The issue of Polish History and contemporary Politics: A response to Kate Maltby- by James Oliver

DISCLAIMER: This blog post has been written by James Oliver

“My name is James Oliver. I am a student and freelance writer based in Southampton, UK, who specialises in the history of Central and Eastern Europe. Some of my work has been featured on Euromaidanpress. But for those who want to follow me on a more day-to-day basis can do so via my twitter handle @historyboy77”

Over the past two weeks two distinct but unrelated events have hit the headlines relating to Poland. The 1st is the Royal visit to Poland by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge which most mainstream media outlets depicted as a “charm offensive”. The 2nd involved the large-scale protests against the ruling “Law and Justice” (PiS) party’s proposed changes to the role of the Judiciary in Poland (two bills of which have since been vetoed by President Andrzej Duda with another passing). Naturally it didn’t take too long for western commentators to see the two as somehow inter-related and in particular Kate Maltby released a venomous column to the Guardian Newspaper complaining that the royal visit amounted to an endorsement of what she termed “Ugly Nationalism.” She has since complained on twitter that the critics of her article amount to nothing other than a collection of Polish Nationalists and bots. In light of this i have to report i am not Polish, nor a Polish-nationalist, nor am i a bot (I highly doubt bots have the AI yet to write blogposts). I am not necessarily a fan of the current Polish government myself but this shouldn’t stop me from calling out nonsense when i see it.

Let’s begin by explaining the protests: It is a standard feature of modern western democracy that the Judiciary ought to remain separate from and independent of the government of the day so that it can act as a check on keeping the prevailing government under the rule of Law.  The Communist tyranny which Poland had to endure until 1990 had no such Rule of Law nor did it have an independent Judiciary as the Communist elites serving the Polish dictator Wojciech Jaruzelski (and by extension the Kremlin in Russia) saw themselves as being above such western value systems.

Jaruzelski’s regime was a one-party-state until 1989 meaning that the “official” route for those who wanted to get into Politics at all was to join the Communist Party regardless of what their true ambitions might have been.  After the fall of Communism in 1990 many of these “ex-communists” entered the new mainstream political culture of a pluralistic and democratic Poland, and in particular many gravitated towards political parties of the self-styled “social-democrat” left.  Given that Poles are fully aware of the realities of Communist rule it has thus been difficult for the centre-left as well as individuals in other parties to shake off this “ex-communist” baggage and gain traction which goes partly to explain why in recent years Polish politics has been dominated by parties of the political Right.

Flinging the charge of being an “ex-communist” has proven to be an notable way for Polish politicians and political hacks of most stripes to abuse their political opponents and to “justify” policies and ideas against these unwelcome blasts from the past. PiS have attempted to justify its reforms of the Judiciary by suggesting there are too many Communist relics within it (note that as i type the average age of district judges in Poland is 38) and critics of the proposed changes have noted that Stanisław Piotrowicz, the figurehead heavily associated with the reforms is also (and perhaps somewhat ironically) one of these “ex-communists.”

Of course it is easy for the Liberal Polish opposition (as distinct from the left opposition here) to use the “ex-communist” term as an insult in the same way that PiS and its supporters have done to others, but in one sense the debate on much Piotrowicz or others admire the old Communist power-structure or ideological whims is something of a sideshow because the concept of expanding the power of the executive over other branches remains a bad idea regardless of who is implementing it, where it is being implemented, or why it is being implemented, because the results in all cases end up as the same. Cronyism, corruption and the lack of executive accountancy become the inevitable, inexorable results of such actions. It is on that principle that has seen Poles demonstrate their democratic right to protest against the proposed changes.

Again, you don’t need to be a fan of PiS to call out anti-Polish nonsense when you see it and in Maltby’s example she goes too far in her criticisms.

