By Anne Applebaum Wednesday, June 2, 2004; Page A25
The veterans have left town. The flags have been packed away for the Fourth of July. The memory of the Second World War, our Second World War, has been honored -- so now perhaps it's worth taking a moment to honor someone else's. An opportunity to do so will present itself this Sunday, when CNN broadcasts an unusual documentary called "Warsaw Rising." The timing of the broadcast is deliberate: the week after the dedication of the National World War II Memorial, the 60th anniversary of D-Day and -- soon -- the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising itself, which began on Aug. 1. As CNN puts it, here's a chance to listen while "the survivors of this little-known tragedy of the war finally tell their story."
Of course, the Warsaw uprising isn't as little known as all that: Survivors in Poland have been telling their stories for quite some time. But it is true that the story is little known in this country, and there are reasons for that: It wasn't a story our political leaders wanted to dwell on at the time, and it hasn't been one anyone in this wanted to talk much about since. Among other things, if we really absorbed its lessons, it would be difficult for Americans to feel quite so sentimental about World War II, and quite so nostalgic about the unshakable moral purpose for which it was supposedly fought.
For the story of the Warsaw uprising really is the story of the destruction of Poland's "greatest generation." The uprising began when the leaders of Warsaw's underground army launched a rebellion against the Nazis who had brutally occupied their city for nearly five years. Hearing the Soviet Red Army guns to the East, knowing of D-Day and the American entry into the European war, they assumed the fighting would last just a few days, until the Allies joined and the city was freed. "We believed so much in the West," one of the survivors wistfully told CNN.
But their assumption was incorrect. Stalin not only refused to send Red Army troops to help what he described as a "band of criminals," he also refused to allow British and American planes to refuel in the Soviet Union, making airlifts impossible. Neither the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, nor the American president, Franklin Roosevelt, thought it important enough to pressure the Soviet dictator. With the exception of one airlift, the planes never came.
The Poles were left to fight alone. In the battle, which lasted 63 days, more than 200,000 people died, among them most of the country's intellectual and leadership. The scale of the catastrophe, the psychological, physical and economic damage, is almost unimaginable. Original underground army footage, obtained by CNN reporter David Ensor, shows vast stretches of central Warsaw reduced to rubble, people living in ruins, teenagers building barricades out of the remains of homes. As Norman Davies, the historian of the rising, points out, more civilians died every day for those 63 days than died on Sept. 11. Others escaped through the sewer system, walking 20 hours through raw human waste.
When the Red army did finally "liberate" Warsaw the following winter, there was almost nothing left. Soviet secret police officers rounded up and arrested the remaining underground leaders, on the grounds that anyone brave enough to fight Germans would probably fight against the Soviet Union too. Again, Roosevelt and Churchill did not object: They had already consigned Poland to the Soviet "sphere of influence" during their conference with Stalin at Yalta, and had washed their hands of the country's fate.
For those tempted by the post-Vietnam nostalgia for the "good war" -- a nostalgia which seems to increase as things go badly in Iraq -- it's an unsettling story. But there are many such stories. No less terrible are the tales of the Allied troops who forced White Russians and Cossacks into trucks and returned them to the Soviet Union -- at Stalin's request -- where most were killed. Or the accounts of the mass arrests that accompanied the Soviet "liberation" of Central Europe, while we in the West officially looked away. One of the reasons the survivors in CNN's film speak such beautiful English is that they were all exiles, forced to live abroad after the war.
In fact, for millions of people, World War II had no happy ending. It had no ending at all. The liberation of one half of the European continent coincided with a new occupation for the other half. The camps of Stalin, our ally, expanded just as the camps of Hitler, our enemy, were destroyed. Not that you would know it, listening to Americans reminisce about D-Day, or the children welcoming GIs in the streets, or the joyous return home. Perhaps there is no such thing as an entirely "good war" after all.
While it is generally considered bad taste to quote an article and not comment, I will let it speak for itself for now.
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posted
I almost posted this yesterday. The U.S. made a lot of unsavory decisions in order to make sure the Soviets would stay in the fight against Hitler. Very few people know about the uprising or the events alluded to by:
quote:No less terrible are the tales of the Allied troops who forced White Russians and Cossacks into trucks and returned them to the Soviet Union -- at Stalin's request -- where most were killed. Or the accounts of the mass arrests that accompanied the Soviet "liberation" of Central Europe, while we in the West officially looked away.
I wrote a report on this for my 12th grade government class. My teacher gave me a lecture about the "realities" of life. But in my mind the pattern of supporting evil people to combat a larger evil that caused so much suffering in the Cold War was laid out during WWII.
posted
Patton wanted to keep fighting once the National Socialists were defeated. He wanted to invade the Soviet Union.
I think he was right in that the Soviets were just as much of a threat as Hitler and just as evil to their own people as Hitler was to the Jews. However, I don't think we could have won. Even with early victories the Soviets would have just done what they did to Napoleon and Hitler and pull back and wait for winter.
In fact, if we hadn't demonstrated our technological advantage (ie: nuked Japan) how long it would have been before the Soviets annexed the rest of Europe?
