Warsaw Uprising - English version

 

On Friday we decided to visit the museum of the Warsaw Uprising. 

Museum itself was really interesting, from the very beginning and entrance you are going chronically trough time when Germans occupied Warsaw, and then preparations for Uprising, actually Uprising and then also post-event happenings. I heard about it in elementary school, but we didn't pay much attention to eat. While I was in Poland, my interest rise and I started reading more about it. Warsaw Uprising was one of the only real one's uprisings and true antifascists movement.

                                             First, four days of 1944 - red took over by Poles

How all of it started?

As most of us know, Germany occupied Poland, claiming that it was the Polish fault, and that is how the second world war started. Warsaw and the rest of Poland were literally fucked up by them for full 5 years, and Poles couldn't take it anymore, it was time for the biggest try of Poles to win back their capital city. Polish Uprising started on 1st August 1944 and it lasted for 63 days, until 2nd October 1944.

Poles didn't have a weapon when they started fighting, even though all Uprising was planned for a few days later, it started when the Soviets came next to Warsaw, on another side of the Wisla river. It was time for Uprising because they were under Nazis for so long, and now the Soviets were entering again, and we know that Poles and Russians didn't really have a nice history between themselves. 

Anyhow, Poles started resistance and they did some serious damage to the Germans, but what was the problem is that the Germans started collecting an army and sending it to Warsaw, as far as I understood, people and soldiers who went to Warsaw, were mostly already, fucked up people, who survived few really big battles, and all they wanted was revenge and putting Nazi Germany as a winner in that war. They had zero mercy to Poles and their city, even though it is war, this what I saw in the museum, in the movie, is out of mind. 

Anyhow, in the first few days, Warsaw Uprising did some incredible movements and they took over some important parts of the cities, Uprising itself was planned to last just a few days, until the Soviets enter the city. But that never happened, because the Soviets didn't want to give Poland independence and they wanted to have communist Poland.

When Polish soldiers realized that they are left alone they started fighting, even more, trying to steel tanks and other army vehicles from Nazis. They managed to take some over, but lack of weapons, no supplies, no airplanes was leading them to disaster.

It was interesting to see, how Polish companies were managing to produce their own weapon under Nazi Germany command, which is showing how a big desire for freedom was. During those 63 days, Poles went into some prisons in the city and managed to set Jews free, so also apx. 300 jews joined the Polish Home Army.

Many kids were included in Uprising as mail carriers, but at a point when they lost so many people, they started fighting as well. Each Polish soldier said that they will fight until the end even at the price of their own lives. Germans were using very bad tactics, completely inhuman.

When Old Town fell, they went to the hospital and killed everyone there, kids, soldiers, nurses, there were no exceptions, they were bombing and killing civilians, even outside of the area of fighting. When Polish soldiers saw that, their willingness was down, but maybe one of the worst things I saw was when Germans put Polish women in front of tanks and went to destroy the city and killing everyone. Polish soldiers couldn't shoot on their people, so they could just watch how each of them is falling, one by one.

The main reason why Polish Uprising didn't manage to take the win over the Nazis, was that they couldn't connect, they were using underground ways, but the problem was, they would often get lost, and Germans were killing them, instantly. 

200.000 Polish civilians were killed, 27.000 soldiers, and even though Germany said if they declare capitulation they would keep them alive, they didn't they sent them to concentration camps and killed them...

Anyhow they took civilians out of the city and then the last thing from Nazis started, the destruction of the city, constant bombing, flamming, and extermination. They destroyed 85% of the city.

In Museum there is a diary of an 8-year-old boy, who wrote: 'I came back to Warsaw, there isn't my home, I can't find it, the only thing that is left is my grandpa house, damaged and almost destroyed. We should never ever forget what Nazi Germans did to us.' This is a free translation from Polish, maybe it is not accurate completely, but it is making a point that kid wanted to say.

And then you leave the museum, you are in the city center of Warsaw, surrounded by tall skyscrapers and a nice building, and you ask yourself, how did they manage to rebuild that city from ashes and make it look this good, all you can do is admire them, no anger, just pure love and national pride that rebuilt it again. One more time well done to all Poles who were building their country again, that's the thing I like about them, community.