Much of her article focuses on where “the royals were taken” (her words) as if to imply it was the Polish government who suggested that the Royals go to Stutthof et al and not the other way around, because in reality the Polish govt were consulted but had no final say in where the Royals went. “You might not have heard of Stutthof” Maltby suggests, but “you are more likely to have heard of Auschwitz.” The failure of most British people  (or most non-Poles for that matter) to name any of the German concentration camps other than Auschwitz erected in Occupied Poland in WW2 is down to British general ignorance and not because of any current education policy proposed by PiS. The official twitter account of the Kensington Royals actually fell into one of the most nefarious linguistic errors by referring to Stutthof as a Polish concentration camp before deleting and creating a new tweet to say “former Nazi German Concentration Camp Stutthof.” This correction isn’t in-and-of-itself promoting some concept of “Polish martyrdom” as inferred by Maltby, it’s promoting simple history by reminding the rest of the world who exactly it was that built these concentration camps!

And it should go without saying that all the peoples of all nationalities that died because of Hitler’s genocidal barbarism deserve to be remembered. Maltby on the other hand seems to suggest that the victims of Stutthof (which also included Jewish victims of the Nazi-German “final solution” especially after it was ramped up in 1941) don’t deserve to be remembered in the same way that others who died elsewhere are remembered. That is tremendously insulting!

Whilst on tour in Poland the Royal couple visited the Museum to the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 which Maltby calls the “pride and joy” of the current government. This museum opened its doors in 2004, long before PiS came to power. In a 2009 CBOS poll, 68% of respondents agreed that the Warsaw Uprising was a necessary act in order to secure a free Poland. Maltby’s article depicts the uprising as “doomed from the beginning” but this is a viewpoint that can only be gained from a retrospective analysis and not from the fog of war which prevailed at the time.

The timing of the Warsaw Uprising was motivated by two major factors. The 1st was that just a few days prior to August 1st 1944 and approximately 50 miles south of Warsaw the Red Army had crossed the Vistula. The day before the uprising the Armia Krajowa (The Polish Home Army) had been notified by General Antoni Chruściel that Soviet tanks had apparently entered the district of Praga in East Warsaw. So the capture of the Polish capital by the Red Army looked imminent. The 2nd factor was that the AK knew that Poland under Stalin’s rule would not be a free Poland. By this time in 1944 Stalin had already organised a puppet government whom had already openly clashed with the legitimate Polish govt in exile based in London. Whilst the Red Army swept across Eastern Occupied Poland they utilised local AK units until their usefulness in any particular area had expired. After which they would either be imprisoned, shot or deported. The brief time window between the retreating Wehrmacht and advancing Red Army presented the only opportunity to secure a prospective free Poland. What the AK did not count on was that whist the 63 day uprising was underway the Red Army halted their advance and prevented the western allies from resupplying the uprising with munitions.  Between August 18th-19th Soviet planes actually dropped leaflets into Warsaw telling the Poles to end their resistance. Why the Red Army halted their advance is still something debated over, but the most common idea floated is that Stalin preferred it that his two enemies ought to weaken and bleed each other to death thus making the advance of his army that much more easier. The valiant ideas of what the AK fought for during the Warsaw Uprising and their heroic actions should not be disrespected or ignored, but that is precisely what Maltby does in her article.

What is left in Maltby’s arsenal is the (actually rather unoriginal) claim that Poles actively promote a distorted picture of Polish Antisemitism in WW2. In reply to this unoriginal barb the record of the Polish underground resistance in relation to the Jews ought to be repeated and made better known.

The AK was the only major resistance organisation to create a branch specifically designed to aid Jewish resistance, the Żegota. It attempted with limited success to alert the west about the realities of the Holocaust (with the efforts of Jan Karski and Witold Pilecki here being perhaps the most well known). It assisted in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 on August 5th it liberated the Gesiowka Concentration Camp which by this stage only had 348 Jewish survivors left whom then promptly joined the Warsaw Uprising seeing the Poles not as enemies but as comrades against the common German oppressor. In the words of Michał Zylerberg, “A Jewish perspective ruled out passivity. Poles had taken arms up against the mortal enemy. Our obligation as victims & fellow citizens was to help them.” There are more Poles listed as “Righteous Among the Nations” than any other nationality for saving Jews from the Holocaust

It is in spite of these facts that Maltby has to pick something that is unrepresentative of Polish Society at large in order to force her point.  Between September 1939 and July 1941 Białystok and its surrounding area was swarmed with Stalin’s Secret Police who conducted with great relish a swathe of mass deportations of the Polish population and mass shootings. But Stalin’s NKVD also laid the seeds of mutual ethnic hatred that the Germans would later go on to exploit!

Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski in his memoirs noted that the NKVD was “a hundred times more dangerous and efficient than the Gestapo” for the Polish resistance because of the NKVD’s use of “quislings” to gather intelligence and sow suspicion of others as part of a deliberate divide and conquer tactic to rule over the peoples of Eastern Poland.

“The mainspring of Soviet police tactics” he wrote “was their efforts to spread mutual distrust amongst the population. The result was that while the German methods unified and strengthened the [Polish] nation [against Germany], those of the Soviet weakened and split it. In the Russian Zone, even old friends never revealed their political feelings to each other and everyone was the prey of suspicions.”

And it was this toxic climate that the Germans entered into when they occupied the small village of Jedwabne  just outside Białystok on July 10th 1941. As they would later do further East and in Russia (where they would have greater success with this tactic) the Germans attempted to deflect any local anti-Soviet feeling directly onto the Jewish population and thus entice locals to become complicit in Hitler’s genocidal campaign. At Jedwabne the Germans managed to instigate a pogrom where 340+ Jews were driven into a Barn which was then promptly burnt, killing all inside. They were assisted in this endeavour by 23 Poles. There is no clear scholarly light that suggests that what these 23 Poles did here was repeated by any other Poles in any other Polish village, town or city that was occupied by the Germans but Jedwabne remains a heated topic of debate, especially that one of the authors who brought this atrocity to wider attention, Jan T Gross, has had his methodology severely criticised by other scholars not out of nationalism but over his use and treatment of sources that are not necessarily corroborative! The reason why Gross has come under so much fire is down to an interview 2015 to a German newspaper where he made the untrue claim that “Poles killed more Jews than Germans” in WW2, and not simply because of his work about Jedwabne, slipshod though it might be. Polish law as is set to be amended prohibits attributing German crimes onto a Polish country that didn’t exist in WW2. It does not prohibit discussion about what individual Poles did or did not do!

After the horrors at Jedwabne were brought to light in the 1990s moves were quickly made to commemorate the victims and on the 60th anniversary of the Pogrom the then Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski helped lead a fitting tribute which included local faith leaders.  History education and awareness in Poland, warts and all, remains much better than say in Russia where Vladimir Putin is currently brainwashing the Russians into worshiping Stalin or the shoddy state of History education in the UK exemplified by the current British Trade minister Liam Fox who thinks that the British did nothing wrong in the 20th century.

In short, there is no state-sponsored Holocaust denial in a country where denial of the Holocaust is outlawed. To suggest otherwise is defamation and something tantamount to slander warranting legal action which i am sure that Polish authorities are already considering.

“The First Day of the Uprising was my First Day of Freedom” Part One

Many years ago my grandmother spoke about the first time that she and my grandfather had returned to Poland in 1994, a few years after the fall of Communism. They had been away since 1944, and it was finally safe for my grandfather to travel. My great grandfather, General Władyslaw Langner, was hunted by the KGB for his involvement in 1939 during the Second World War. It was not safe to travel under the Langner surname. My grandmother would joke that the first thing my grandfather did when they arrived in Warsaw was buy a bunch of flowers and met up with a woman. Through the years I always wondered who this woman was and why she was so important to my grandfather. A few years ago I got to know her name and who she was. I was at the cemetery during the commemoration of the Warsaw Uprising on the 1 August, and I was introduced to a lovely older lady. Her name was Halina. I was introduced as Złomicz’s granddaughter. Her eyes lit up at my grandfather’s name, and I was hastily welcomed into her arms with a hug. Asking my grandfather a few months later about her and her part in the Uprising, he revealed that she was the woman he had met in Warsaw and given flowers to all those years ago. So what is Halina ps. “Lusia”‘s story? She is my heroine. After hearing more of her story, even more so.

