Warsaw Uprising 1944

The Warsaw Uprising began on 1 August 1944 at 5 p.m., and it lasted for 63 days till 2nd October 1944.

The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. It was a part of a nationwide plan, Operation Tempest, when the Soviet Army approached Warsaw. The main Polish objectives were to drive the German occupiers from the city and help with the larger fight against Germany and the Axis powers.

Secondary political objectives were to liberate Warsaw before the Soviets, to underscore Polish sovereignty by empowering the Polish Underground State before the Soviet-backed Polish Committee of National Liberation could assume control.

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The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces. However, the Soviet advance stopped short, enabling the Germans to regroup and demolish the city while defeating the Polish resistance, which fought for 63 days with little outside support..

The Warsaw Uprising was the largest single military effort taken by any European resistance movement of World War II.

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Initially, the Poles established control over most of central Warsaw, but the Soviets ignored Polish attempts to establish radio contact and did not advance beyond the city limits. Intense street fighting between the Germans and Poles continued. Polish commanders hoped to win the fight very soon, but because of Soviets, the Uprising lasted 63 days.

By 14 September, Polish forces under Soviet high command occupied the east bank of the Vistula river opposite the insurgents' positions; but only 1,200 men made it across to the west bank, and they were not reinforced by the bulk of the Red Army.

This, and the lack of Soviet air support from a base 5 minutes flying time away, led to allegations that Joseph Stalin tactically halted his forces to let the operation fail and allow the Polish insurrectionists to be crushed.

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A Polish flag with an "anchor" device was used as an emblem by the Polish resistance.

Winston Churchill pleaded with Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt to help Britain's Polish allies, to no avail. Then, without Soviet air clearance, Churchill sent over 200 low-level supply drops by the Royal Air Force, the South African Air Force and the Polish Air Force under British High Command. Later, after gaining Soviet air clearance, the US Army Air Force sent one high-level mass airdrop as part of Operation Frantic. The Soviet Union refused to allow American bombers from Western Europe to land on Soviet airfields after dropping supplies to the Poles.

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At the beginning everybody was happy as they believed they were going to free their capital city. After some weeks they knew they would not win and a lot of them were going to die.

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Warsaw's insurgents an estimated 40,000 soldiers, including 4,000 women, had only enough weapons for 2,500 fighters. They were facing a 15,000-strong German garrison which would grow to a force of 30,000, armed with tanks, planes, and artillery.

SCOUTING POSTAL SERVICE Scouting Postal Service (established on 4th August 1944)– a part of “Grey Ranks” (Szare Szeregi - a codename for the underground paramilitary Polish Scouting Association (Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego) during World War II). During Warsaw Uprising children aged 12-14 delivered letters, what was extremely dangerous.

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Children from Scouting Postal Service

Polish rubber postmark used 10-20 August 1944.

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Insurgents made their own stamps for Scouting Postal Service.

After Warsaw Uprising outbreak Hitler gave the order: “Kill

all of the city's

inhabitants, do not take prisoners, and level Warsaw as an example for the rest of Europe�.

The planned destruction of Warsaw refers to the largely realised plans by Nazi Germany to raze the city. The plan was put into full motion after the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The uprising had infuriated German leaders who now wanted to make an example of the city, which they had long before selected for a major reconstruction as part of their plans to Germanise Eastern Europe:

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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. —SS chief Heinrich Himmler, Warsaw has to be pacified, that is, razed to the ground. —Adolf Hitler, 1944

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After the Uprising capitulation the Germans began to disarm the Home Army soldiers. They later sent 15,000 of them to POW camps in various parts of Germany.

Between 5,000 and 6,000 insurgents decided to blend into the civilian population hoping to continue the fight later. The entire civilian population of Warsaw was expelled from the city and sent to a transit camp Durchgangslager 121 in Pruszków.

Out of 350,000–550,000 civilians who passed through the camp, 90 000 were sent to labour camps in the Third Reich, 60 000 were shipped to death and concentration camps (including Ravensbrück, Auschwitz, and Mauthausen, among others), while the rest were transported to various locations in the General Government and released.

Some of the insurgents were also sent to Reichenbach (Dzierżoniów now – our town).

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Warsaw after the Warsaw Uprising

See a film showing the city of Warsaw just after the Uprising titled: Miasto ruin, The City of Ruins: https://www.youtube.com/watch? feature=player_detailpage&v=Vx3aGiurRbQ Warsaw Uprising

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Ruins of the Royal Castle

By January 1945 85% of the buildings in Warsaw were destroyed: 25% as a result of the Uprising, 35% as a result of systematic German actions after the uprising, and the rest as a result of the earlier Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the September 1939 campaign. Material losses are estimated at 10,455 buildings, 923 historical buildings (94%), 25 churches, 14 libraries including the National Library, 81 primary schools, 64 high schools, University of Warsaw and Warsaw University of Technology, and most of the historical monuments. Almost a million inhabitants lost all of their possessions. The exact amount of losses of private and public property as well as pieces of art, monuments of science and culture is unknown but considered enormous. Studies done in the late 1940s estimated total damage at about US$30 billion.

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CONCLUSION The exact number of casualties on both sides is unknown. Polish civilian deaths are estimated at between 150,000 and 200,000. Both Polish and German military personnel losses are estimated separately at under 20,000.

Most soldiers of the Home Army (including those who took part in the Warsaw Uprising) were persecuted after the war: captured by the NKVD or UB political police.

They were interrogated and imprisoned on various charges, such as "fascism". Many of them were sent to Gulags, executed or "disappeared".

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On 31 July 2004, the Warsaw Uprising Museum was opened in Warsaw.

Visit the museum online: http://1944.wp.pl/index2.php#

Resouses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Uprising

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World War Two: our shared history SP 9 Dzier偶oni贸w, Poland

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