AUGUST 3 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

AUGUST 3

1914

Jozef Pilsudski, Marshal of Poland, created the First Cadre Company in Cracow. It was the predecessor of the Polish Legions, and formed the core of the Polish Legions' First Brigade during World War I. On August 6, 1914, Austro-Hungary declared war on Tsarist Russia.  The First Cadre crossed into Russia and captured Kielce, then proceeded to break through Russian lines and advanced north. The Polish troops attempted to capture Warsaw so as to set off an uprising in Tsarist Poland against the Russian regime. However, on August 13,  the Russians checked the First Cadre just outside Kielce, forcing the Cadre's retreat from Kielce to Kraków.

1944

Polish Prime Minister Met with Stalin:  Polish Prime Minister Stanislaw Mikolajczyk met with Marshal Stalin in an effort to make arrangements for Mikolajczyk to travel to Warsaw and begin preparations for the establishment of a new Polish government there. Mikolajczyk added that he expected Warsaw to be free very soon to which Stalin replied, “Pray God!”   But Stalin refused his request on the grounds that the Soviet Union has broken off diplomatic relations with Poland and did not recognize the legitimacy of the Polish Government in Exile in London.

1948

Russian Spy in U.S. State Department:   Alger Hiss, an American government official,  was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge.  On August 3, 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist Party member, appeared before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) to denounce Alger Hiss.  Chambers asserted that he had known Hiss as a member of "an underground organization of the United States Communist Party" in the 1930s, code named the "Ware Group" and that "the purpose of this group at that time was not primarily espionage. Its original purpose was the Communist infiltration of the American government. But espionage was certainly one of its eventual objectives."  Espionage was treason, traditionally punishable by death. The distinction was not lost on the cleverest member of HUAC, Congressman Richard Nixon. He had been studying the FBI's files for five months, courtesy of J. Edgar Hoover. Nixon launched his political career in hot pursuit of Hiss and the alleged secret Communists of the New Deal.

AUGUST 2 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

AUGUST 2

1934

German President Paul von Hindenburg died.  With the presidential office vacant, Hitler proclaimed himself head of state. (President von Hindenburg had signed the The Reichstag Fire Decree on February 28, 1933, on the advice of Hitler.  The decree nullified many civil liberties of German citizens. With Nazis holding powerful positions in the German government, the decree allowed them to legally imprison anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazi Party. A month after that, Hitler passed the Enabling Act, and proclaimed himself "fuhrer". (see March 24, 1933)

1943

Over three hundred Jews escaped from Treblinka:  On August 2, 1943, Jewish prisoners in Treblinka quietly seized weapons from the camp armory, but were discovered before they could take over the camp. Hundreds of prisoners stormed the main gate in an attempt to escape. Many were killed by machine-gun fire. More than 300 did escape -- though two thirds of those who escaped were eventually tracked down and killed by German SS and police as well as military units. Acting under orders from Lublin, German SS and police personnel supervised the surviving prisoners, who were forced to dismantle the camp. After completion of this job, the German SS and police authorities shot the surviving prisoners.

1944

Stefan Paweł Rowecki died on August 2 1944. He was a Polish general, and the leader of the Armia Krajowa.(Polish Home Army) He was executed by the Gestapo in prison, probably on the direct order of Heinrich Himmler. There have been claims that the arrest of Rowecki on June 30, 1943 was a result of a wider intelligence operation against the Polish Underground State. The Nazis plan was to eliminate top commanders and political leaders of the Polish resistance. During the same period, the Gestapo arrested the commander of National Armed Forces (NSZ), Colonel Ignacy Oziewicz (on June 9, 1943). Then on July 4, 1943, General Władysław Sikorski was killed in a plane crash under mysterious circumstances, which raised suspicions that the Soviet NKVD was somehow responsible.  Within a period of two months, the Polish Army had lost three top commanders. (see June 30, 1943)

1945

Potsdam Conference, held between July 17 and August 2, 1945, was attended by leaders of US, UK and Soviet Union, to decide how to administer the defeated Nazi Germany, which had agreed to unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier, on May 8, (V-E Day). The goals of the conference included the establishment of post-war order, peace treaty issues, and countering the effects of the war. They also agreed on the matter of Poland's border, ie the  provisional western border would be defined by the line along the Oder and Neisse rivers. Silesia, Pomerania, the southern part of East Prussia and the former Free City of Danzig would be ceded to Poland. However the final delimitation of the western frontier of Poland would await the peace settlement (which would take place 45 years later at the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in 1990). The three leaders all officiallyt recognized the Provisional Government of National Unity (known as the Lublin Poles). This meant, in effect, that the legitimate Polish Government in Exile in London (or the London Poles) had been overthrown (by agreement of Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin).  The leaders also assured that Poles who were serving in the British Army "should be free to return to Poland, with no security upon their return to the communist country guaranteed."