At the beginning of the war, “Lusia” lived with her family in Okęcie near the airport in Warsaw. The first bombs to hit Warsaw were very close to her house. She was only 12 years old at the time of the invasion and was clueless as to the reality of war. It was to change her as it did millions of other children.

I am always interested in what people did during the occupation. Were they resistance fighters, like my grandfather, caught and imprisoned, or did they just kept their heads down and strived to survive day by day? When I asked “Lusia” the question “what did you do during the occupation?” I was not prepared for her answer. “I have Jewish roots and spent a year in the Ghetto.” My jaw dropped. This was not the answer I was expecting. Instantly I needed to know more. How did she escape? What happened? How were the conditions? Did her family survive? From reading books and watching films such as “The Pianist” we can see a glimpse into what the conditions were like. However, when you hear it from someone who has experienced it, the feelings are far more intense. “Lusia” spent a year in the Warsaw Ghetto with her parents and older sister. The ghetto opened in October/November 1940, and they were relocated with distant family members who already had an apartment there. The conditions were cramped, with limited food and no money as they could not work. Their belongings had been seized by the Germans so they arrived with very little, enough to carry. My key question was, how did she and her family escape?

During the early days of the Ghetto, a tram would drive through but would not stop. “Lusia” was not sure how it was organised as she was yet a small child, however, at a particular moment when she was with her family, the tram slowed just slightly and they were able to jump aboard. The family were taking a huge risk being on the outside of the Ghetto as they had no papers and also at the other end were collaborators waiting for Jews who had tried to escape.

“Lusia”‘s father, who owned a plumbing business, was well known and liked by his suppliers and clients. He, therefore, knew they would be able to get some sort of help on the outside. With the right help, they left Warsaw and headed to her grandparents in 1941. Her father bought tickets on a ship, and they headed out on the river Wisła. “Lusia” remembers that her mother wanted her and her sister to play, be happy and to act like normal children, which she found puzzling because she had forgotten how to be happy. Unfortunately, their trip was to be cut short – the Jews were being rounded up in the village where her grandparents lived so, with the help of a meat handler, the sisters managed to escape to Kraków. Her mother gave them the last of her jewellery to pay for safe passage and accommodation. This did not to go to plan – the woman who organised their passage to Kraków abandoned the sisters once they arrived and took their jewellery as payment. Walking the streets with no food or shelter, the sisters decided to return to Warsaw where they luckily met up with their parents. At this point, I was eager to hear more and wanted to know what had happened to her parents while she and her sister were in Krakow. Lusia proceeded to tell me that her parents were rounded up with all the other Jews in the village they were hiding in and deported to either Treblinka or Majdanek (this is where the transports we commonly sent to). With luck on their side, her parents managed to jump from the train to safety and the family were finally reunited in Warsaw, however, tragedy was about to strike. The sisters were hidden in one area of Warsaw with friends and their parents in another. One day their mother came to visit them as she did. Unfortunately, this was the last time “Lusia”, and her sister were to see their mother alive. On her journey home, she was caught in a round-up, (łapanka), not because she was Jewish but because these were random round-ups where civilians were taken to concentration camps, forced labour camps and some were interrogated because they were seen as useful informants. Her mother ended up murdered in either Majdanek or Treblinka (she cannot remember).

The Death of the Executioner

Quite a few years ago when I was in America, I spent hours and hours looking through my grandparent’s World War Two books. One day I came across a book, “Pod Rozkazami ‘Konrada'” (under the orders of ‘Konrad’). The book was written about my grandfather’s Company Konrad. I decided to sit with my grandmother and read aloud the various missions he partook. He is very modest regarding his actions during the war, and he never spoke with my grandmother about what he did. It was a whole new adventure for her as it was for me. I would like to share with you the first mission I ever read.

