APRIL 3 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

APRIL 3

1922

On April 3, 1922 Stalin became the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.  Following Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin consolidated his power and implemented a centralized command economy, industrialization and collectivization, which rapidly expanded Russia's industrialization. He disrupted food production to such an extent that it contributed to the Ukraine famine of 1932–33. Stalin conducted the "Great Purge" from 1934 to 1939, to eliminate those he deemed so-called  "enemies of the working class".  Hundreds of thousands of senior and military officers were interned in prison camps, exiled, or executed.  In August 1939 the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a non-aggression pact negotiated by Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. It also contained a secret protocol regarding the invasion and partition of Poland.  On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland from the west, and on September 17, the Red Army invaded the eastern part of Poland.  In a series of four mass deportations, Russia deported up to one million Polish men, women and children as prisoners to farthest reaches of Russian territory. In April of 1940, the Germans discovered mass graves near Smolensk, Russia.  They were the bodies of 16,000 Polish officers that were executed by the Soviet NKVD, upon the signed order of Stalin and Lavrentiy Beria. Stalin denied responsibility

1939

Hitler gave a top secret directive to the military code-named Fall Weiss (Case White) ordering the preparation of military operations against Poland for from September 1 forward. The plan originated in 1928  by Günther Blumentritt and Erich von Manstein while the two were serving as staff officers under General Gerd von Rundstedt with Army Group South in Silesia.

1945

Buchenwald Evacuation: As US forces approached the camp, the Nazi Germans began to evacuate over 28,000 Jewish prisoners from the main camp and an additional several thousand prisoners from the subcamps of Buchenwald. About a third of these prisoners died from exhaustion en route or shortly after arrival, or were shot by the SS. The underground resistance organization in Buchenwald, whose members held key administrative posts in the camp, saved many lives. They obstructed Nazi orders and delayed the evacuation.

APRIL 2 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

APRIL 2

1936

Peenemunde Test Center: The Nazi German aviation ministry paid 750,000 reichsmarks to the town of Wolgast for the entire northern peninsula of the Baltic island of Usedom, to construction a massive network of research, developement and testing of its rocket program. By the middle of 1938, plans were nearly complete in the organization of its facilities - the Army facility had been separated from the Luftwaffe facility with personnel moved from Kummersdorf. The Army Research Center (Peenemünde Ost) consisted of Werk Ost and Werk Süd, while Werk West (Peenemünde West) was the Luftwaffe Test Site (Erprobungsstelle der Luftwaffe), one of the four test and research facilities of the Luftwaffe, with its headquarters facility at Erprobungsstelle Rechlin.

1937

President Ignacy Mościcki posthumously awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta to pianist Karol Szymanowski. The Order of Polonia Restituta was a state order established on February 4, 1921 and has been conferred to both military and civilians as well as to foreigners for outstanding achievements in the fields of education, science, sport, culture, art, economics, national defense, social work, civil service, or for furthering good relations between countries. Among Polish civilian awards, the order is second only to the rarely awarded Order of the White Eagle.

1939

On this day at precisely 8:45 pm (the exact hour of Pilsudski's death), Prime Minister Walery Slawek, committed suicide. He shot himself in the mouth at his Warsaw apartment (located on Jan Chrystian Szuch Avenue). He left a suicide letter in which he wrote, " I am taking away my life. Please do not blame anybody. 2/IV. 1939. W. Sławek (...)   I have burned all private papers, and those confined to me. If not all, please forgive me. God Almighty will perhaps forgive me my sins, including this final one". Slawek was one of the closest aides of Polish leader, Józef Piłsudski.  He also left a letter for President Mościcki, but its contents have never been revealed. When Slawek found out that Beck had departed for London, he committed suicide in the evening of the same day.  To Slawek, Beck's trip meant that war with Germany would be inevitable and lead to the end of Poland. Just a few hours before his death, Sławek met with Bogdan Podoski, to whom he confided: "I know it, I feel that they are leading Poland to destruction, and I do not know how to react against it".

1945

German submarine U-321 was depth charged and sunk southwest of Ireland by a Vickers Wellington of No. 304 Polish Bomber Squadron. Forty-one Germans were killed. There were no survivors.

1997

Adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. This Constitution replaced the Small Constitution of 1992 of the Peoples Republic of Poland, reversed the effects of the communist dictatorship, and established the Republic of Poland as "a democratic state ruled by law and implementing the principles of social justice". The Constitution was adopted by the National Assembly of Poland and approved by a national referendum on May 25, 1997. It came into effect on October 17, 1997.

2005

At approximately 15:30 CEST, Pope John Paul II spoke his final words to his aides, "Pozwólcie mi odejść do domu Ojca" ("Allow me to depart to the house of the Father"), and fell into a coma about four hours later. He passed away in his private apartment at 21:37 CEST (19:37 UTC). The Pope was a spiritual beacon to millions of Christians around the world and an inspiration to people of other faiths. Among his life achievements: he was the first Pope to visit the White House in the U.S., first modern Pope to visit a synagogue, re-established diplomatic relations with Britain after 450 years; most widely traveled Pope in the history of the Vatican, established diplomatic relations with Israel, and the PLO;  released a formal apology to Jews for the Church's failure to do more to prevent the Holocaust and apologized for the Church's mistreatment of Jews, non-Catholic Christians, women, the poor and minorities over the last 2,000 years. When Poland was invaded in 1939, Wojtyla managed to evade capture by the Gestapo by hiding in the basement of his uncle's house.  He helped protect and save many Polish Jews from Nazi arrest.  He helped a 14-year-old Jewish refugee by the name of Edith Zierer. She had escaped from a Nazi labour camp in Częstochowa and collapsed on a railway platform. Wojtyła rescued her and carried her to a train and stayed with her throughout the journey to Kraków.  During the Nazi occupation, a Jewish family sent their son, Stanley Berger, to be hidden by an ethnic Polish family.  When Stanley's parents later died in the Holocaust, his new Christian parents asked a young Polish priest by the name of Karol Wojtyła, to baptize the boy.  Wojtyla refused, explaining that the boy had to be raised in the Jewish faith of his birth parents and nation, and not as a Catholic.

APRIL 1 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

APRIL 1

1750

Hugo Kołłątaj (dob) was a Polish Roman Catholic priest, social and political activist, political thinker, historian and philosopher. He is seen as one of the most prominent figures of the Enlightenment in Poland.  He advocated a pro-republican constitutional reform and the need for social reforms. Among the goals he pursued were the strengthening of the king's position, larger national army, abolishing the liberum veto, introduction of universal taxation, and emancipation of both the townspeople and the peasantry. He also co-authored the Constitution of 3 May 1791. During his exile following the Polish Russian War of 1792, his political views radicalized and he became involved with plans for an insurrection.  In 1794 he took part in the Kościuszko Uprising, co-authoring its Uprising Act of March 24, 1794) and Połaniec Manifesto (May 7,1794), and was the head of the Supreme National Council's Treasury Department, providing support for the Uprising's left wing of Polish Jacobins.

1933

Hitler declared a nation-wide boycott of Jewish businesses and professionals, in response to the Jewish boycott of German products.  Opponents from the United States, Great Britain, and other countries rallied together to launch a boycott of German products, in protest against Nazi Germany and its virulent anti-semitism. Hitler responded by calling a boycott of all Jewish businesses.  Nazi SA troops stood outside in front of Jewish-owned businesses and offices of professionals such as doctors and lawyers, and vandalized thousands of doors and windows with painted Star of David and anti-semitic slurs. Many individual Germans ignored the intimidation tactics, and chose to shop in Jewish stores anyway. This was just the beginning of what would lead to the "Final Solution".   The Nazi Party managed a campaign of harassment, arrests, systematic pillaging, and forced transfer of ownership to the Nazi Party. In Berlin alone, there were 50,000 Jewish-owned businesses that were confiscated by the Nazis.

1981

Deputy Polish Premier Mieczyslaw Jagielski flew to Washington, D.C. to meet with US Secretary of State Alexander Haig, and  Vice-President George H.W. Bush, regarding Poland's request for emergency food and financial aid.  They promised Jagielski that the US would sell Poland 50,000 tons of surplus butter and dried milk and would consider cooperating on rescheduling Poland's $3 billion debt to the US. He left Paris after two days of talks with President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing,  in which France pledged Poland $800 million in credits for 1981 plus an emergency shipment of 400,000 tons of wheat. In Brussels, the European Community Executive Commission proposed today to supply $216 million worth of food to Poland at prices averaging 15 percent below world market prices.