Rescue of USS Indianapolis Crew:   On July 30th, the USS Indianapolis was attacked, and sunk with 300 men on board.   900 men were adrift in the ocean struggling to survive on the meager food rations they could find among the debris. They waited four terrifying days, suffering hunger, thirst, exposure, and surrounded by swarms of sharks. Many of the men were attacked and eaten by the sharks; others, in desperation, drank the salt water resulting in madness and death.  On August 2, 1945 at 10:25, while on a routine patrol flight, Lieutenant Wilbur Gwinn, and co-pilot Lt. Warren Colwell accidentally spotted the survivors. They immediately dropped a life raft and radio transmitter,  and contacted Navy Command to dispatch air and surface rescue operations at once.  U.S. Navy Command did not even know about the ship's sinking until the pilot reported it.  The vessel was scheduled to arrived at Leyte on July 31, but no report was ever made that the vessel was overdue.  (The USS Indianapolis had sailed on a secret mission to deliver the components of the atomic bomb called "Little Boy" to Tinian Island. The bomb would later be dropped on Hiroshima. Having unloaded the cargo, the vessel was on its way to Leyte when it was hit by torpedoes from a Japanese submarine.)

AUGUST 1 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

AUGUST 1

1936 

The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin was declared open. The Nazi regime temporarily removed anti-Semitic posters for the duration of athletic events in an effort to "clean up" Germany's image to the world.  The Olympics was a propaganda bonanza for Hitler who tried to showcase Germany to the world as cordial, sane, and tolerant. Meanwhile the Nazis banned many Jewish athletes from competing in the events (though many Jews had boycotted the Berlin Olympics).  Lilli Henoch, a top athlete in the shot put and discus throw was excluded from the games. She was a four time world record holder and 10 time German national champion. Gretel Bergmann was suspended from the German team just days after she set a record of 1.60 meters in the high jump. Hitler wanted the so-called  Aryan German athletes to march away with all the medals, and he was stunned when the American track star, a black man, Jesse Owens had won four gold medals in track and field events.  But as Owens was running for gold, "two Jewish runners for the U.S. team, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, had been pulled by their coach from the 4×100 meter relay the day before the event, so that they would not humiliate Germany. (Nazi Germans referred to Jews  as " untermenschen", that is sub-human, yet many Jewish athletes were capable of surpassing the Nazi athletes.)  After the closing of the Berlin Olympics, the Nazis resumed their persecution of the Jews. Many of the Jewish athletes that competed in the games were arrested and late died in concentration camps.  Ilja Szraibman, a Polish swimmer, and Roman Kantor, a Polish fencer, later died in Majdanek extermination camp.  Alfred Nakache, was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. He survived and competed in the 1948 Olympic Games in London.

1941

Bialystock Ghetto established by the Nazis: The Białystok Ghetto was set up between July 26 and early August 1941. About 50,000 Jews from the vicinity of Białystok and  surrounding region were forced into a small area of the city, which was turned into the Bezirk's capital. The ghetto was split in two by the Biała River running through it. The Jews were subjected to forced-labor enterprises to serve the German war effort, primarily in large textile, shoe and chemical companies operating inside and outside its boundaries. On August 1, 1941, the Nazis sealed the ghetto, isolating the inmates inside. Following the Bialystok Uprising, the Nazis liquidated the ghetto,  and transported most of the Jews by train to Majdanek and Treblinka extermination camps.

1944

The Warsaw Uprising was launched on August 1, 1944 upon the order of General Tadeusz "Bor" Komorowski, commander of the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa).  Their objective was to liberate Warsaw from German occupation, and the uprising was timed with the retreat of the German forces, as the Soviet troops advanced into Poland. The Red Army approached the eastern suburbs of Warsaw, but instead of entering Warsaw, they stopped their advance on the banks of the Vistula River.  The Soviets waited as the German forces regrouped and decimated the Polish Resistance fighters and then razed Warsaw to the ground.  On the first day of the Uprising, Heinrich Himmler ordered the destruction of the city and the extermination of its civilian population.  At an SS Officers Conference, Himmler stated, "The city must completely disappear from the surface of the earth and serve only as a transport station for the Wehrmacht. No stone can remain standing. Every building must be razed to its foundation."  On the first day of the Uprising, the Polish Home Army had military supplies that consisted of 1,000 guns, 1,750 pistols, 300 sub-machine guns, 60 assault rifles, 7 heavy machine guns, 20 anti-tank guns, and 25,000 hand grenades. These were augmented with additional weapons received by allied air drops, or weapons the Poles had seized from German soldiers during battles The Polish Underground also mass produced many weapons, such as grenades, grenade launchers, and flame throwers. The Polish underground resistance movement was the largest resistance in Europe. The Warsaw Uprising was expected to last just a few days but the Polish insurgents fought for 63 days with no military support from their allies, and finally capitulated. The help promised by their allies was too little, too late. The Warsaw Uprising was the single largest military effort undertaken by any European resistance movement during World War II.