In my first post, I mentioned that the platoon “Rafałki” was an execution squad, this particular  mission  however they were to execute another Gestapo collaborator. There was no doubt, this man was special; he was a Polish Gestapo executioner, a known sadist and a specialist in torture. My first question to my grandfather was “what did he looked like?”. He described him as very tall about 6 foot 6, stocky and muscular. Instantly the image of Mariusz Pudzianowski (Polish Worlds strongest man) popped into my head, but, a little less muscular and a little taller. The executioner lived on ul. Kozlej, this man never went anywhere alone! He was escorted everywhere by the Gestapo.  It proved difficult to gain access to him. Nevertheless in June 1944, an opportunity arose. His girlfriend had died of unforeseen circumstances, and her funeral was to be at Brodnowski cemetery. “Rafał”, “Nałęcz”, “Złomicz” and “Starter” were the team chosen to perform their duty. Sadly, from the start, the mission was deemed a failure. My first question was “why?”, the dates were muddled. However, this was not the end!

The following day after the blunder, ammunition and weapons were handed out to the partisans. “Rafał” received a Sten, the others handguns and grenades. Once they had a briefing on ul. Hozej at the home of “Kasiarza”. Around 10:30 am the order given to proceed with the mission to the cemetery. “Rafał” organised the order in which everyone was to shoot. He was to go first, if he was unsuccessful “Złomicz” was next followed by “Nałęcz”. “Starter” was the reinforcement protecting his fellow partisans. The men observed the whole funeral from the beginning to end waiting for their opportunity to strike. Not long after the funeral began to disperse towards the exit, a few meters before the gate “Rafał” ran towards the executioner and fired a short burst from his Sten. The executioner fell to the ground, but moments later he picked himself up. “Złomicz” who was not far behind fired two shots, one into his chest and one into his head. He was followed by “Nałęcz” who fired one shot towards his torso. Surprisingly the executioner still showed life and once again attempted to rise. Finally, the shot that ended his life came from the gun of “Starter”.

Panic descended upon the cemetery and all four men quickly sprinted away from the gate; they were concerned that the sound of the gunshots had alerted a German street patrol. Unfortunately, for them, there was a swarm of German soldiers at the local school (that was just around the corner) who had heard the shots. They began chasing the men towards a stationary tram. As they approached the tram, ” Rafał” ordered ” Złomicz” to start it. He jumped onto the platform and into the cabin and turned the handle. ” Rafał ” was in the front carriage and “Starter” with ” Nałęcz” were in the one directly behind. The tram began to move forward very slowly. ” Rafał” ordered the passengers to lay on the ground for their safety in case they were fired upon. As the tram moved forward a few feet the driver began running towards them and ” Rafał” grabbed him under his armpits and pulled him onto the tram. Once he was safely on the tram “Rafał ” ordered him to take the controls and to drive it faster. The driver put the tram into tenth gear, and the tram began to move at full speed. During the journey, ” Złomicz ” held a gun to his head to ensure that the driver complied with their requests. However, the tram driver asked the partisans if they are from the AK (Armia Krajowa or Home Army). The answer was clear “Yes we are”, his response was quick, “so we need to move at full speed, as much as the tram can take!”

Once over the bridge Kierbezia the partisans abandoned the tram and began to figure out how to get back to the western side of Warsaw. They were worried about a trap, previously earlier in that same year two partisans were murdered by a German patrol on that very same bridge. Luckily they spotted a large lorry parked by the side of the road. However, the signage stated “DR” which stood for Deutsche Reichsbahn, a German vehicle.  The driver stood next to the lorry and was flirting with a pretty girl. His uniform was a German railwayman’s so the assumption was that he was, therefore, a German. “Rafał” made a snap decision. They were to take the vehicle. “Złomicz” pointed his gun at the driver and they calmly got into the cab of the lorry accompanied by “Rafał”. “Starter” and “Nałęcz” hid in the back. Once in the cabin, the driver responded to the partisans, “Are you with the AK?”. To their surprise, he did not ask with a German accent but with a crystal clear Polish one and not just any Polish one, with a distinct Warsaw accent. The answer was instant, “yes we are!”. His response was expected, “let’s get going.” The lorry proceeded towards the bridge but once on the bridge it was blocked by a German foot patrol looking for the men who executed the executioner. The driver slowed down as the patrol approached, he leant out the window of the cab preparing to say something. However, the lead patrolman raised his weapon, and the driver proceeded to shout that this shipment was due for Dworzec Glowny (the main station), and it was critical for it to be delivered on time.  For a moment the German patrolman was hesitant. Nevertheless, he proceeded to give the hand signal for him to continue. Near ul. Senatorska the driver slowed down his vehicle. The partisans jumped out and said their farewells. The driver passed on his telephone number and address and where he can be reached if his services were ever needed or the future.

The Powerful Photograph

While sitting at the bar in Newark airport waiting for my flight home back to London I decided to read through a huge book full of photographs and notes from the Warsaw Uprising. The book was given to me by my grandmother earlier in the week. Two photographs caught my eye, one of the Polish flag riddled with bullet holes on top of a building and the other of a young teenage boy. As I began to read the notes below I recognised how powerful the photograph truly is. It portrays the solidarity and bravery of the Poles to defy the Germans occupiers.

“Generał”, the young boyish looking teenage boy also known as Mirosław Biernacki was the one who climbed up onto the roof of the central post office in Warsaw and hung the Polish flag for all to see. He accomplished the brave act on the third day of the Uprising. The bullet filled flag prevailed on the roof of the post office for the remainder of the Uprising.

Generał was born on 24th June 1928 and during the occupation served as a Harcerz (Boyscout) in the Szare Szeregi (Grey Ranks). It was common for children and teenagers to join the Grey Ranks during the occupation. They carried secret messages and weapons among the resistance soldiers, they were an invaluable asset to the fight against the Germans.  He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1940 at the age of 12 after a mission, “Wawer” that was not successful and was therefore imprisoned in the notorious Prison known as Pawiak. The prison was taken over by the Gestapo after the invasion of Poland in 1939. Many were not to return from their imprisonment from this dark and terrifying prison. However, General was fortunate to return home. He proceeded to survive the prison and fight in the Warsaw Uprising. He fought with Battalion “Chrobry II” 3rd Company who were based in Śródmieście (Downtown). However, the young teenager was not to survive the war. He was mortally wounded on the 30th August 1944 on ul. (street) Towarowa in downtown northern Warsaw, his funeral was held the following day. He was awarded Krzyż Waleczny (The Cross of Valour) after his death by the Polish Government in Exile.

He was buried in a temporary cemetery on ul. (street) Srebrna and after the war, exhumed and re buried in Powązki Military Cemetery. As I was checking the records of exactly where he is buried, I realised he is in the same section (A27), a few rows in front of my great grandmother. I will have an opportunity to visit his grave whilst I am in Warsaw at the end of July and will lay some flowers on his grave in his memory. For those who will be or are considering visiting Warsaw, the military cemetery is a very beautiful and peaceful place to go, it holds graves of soldiers from the Battle for Warsaw in 1920 up until the Second World War and many famous Polish people. It is the greatest honour to be buried there.

Deportation to Siberia pt.1

This week I drove my grandmother to a funeral in Pennsylvania. The Church and its surrounding land is named after a city in Poland called Czestochowa. As at any funeral, you pay your respects to the family and the deceased and make small talk with the people around you. However, this was not to be just any funeral for me. I met the husband of a close family friend of whom I was named after.  I began chatting with her husband about my career, my blog and history in general. In passing, he mentioned that he and his whole family were deported in 1940 by the Russians, he was seven years old at the time.

It is not common knowledge that in the 1940’s millions of Polish families were deported from Poland to Siberia where they endured harsh conditions and struggled to survive. The story will be told in sections. It will be of a seven-year-old boy who struggled to survive with his family in the harsh Siberian camps and embarked on a journey which eventually led him to New Jersey, USA.

