80 years ago – on October 2, 1944, 1 of the most tragic events in Poland's past ended – the Warsaw Uprising.
On that day, representatives of the Main Command of the National Army signed an act of surrender, which was to warrant the humanitarian treatment of the civilian inhabitants of Warsaw and to guarantee the rights of the Kombatant participants of the uprising. In fact, the remaining residents of Warsaw were driven out of the city to transition camps, survivors were taken prisoner, and the city itself was almost completely demolished (at the time of the uprising the Germans destroyed about 25% of the buildings).
These are the consequences of 1 reckless decision about the outbreak... The failure caused by the outbreak cannot be accurately estimated. Around 200,000 people died during the Warsaw Uprising. In the vast majority, it was a civilian population that did not participate in armed actions. The losses among the insurgents themselves are estimated at 15,000-16,000 people, considering the dead and the missing. It is besides hard to estimation the number of civilians in Warsaw who went to concentration camps from transition camps and died there. too the victims, there were besides material losses. According to the study on Warsaw's war losses, about 72% of residential buildings, 90% of industrial buildings, 90% of buildings constituting monuments, 90% of wellness facilities, 70% of educational facilities, 50% of buildings and power plants, 100% of bridges were destroyed during and after the construction.
This includes hard to calculate demolition and plundering of cultural goods and national heritage. This includes museums, archives, libraries and cultural facilities. Nor should we forget the material losses of the inhabitants of Warsaw, who, although survived the uprising, lost their full life's achievements. These are the consequences of military play and cynical human life...
It should be recalled that the decision to initiate the uprising was made on 31 July 1944 by General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski After consultation with Gen. Tadeusz Pełczyński, Gen. Leopold Okulicki, Col. Antoni Khrushilem and the delegate of the government to the country John Jankowski. The decision to initiate the uprising was a political decision which had no military chance of success, given the disparity of forces and resources. The National Army Command and any politicians in London wanted to keep their influence and prevent the Polish National Liberation Committee from taking power. How many people died as a consequence of the uprising did not matter. It is so no wonder that weakly armed Polish forces consisting mainly of unarmed and untrained youth were directed to fight the regular German army. Patriotically inclined young people were engrossed in the fight, but having no thought that the fight was doomed. As he wrote Stefan Kisielewski“The Warsaw Society was a society in 1944 with ambition and realistic tastes. However, externally deprived information, without a sober assessment of the general situation, has fallen under the "psychological necessity" imposed by young people. Here is the paradox of the Insurrection – the number imposed its complexes, its intellectual traumas, its impatience and its temperament – the majority. * These are the consequences of politics and ruthless power struggle...
Have the main initiators of the Warsaw Uprising suffered any consequences (even symbolically) of this tragic decision? Not at all. Gen. Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski lived to live his days on emigration in the UK, being previously, among others, Prime Minister of Government in exile. He was posthumously awarded the Order of the White Eagle, and on the Polish Cavalry property in Grudziądz there is his monument. His successor as Chief Chief of the National Army General Leopold Okulicki "The Bear" died of natural causes in prison (or prison hospital) in the USSR. The resolution of the Sejm of 17 February 2012 on commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Home Army found that "the destiny of the last Chief of the Home Army General Leopold Okulicki "The Bear", tried in Moscow and murdered there, symbolize the post-war destiny of soldiers of the Home Army and Poland" (behind wikipedia). The name “The Bear” is named after respective twelve streets in various cities, it is besides the patron of schools and scout teams, as well as the patron of the 11th Małopolska Territorial Defence Brigade. General Antoni Chruściel “Monter” died in 1960 in Washington, D.C. It is simply a paradox of its kind that on the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw urn with the ashes of Antoni Chrusciel was brought to Poland and laid down in the Polish Army field cathedral, and then in the office of the soldiers of the fighting Poland, where a solemn ceremony was held. By decision of the president of the IPN, the grave of "Montera" was entered in the records of veterans' graves fighting for the freedom and independency of Poland.
As you can see, people liable for 1 of the most tragic events in Polish past are now considered heroes. They are patrons of streets, schools, scout teams, or military units. It is not surprising, considering that current decision-makers in the name of political contaminantness, consensus and phobia (or possibly for more prosaic reasons) are pushing us into war. Let the tragic destiny of the Warsaw Uprising be a informing against political hochsztaplers and madmen who, in the name of their own interests and ambitions, are ready to drown Poland in the sea of blood.
Michał Radzikowski
* Stefan Kisielewski "Reactionist. Intellectual Autobiography", KARTA Centre, Warsaw 2021, p. 47.
Think Poland, No. 41-42 (6-13.10.2024)
