Godzina W (Hour W) was the codename for 5pm, on the 1st of August 1944. 80 years ago, on that day, and on that hour, the Polish underground state (Armia Krajowa) sprung into action; the Warsaw Uprising had begun.
In my view, the Uprising was the definitive rebirth of Poland in the 21st century. In the first line of the Polish national anthem, Mazurek Dąbrowskiego, we sing “Poland is not yet lost, when we are living”. This line echoes the courage and bravery that the men, women and children of the resistance showed.
The fighting raged for 63 days. It was planned to coincide with the Red Army’s advance into Poland. An estimated 50,000 people fought, with the resistance forces numbering 25,000-28,000. They used Warsaw’s sewers to transport themselves and the scant resources they had. The men made up the fighting force, the women became nurses, and critically, children and teenagers, transported weaponry such as molotov cocktails whilst also fighting on the front lines.
The Home Army, under the command of General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, managed to oust the German Garrison in the early days of the Uprising. However, fatally, the Home Army was not able to gain control over transportation in particular, such as the railways and road junctures. This allowed German forces to prepare reinforcements, which were ready by August 20th.
Another factor in this story is the Kremlin’s characteristic mix of cowardice and cruelty. Now is a great time to remember that the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression agreement, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. With this pact, the two countries agreed to destroy Poland, initiating WW2. And yet, even then, it took Stalin 17 days to invade Eastern Poland. Nearly 5 years later, Stalin ordered his forces to halt and wait on the banks on the Wisła (Vistula River), so that the Nazis (their sworn enemies at this point in history) could destroy the Uprising and then the city.
All this because the Home Army was in favour of re-installing the Pro-Western Government-in-exile, and were not friendly to the Communists. Joseph Stalin put sheer imperial avarice before human life. And yet, such cowardice was predictable, it was seen 5 years earlier, and it was witnessed then. In fact, with the Red Army marching on Berlin, the Uprising didn’t have to happen. The German Garrison would be empty soon. However, what Red Army “liberation” meant was occupation with a different face. Knowing this, the Home Army rose from the underground, to try and free Poland, by rooting out the Nazis, and standing firm against the spineless Soviets. For this, Warsaw paid the ultimate price. As the Red Army watched from afar, German reinforcements defeated the Home Army by October 2nd, and the insidious SS-chief, Heinrich Himmler, ordered the city to be levelled to the ground. If that wasn’t enough, the Nazi forces murdered civilians in their homes. 250,000 civilians were slaughtered and most of the Home Army forces with them.
The Red Army entered and “liberated” the little that was left of Warsaw in January of 1945. Today, Putin claims that Poland caused WW2 by not giving up Gdańsk amicably when Hitler wanted it, and that the Soviet Union “gifted” Poland Eastern lands; perhaps we should be grateful. I hope that I have underscored the sickening misreading of history that another Kremlin coward is trying to put forward.
For Poles, and all peoples who experienced Soviet occupation, the war did not end until 1991, when the last soldiers left Poland for good. According to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 85% of Warsaw was destroyed after WW2 and had to be rebuilt. In the following decades, particularly in the dockyards of Gdańsk, Poles would rise up once again, causing an earthquake at the heart of the Eastern Bloc. In 1979, Pope John Paul II returned to his homeland with a message of strength and hope.
Considering the meaning of the 1st of August, I ask you to think for a moment, not about the Uprising, but about carrying out what you believe in. Then consider that for a minute, a whole city comes to a standstill to commemorate the men, women and children who did just that.
The Polish mindset is summed up in a great quote by the leader of the 303 squadron, Witold Urbanowicz, “We do not beg for freedom, we fight for it”.
Cześć i chwała bohaterom.
Image: Antoni Przygoński & Aleksander Kamiński/Wikimedia Commons
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