Warsaw, Poland the political buffer between Germany and Russia, was fought over many times commencing with the German and Russian invasions of 1939, the final German clearance of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943 and the Polish Home Army (AK) uprising in Warsaw in 1944. Warsaw was turned into rubble by retreating German forces and was finally liberated in 1945 by the Russians who did not leave until 1989 with the fall of the Soviet Union.
Poland, a Liberal Western Society, Invaded
The joint attitudes of Germany and Russia towards Poland from 1939-44 evinced their common hatred and open wish to destroy liberal, democratic Poland. Their joint wish to destroy Poland resulted in their joint invasion on 1 September 1939 with the Soviets claiming eastern Poland as part of their national territory. 15,000 Polish officers and intellectuals were imprisoned by the Soviets and when indoctrination attempts failed they were executed Soviet style, at Katyn Forest near Smolensk in 1941. The Polish army should have fought at the Bzurza Redoubt, central Poland, instead they fought a war favouring the German Blitzkrieg.
The Warsaw Ghetto
The Germans cleared Warsaw of Jews and forced them into a small area north of Warsaw from where they were deported east to purpose built Concentration Camps (VernichtungsLager). Resistance groups had foreknowledge of the final clearance of the Warsaw Ghetto and prepared to fight the Germans from April 1943. The small remnant of Jews left in the ghetto fought the German SS and SD (SicherheitDienst-Security) detachments, with battles for every building, every section, every street with heavy losses suffered by the Germans. Artillery, tanks and air force were used to suppress the rebels. No Jew was willing to be taken alive with women and children throwing themselves from the top floor balconies. SS Brigadefuhrer Stroop arranged a photo album of his ghetto clearance achievements which was presented to Hitler and others. Stroop was charged and executed in 1952.
The Warsaw Uprising
A General uprising organised by the Polish Home Army (AK) commenced throughout Warsaw in July 1944, with all German forces and installations attacked simultaneously. Residents were trapped in their apartment buildings as fires started by artillery and tank fire raged throughout the city. Entire residential complexes on the Staszic estate to the waterworks were in flames. The SS were augmented by the Kaminski Brigade consisting of the Lokot, Russkaya Osvoboditelnaya Norodaya Armiya (Russian Liberation People's Army - PONA) whose atrocities against the AK appalled the commander of German forces in Warsaw, SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, who ordered Kaminski executed and the PONA absorbed into Generl Vlassov's Russian Liberation Army (POA).
Sonder(Special)kommando Dirlewanger, consisting of criminals and poachers (Wilddiebkommando) whose ruthless actions against Russian partisans ensured their removal from Russia to Poland. Their abusive and violent behaviour towards Polish civilians continued until they were drafted in to deal with the Polish Home Army Uprising in Warsaw in August 1944. Sonderkommando Dirlewanger executed Polish civilians when German SS-Obergruppenfuhrer von dem Bach-Zelewski insisted they be treated as POWs. Dirlewanger was promoted to SS-Oberfuhrer due to his successes in Warsaw.
Later, this unit was raised to divisional status as 36 Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS where they disintegrated in face of the Red Army. Dirlewanger was beaten to death by his Polish guards, who recognised him, at Altshausen prison camp, July 1945.
Warsaw was Liberated by the Polish Home Army (AK)
Most of Warsaw was now in Polish hands. The Red Army were on the Vistula River recuperating after destroying German Army Group Centre. The RAF had air dropped a considerable quantity of arms including PIAT anti-tank guns to AK enclaves. The tenacity of the Poles caught the imagination of the world. On the 16th September Marshal Rokossovski managed to penetrate the German positions at Praga, a suburb of Warsaw on the east bank of the Vistula. The Germans were prepared and this Soviet attack was repulsed. The AK ranout of food, water and ammunition and sought terms from SS-Obergruppenfuhrer von dem Bach-Zelweski.
Hitler's aide-de-camp Fegelein knew the AK commander Bor-Komarowski against whom he competed in show jumping, pre-war. The surrender was arranged and the AK went into captivity as prisoners of war.
The Aftermath
Hitler ordered the destruction of Warsaw which was hampered by the renewal of the Russian offensive and the shortage of labour to carry it through. The AK never recovered from the Warsaw Uprising and Poland came under communist control and inevitable Soviet occupation. Wladyslaw Szpilman's extraordinary experience of survival in Warsaw during the war and his rescue by Wehrmacht Hauptmann Wilm Hosenfeld inspired the film The Pianist.
Sources
- Wladyslaw Szpilman's Warsaw Pianist film
- Scrapbookpages Brigadefuhrer Stroop Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
- German Security and Police Soldier 1939-45 by Gordon Williamson, Osprey Publishing, 2002
- Soldats Allemands de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, Histoire et Collections by Jean de Lagarde, 2002
- The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman Phoenix 2003
Michael Manning - ' The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity' W.B.Yeats