Even when they had their own nukes, MAD kept them in check.
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The Poles, one of the world's gentlest groups of people and one of the world's most victimized.
And the Soviets just waited outside of Warsaw and let the Nazis do their dirty work for them. But then they'd done the earlier favor for the Nazis in the Kaityen Forest. A tragedy from one end to the other.
And then, years and years later, a dockworker stood up and proclaimed Solidarity for the Poles. I hope the Poles get the chance to offer us a new look at the world and how it ought to be.
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Pix, are you saying the Americans saved the rest of Europe from sovietisation?
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Today is an anniversary of the first (almost) free election (1989). There were still quotas, but the opposition got all the votes they were entitled to.
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posted
And, Dagonee, don't forget that Fascism and appeasement happened because people were determined to avoid Communism and another world war sparked by a pretty insignificant regional conflict.
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People talk about when the Wall fell, but Poland and Solidarity were the leaders in the liberation of the Eastern Bloc. They walked an incredibly fine line and managed to avoid the brutal oppression of Czech and Hungary (1963 and '56) while maintaining a national identity.
quote:And, Dagonee, don't forget that Fascism and appeasement happened because people were determined to avoid Communism and another world war sparked by a pretty insignificant regional conflict.
posted
I think I read a novel about this when I was a young woman. Perhaps it had warsaw in the title. It was the memoir of a young woman and her family during a seige.
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Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski was one of the people who died. He was just a boy, he was a poet, and yet he had to fight and die.
quote:Clouds of flight, sails of ecstasy, trees' companions upon the firmament. My head declines to knotted hands, a head in throes, My arms hunger. The tall dark bird that swims beneath you: my heart. How do I flee anxiety to golden woods O bird-clouds? How then do I return, in grief, undone, to your fluidity and flight? Hands pierced, the cross follows me, the duty of death. This unworked clay thus heaps up, hardens, cities are ablaze. On earth am I my own grave, my own hope? O silent clouds! You bypass me again, o lights afloat, distant shades. Faith I'll name you. Your name for me: grief's dust, casket, man.
posted
To be honest, I'm not sure what to think about how badly we screwed the Polish during and after World War II. Yeah, we totally allied with the lesser evil, but we really did need that rat bastard Stalin's asssitance to beat that bigger rat bastard Hitler. Morally, we should have not let Stalin slaughter anyone, not even his own people. Likewise, there are hundreds of things that morally we should be doing right now.
Realistically, I don't know what our chances were if we took the Poland thing to the next level. I think we should totally free Tibet, but I don't know how we could beat China's armies without going nuclear.
One thing that isn't in doubt for me is that we should friggin' acknowledge what we did and didn't do. Yeah, we screwed the Polish. It bites, but here's why we thought that we had to do it. There's no excuse to lie about it and cover it up.
But then again, I felt the same way when I learned how badly we screwed the Iraqi resistance at the end of the first Gulf War. Although I think we should have helped them.
I'm not upset that the U.S. has to live in the real world. Well, I am, but at reality, not at the people who have to make the tough choices, even when I don't necessarily agree with them. I am upset at the people who are willing to deny that we do in fact live in the real world and instead see America as Superman, who can do no wrong and has limitless power for good.
edit: And yeah, we need to hear about stuff like this and to read poetry like what Kama posted. The dead and those who suffered deserve our honor and regrets. And we need to be more aware of the future situations we may find ourselves in.
posted
I think to really understand war you have to understand for the most part its a disconnected afair. A general, though a soldier he may be, for the most part is disconnected from his men, from the true reality of what happens. For the most part from what I know of our generals today teh opinion is that " Hey your soldiers , deal with it". Back then it was even a bit more than that to be honest. There are lots of great, awesome, wonderful commanders, but almost always more poor ones.
That and the people who run the generals, who run the warriors, are pretty much politicans. For the most part we understand how politicans work, they work on the principle, the idea behind it all. Its hard for any person to shoot one man, but its easy to kill a million. That and to be honest most war is wrong because its run by a person or organization which has control of the flow of information to the soldier. All he has to do for the most part is come up with a decent story and he and his men are good to go. The Natzis killed million and so did we. What do you call the civilian firebombings of Germany and Tokyo. Those weren't just a few isolated incidents either. Sure the Germans did worse, but hey if I kill 30 people and some other guy kills 100, does that make me a saint.
Now here is the thing, are you going to go disrespect some WWII vet because of something politicans did?? How silly is that, oh wait as silly as disrespecting Vietnam vets,( and us happy OIF ones), because of a political mess.
But then one might say has America ever fought a just war. For the most part I can say that most American wars have been unjust, even to a point the war of 1776. Nothings perfect, no person or side is ever going to be completely good. Its kind of like finding the perfect person, but they have like one bad habit and you blow it up to make them a horrible individual. Anyhow, i'm blabbing. so I'll just end all that now.
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quote: Now here is the thing, are you going to go disrespect some WWII vet because of something politicans did??
Oh, no. It's like the German soldiers. Most of them were regular people who just had to fight. A large number of people in my area (Silesia) were forrced into German army. They had no choice. They fought for their oppressor.
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