Not only Warsaw, but also other cities in Poland, including Katowice, will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising in the coming days. A special marking of the grave of insurgent Janusz Nikodemski, a screening of a documentary film, and a lecture on air support for fighting Warsaw – these are the ideas of the Katowice branch of the IPN for the celebrations of the upcoming anniversary.
Katowice commemorates the outbreak of the uprising
On August 1, 1944, on the orders of the commander-in-chief of the Home Army, General Tadeusz Komorowski – “Bor”, an uprising broke out, which went down in history as the Warsaw Uprising. “For 63 days, the insurgents led an unprecedentedly heroic, lonely fight against the occupying German troops for their own free Poland, independent of Germany and the Soviet Union,” the IPN representatives remind.
The Katowice branch of the Institute has planned several events related to the round anniversary of the outbreak of the uprising. On August 1, before noon, at the cemetery on Sienkiewicza Street in Katowice, a ceremony will be held to mark the grave of Janusz Nikodemski, a participant of the uprising in the capital, with a plaque “Grave of a Veteran of the Fight for Freedom and Independence of Poland”.
Who was Janusz Nikodemski?
.Janusz Nikodemski was born on September 20, 1928 in Katowice. In 1939, his family was displaced, left the city and settled in Warsaw. At the turn of 1942 and 1943, Nikodemski became involved in conspiratorial activities, at first distributing leaflets and illegal press materials. From 1943, he belonged to the Home Army, with the pseudonym “Kmicic”. During the Warsaw Uprising, he fought in the AK Group “Kuba” – “Sosna” Battalion “Chrobry I”, in the combat platoon of Lieutenant Władysław Jachowicz, pseudonym “Konar”, and then in the platoon of Lieutenant Stanisław Dąbrowski, pseudonym “Grzywa”.
He took part in combat along the entire combat route of the Battalion. On October 5, 1944, he was captured by the Germans along with his entire unit. He was taken to German Stalags, from where he was sent to forced labor at the aircraft factory in Brockwitz. He was liberated by the American army during the evacuation of the factory’s crew in May 1945. Then, together with a friend, he went to Italy to join the 2nd Polish Army Corps. From July 1, 1946 to January 8, 1947, he served in the 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division as a clerk. After several months of waiting for repatriation in England, he returned to Poland in January 1947.
He worked, among others, at the Accounting Organization Office, at the Seed Center and the Provincial Economic Planning Commission. At the same time, he continued his education at the Higher School of Economics in Katowice, obtaining a master’s degree in economics in 1963. He was a member of the Union of Warsaw Insurgents, the Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy. He died on March 30, 2022 in Katowice. He was awarded, among others, the Cross of Valor, the Home Army Cross, the Military Medal, the Gold Cross of Merit and the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
This will not be the only event planned by the Katowice Institute of National Remembrance in connection with the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. On August 8, the Przystanek Historia (History Point) of the IPN Educational Center named after General Janusz Gąsiorowski in Częstochowa will host a screening of the documentary film “Faith ’44,” devoted to religious life in Warsaw during the Uprising. The film, produced by the IPN National Education Office, uses materials from the Oral History Archive of the Warsaw Uprising Museum, as well as archival photographs and videos. On August 20, Przystanek Historia (History Point) in Częstochowa will host a lecture by historian Mariusz Grzyb from the Częstochowa Museum on the subject of air support for fighting Warsaw.
Who and how made the decision to break out the Warsaw Uprising?
.In the pages of “Wszystko co ostatnia” (Everything Most Important) a fragment of the book “In the Shadow of the City Sentence. Colonel Józef Szostak Filip (1897-1984). Biography of the Head of Department III and Head of Operations of the Home Army Headquarters” by Daniel KOREŚ, a historian associated with the Wrocław branch of the IPN. The author writes that “July 25, 1944 was a strong turning point on the road to the uprising. The decisions made at the briefing in the premises on Tamka (or on Chłodna) were a stone thrown onto the mountainside, which, rolling steadily down, triggered an avalanche over which the Home Army commander and his closest associates lost control.”
“»Monter,’ a hellishly ambitious and introverted officer who received please to start fighting without looking at the Home Army Headquarters, he was so keen to use this power that two days after receiving it he decided to make use of it, even against the firm opinion of his chief of staff, Major “Chirurg”, who wrote almost directly that the announcement of the emergency on July 27 actually turned into the uprising on August 1. The head of intelligence of the Home Army Headquarters, whose account is one of the most important testimonies about the last days of July 1944, assessed this event very accurately: “The main event of that Thursday, July 27, was Montero’s sudden decision to order the mobilization of troops. In that dizzying period, it was one of the most important and decisive moves from which the Warsaw Uprising was born” – writes Daniel KOREŚ.
He also notes that “further on, ‘Heller’ puts forward a hypothesis that seems very probable: ‘Monter was not a man who would have made such a decision on his own. Someone must have undoubtedly encouraged him. Since he met with Rzepecki every day between July 21 and 31, it can be assumed […] that it was he who pushed him to do it”. The newly-baked head of the operation (Szostak) was not only surprised but also outraged by the arbitrary attempt to provoke an uprising, later justified by the order of Governor Ludwig Fischer calling on young men to report for work on field fortifications: “Suddenly, one day I learn that Monter has ordered an emergency. I immediately sent a report to Grzegorz, not understanding who authorized him to do so”.
“‘It turned out that in the face of the Germans’ announcement of a gathering of 100,000 men to dig trenches, ‘Monter’ took this as a signal to start fighting, and being authorized by Bór to start fighting without an order, if the Main Command did not manage to issue one, he ordered an emergency. I do not know whether it was because of my report or maybe Grzegorz had found out earlier, but the emergency was called off. Of course, it had a negative effect on the mood of our soldiers. Monter understood that he had made a great fool of himself by breaking down and ordering an emergency.’ Is that how a person who wanted to fight at any cost would speak? I think that on that day both Szostak and Iranek-Osmecki understood that entrusting the commander of the Warsaw District of the Home Army with the possibility of starting a fight without the consent of the Home Army commander – something they themselves had a hand in, without raising any objections to it – was a great mistake,” claims Daniel KOREŚ.
PAP/AllThatIsMostImportant/SN
Copyrighted material. