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Poland: Warsaw pauses to commemorate 1944 uprising
Commemorated 200,000 dead on the 77th anniversary
03 August, 09:16
(ANSA) - VARSAVIA, 03 AGO - A minute's silence held at the
precise moment when Warsaw rose against the Nazis on August 1,
1944, in an impossible uprising that should have lasted a week
and instead went on until October 2. At 5 pm, the Polish capital
paused in memory of the fighters of the Armia Krajowa, the
underground national army.
One of the most controversial moments in the history of WW2: some consider it the highest example of courage and sacrifice, some others an inappropriate gesture that left 200,000 dead and caused the annihilation of the entire city due to Hitler's revenge.
About 25,000 men and women followed General Tadeusz Komorowski-Bór's order to unleash Operation Burza (Storm). The fighters wore red and white armbands and held rifles and pistols hidden in 1939; some were stolen from the Germans or bought by bribing soldiers.
The Soviets were on the eastern side of the Vistula, but Stalin ordered his army not to intervene.
"A cynical calculation - Italian historian Marco Patricelli underlined - which resulted in the Anglo-American four-engined planes being denied to land to refuel after the air raids to provide the insurgents with weapons, and even in the use of the anti-aircraft fire. Stalin won his political game because he had the Germans neutralize the AK, anti-Nazi, and anti-communist. In addition, the Red Army, in the already liberated Polish territories, had systematically killed or imprisoned the members of the national army in the Sovietization plan of Poland." At the end of the war, the Germans, who even during the fighting had committed war crimes against the civilian population (150,000 deaths), recognized the insurgents as legitimate fighters and bestowed honor onto the defeated. (ANSA).
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One of the most controversial moments in the history of WW2: some consider it the highest example of courage and sacrifice, some others an inappropriate gesture that left 200,000 dead and caused the annihilation of the entire city due to Hitler's revenge.
About 25,000 men and women followed General Tadeusz Komorowski-Bór's order to unleash Operation Burza (Storm). The fighters wore red and white armbands and held rifles and pistols hidden in 1939; some were stolen from the Germans or bought by bribing soldiers.
The Soviets were on the eastern side of the Vistula, but Stalin ordered his army not to intervene.
"A cynical calculation - Italian historian Marco Patricelli underlined - which resulted in the Anglo-American four-engined planes being denied to land to refuel after the air raids to provide the insurgents with weapons, and even in the use of the anti-aircraft fire. Stalin won his political game because he had the Germans neutralize the AK, anti-Nazi, and anti-communist. In addition, the Red Army, in the already liberated Polish territories, had systematically killed or imprisoned the members of the national army in the Sovietization plan of Poland." At the end of the war, the Germans, who even during the fighting had committed war crimes against the civilian population (150,000 deaths), recognized the insurgents as legitimate fighters and bestowed honor onto the defeated. (ANSA).