The story begins on a bitterly cold night on the 10th February 1940 at around midnight in Drohiczyn, the east of Poland, (now in Belarus). Two Russian soldiers came urgently knocking at the door, as they burst in they pulled Z’s father into a chair in the middle of a room and held a gun close to his body. They used him as a hostage to ensure the family complied with their demands. The order was for the family to pack up what they can carry within the next 2 hours and be ready to leave. Once packed and ready, the family trudged outside into the waist deep snow, loading their belongings onto the sleigh; they signalled the horse (the only one they had left) to walk on. However, the trip to the train was not as straightforward as we would imagine. Anyone over the age of 14 was not allowed onto the sleigh. They had to walk the 14 km in the cold and the snow, this included his father, three older brothers and older sister. His mother (who had a baby), grandmother, himself and two other siblings were allowed into the warmth of the sled.  As they left their family home, of which they would never return to, Z remembers the looting of the livestock and homes by the locals, Russian army, and Ukrainians.

Once at the station another 8-10 families joined them on the train, all military, just like his. As they were closing the doors, their  Belorussian maid ran up to the little window at the top of the carriage and pushed through a 2-week ration of bread. Before the deportation, Z’s mother had prepped the dough for the bread but had not yet baked it. The maid had saved them from starving on their long journey to Siberia.

The Warsaw Uprising part 1

When I mention the Uprising in conversations the first question I am usually asked is “are you Jewish”? The first time I was asked this question I was taken aback. It is not because I am offended but rather that it makes me think “why are they asking me this how is this relevant to the conversation?”. However this usual mistake is because they either only know about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 or they are confusing the two. The question has also be posed to me by Historians, understandably some do not  study this period but nonetheless, it always surprises me when someone knows which Uprising I am addressing.

The Warsaw Uprising is one of the bloodiest battles of Polish history. So why don’t we know more about it? In Warsaw every year on the 1st of August, the whole city celebrates the memory and sacrifice of these exceptional men, women and children. At 5 pm the entire city comes to a standstill with a siren marking the moment the uprising began.

So what was the Warsaw Uprising and why is it so important to me? My family is Polish and I pride myself to be Polish born abroad. I speak, read and write which is helpful in my research on the subject. Both sets of grandparents came to the UK after the war in late 1945, one set settled in the UK the other in New Jersey. My grandfather in New Jersey is the reason why I am so fascinated by this particular topic. He spent most of the occupation in the underground resistance movement, ‘Armia Krajowa’. The unit he was part of was special. They were known as the execution squad, ‘Rafałki.’ I am fortunate to be in the USA now to be able to speak with him and ask him about various missions he was part of. Today he spoke to me about a mission they took part in. Unfortunately, he cannot remember the date of the event, but he can clearly remember what happened, his story is as follows:

There was a Pharmacist who made medication in Warsaw, and he would secretly provide any spare to the underground resistance. His wife was not as committed to the fight. She was secretly passing information to the Gestapo and was an official informant. Her indiscretions were discovered, and her execution warrant was issued by the high command.  My grandfather (Złomicz), his platoon leader (Rafał) and his best friend (Nałęcz ) were ordered to carry out the execution. They set out on the mission the following day. All three scaled the gate leading to the laboratory where she was with her husband, Rafał leading. Once they gained access Złomicz armed with his Sten laid on the floor providing covering fire just in case a passing patrol heard the gun fire. Rafał armed with his Schmeiser machine gun fired a short burst at the wife, followed by Nałęcz who was armed with a very old Hungarian pistol, (they were not even sure that it would work due to its age) however the gun fired and she was mortally wounded. Just by chance where Złomicz was laying providing covering fire was a large bag. He decided to open it and he discovered men’s shaving utensils and a piece of paper. The piece of paper contained a secret list of names of other Gestapo informants; it was passed on to the resistance high command and saved many resistance members lives.