Polish-Jewish Relations: 1,300 Keyword-Phrase-Indexed Book Reviews (by Jan Peczkis)

Seventy Days: A Diary of the Warsaw Insurrection 1944, by Waclaw Zagorski. 1957. Frederick Muller Ltd, London

The Warsaw Uprising: A Day-to-Day Account

This work is by a participant in the Uprising. His is a diary format.

SOVIET HOSTILITY WAS A GIVEN

The Insurgents were previously well aware of the fact that, during Operation Burza (Tempest) in the Kresy, the Armia Krajowa and Red Army would fight together against the Germans, but then the Soviets would disarm and arrest the Polish forces. They (correctly) believed that the Soviet Union could not do the same in Warsaw, with its vastly greater numbers, but also believed (incorrectly) that the Reds would allow a free Warsaw to come into existence. Zagorski writes, “But Warsaw isn’t Wilno. Here in Warsaw the Reds would have to disarm tens of thousands of us, and arrest as many again, including all the members of our Council of National Unity, whose names are known throughout the whole world. Even the Reds would not dare.” (p. 18).

THE RED ARMY WAS PERFECTLY ABLE TO TAKE WARSAW DURING THE UPRISING

In the Introduction, A. K. (Home Army) Commander Tadeusz Bor Komorowski, who led the Warsaw Uprising, described the staggering losses that the Red Army had inflicted upon the Wehrmacht in the weeks before the arrival of the Red Army on the outskirts of Warsaw. This was part of Operation Bagration. Bor Komorowski comments, “The Russians’ superiority was overwhelming. In the report of the ‘Heeres Mitte Gruppe,’ dated 21 July 1944, the Russian forces thrown into the attack were estimated as 160 divisions and independent brigades, while the Germans had only sixteen divisions at their disposal. General Guderian, Chief of Staff of the German forces in the East, was to state at the Nuremberg Trials, that twenty-five German divisions were completely destroyed, and that the entire front at this stage consisted only of scattered remains trying to withdraw beyond the Vistula.” (p. 10).

THE LOGIC OF ARMED RESISTANCE TO THE GERMANS

Zagorski writes, “‘What if there are thousands more casualties?’ said Silkiewicz, calmly and yet clearly weighing his words. ‘The surrender of Warsaw in 1939 didn’t prevent us from having casualties. We’ve lost six million people in the last five years. They could kill a thousand people is five public executions or by half a day’s work in the gas chambers. Now at least the Germans are having to pay dearly for the life of each one of us.'” (p. 238).

MANY NATIONALITIES IN THE WARSAW RISING

In the latter stages of the Uprising (September 6), Zagorski reflected upon his forces, “One day Tadeusz and I calculated how many religions and nationalities there are in our battalion. We have Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Lutherans, Calvinists, Hebrews, Moslems–Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, White Russians, Russians, Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaidjanis, Daghestanis, Spaniards–and now a Frenchman. In other sectors, on our side, there are Englishmen, Dutch, Czechs.” (p. 151).

DO NOT GENERALIZE ABOUT POLES BEING ANTI-SEMITIC

The author writes of a soldier, in his ranks, that did not want a Jewish officer as an N. C. O. He was very much an exception! Zagorski comments, “…there are several dozen Jews in our battalion, some even obviously Jewish in their looks, but all of whom are generally popular with their comrades…I would not under any circumstances tolerate antisemitism or racial discrimination in my battalion.” (p. 160).

GERMAN TERROR SOMETIMES DROVE POLES TO DENOUNCE OR KILL FUGITIVE JEWS

In discussing rumors of Polish bandits allegedly killing a few fugitive Jews in the former Warsaw Ghetto area, Zagorski commented, “‘But just think, Staszek. For five years the Germans have been trying to destroy everything that was good in us, they hunted down every human instinct and encouraged everything that was inhuman, they fostered cruelty and injustice. And now there is all this chaos of the Insurrection, with nothing left of our normal way of life, including law or indeed any kind of order. You’d expect this state of things to be a paradise for all kinds of scoundrels and rats and yet you’ve got to admit there are very few of them.'” (p. 230).

There is no evidence that the A. K. was involved in killing Jews during the Uprising. See:

https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2019/11/04/jew-killing-wwii-by-poles-warsaw44-myth-zebrowski/

WARTIME LOOTING: BOOTS WERE IN SHORT SUPPLY

Holocaust materials feature fugitive Jews that had been murdered and their boots taken. This is said to point to (what else?) Polish greed and anti-Semitism. In actuality, the theft of boots was a common wartime occurrence. Zagorski writes, “All the same, we haven’t a single pair of shoes, apart from the boots which we’ve taken from corpses, both German and our own. Nobody is buried with his boots on, but even so there are more people who want boots than there are corpses.” (p. 90).

GERMANS WERE ALSO PRESSED TO THE LIMIT

Kurt Heller, a German from Stettin, was captured along with his diary. In it, Heller wrote of the Germans “reaching the limit of endurance”. Also, “Three men have committed suicide”, and “The men are afraid at night.” (pp. 104-105).

AN EXTENDED WARSAW UPRISING CONTEMPLATED

As the Soviet-betrayed Warsaw Uprising was finally forced to surrender October 2, 1944, some of the fighters thought of prolonging the Uprising. Two battalions (about 1,000 men) would fight on, and they reckoned that, absent the civilians, they had about 4 to 6 weeks of food (flour, bran, oats, etc.). (p. 239). In the end, they concluded that further resistance was futile.