300,000 Jews were exterminated. In the beginning there was no resistance to the deportation. By the end of the year it became apparent to the Jews that the so-called deportations were a ruse. By then, the remaining Jews were determined to fight to the death.

WARSAW GHETTO - UMSCHLAGPLATZ - DEPORTATION OF JEWS TO TREBLINKA

Among several Jewish resistance groups, the largest ones were the ZZW (Jewish Military Union), the PKB (National Security Corps) and the ZOB (Jewish Combat Organization). Each rallied for support of the Polish resistance movements of the Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army, or AK) and the Gwardia Ludowa (Polish Communist army, or People's Guard). Elements from each group joined the Jewish fighters and attacked German sectors posted near ghetto walls, and smuggled arms, ammunition and supplies into the ghetto. Despite Polish efforts the quantity of weapons supplied was woefully insufficient. (Unbeknownst to the Jewish Fighters, the Poles were planning to launch another Uprising which began on August 1st, 1944.)

JEWISH FIGHTERS CAPTURED BY THE NAZIS - WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

NAZI GERMANS INTERROGATE CAPTURED JEWISH FIGHTER - WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

The PKB supplied the Jewish fighters with 2 heavy machine guns, 4 light machine guns, 21 submachine guns, 30 rifles, 50 pistols, and over 400 grenades.  Agents of the Jewish resistance were smuggled outside to the Aryan side of Warsaw to purchase weapons on the black market. Stefan Korbonski was Head of the Polish Directorate of Civil Action (and one of the founders of the Polish Underground). In his book, "Polish Secret State", among the weapons that the Armia Krajowa donated to the Jewish Resistance, was 1 light machine gun, 2 submachine guns, 50 handguns (including magazines and ammunition), 10 rifles, 600 hand grenades with detonators, 30 kilograms of explosives (plastics received from the air drops), 120 kilograms of explosives of its own production, 400 detonators for bombs and grenades, 30 kilograms of potassium to make the incendiary "Molotov cocktails" and finally large quantities of saltpeter that were ingredients necessary to manufacture gun powder. They also provided the ZOB with invaluable assistance and instructions on how to manufacture bombs, hand grenades and incendiary bottles; how to build strong-holds; and where to get rails and cement for their construction.

POSTER DISTRIBUTED BY THE ZOB IN WARSAW WW2

 (English translation)

All people are equal brothers;
Brown, White, Black, and Yellow.
To separate peoples, colors, races -

Is but an act of cheating!

  
 

WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING - JEWISH FIGHTERS CAPTURED BY NAZIS

On April 19th the Germans began to liquidate 35,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto and were surprised by fierce resistance from Jewish Fighters. The next day the Germans brought in tanks and armoured cars in an effort to quash the revolt but the Jews continued to fight back. For the days and weeks which followed there were gunshots, explosions and grenades. By the 28th of April the Germans began to set fires to the houses in the Ghetto, systematically, one by one, block by block until the Warsaw Ghetto was engulfed in flames.

SS NAZI STROOP WATCHES GHETTO IN FLAMES- WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

GERMAN TROOPS BURN DOWN WARSAW GHETTO - WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

On May 6, 1943, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita published a statement of the Polish Government Delegatura, which vehemently denounced the German crimes against the Warsaw Ghetto.The Delegatura paid homage to the Jewish fighters and made an urgent appeal to all Polish citizens to help the Jews escape from the Ghetto. It was a heroic appeal but few had the courage to respond.  But to have helped the Jews would have meant certain death. (In 1941, the Nazis issued an edict that any Poles who helped the Jews would be condemned to death.)
 

The Jews suffered heavy casualties, but continued to

fight heroically, weapons in hand. They managed to kill

over 300 Germans and wounding 1,000 more.

Throughout the Uprising the secret Polish radio station SWIT, under the direction of Stefan Korbonski made numerous radio transmissions to the allies, giving daily reports on the course of the fighting in the Ghetto, and pleading for allied intervention. But their appeals feel on deaf ears. The Uprising ended in catastrophe and enormous loss of life. Tens of thousands of Jews were captured and deported, murdered or burned alive by the Germans.

JEWISH FIGHTERS CAPTURED AND LINED UP AGAINST THE WALL - WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

According to the underground newspaper Economic Bulletin, by May 15th, about 100,000 Jews had been killed during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 2,000 industrial locations and 3,000 commercial establishments and factories were completely burned or blown up. As the Germans were liquidating the Ghetto, several Jewish commanders and fighters of the ZOB were able to escape the Warsaw Ghetto with the help of their Polish compatriots, guided through the maze of underground sewers. Many Jewish fighters joined the Polish Underground and went on to fight in the Warsaw Uprising.

WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING - JEWISH WOMEN AND CHILDREN SURRENDER

JEWISH FIGHTERS CAPTURED BY NAZIS - WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ended tragically, and like that of the Warsaw Uprising which followed in 1944, became symbolic of the unquenchable determination and courage of the Poles and of the Jews to fight against impossible odds - even to the death. They held fast to the conviction that is was far better to die fighting, than to die on one's knees. This blog post is in tribute to the heroic Jewish fighters, and the Polish compatriots who risked their lives to help them.

ZOB FLAG - WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

MONUMENT TO JEWISH FIGHTERS OF WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING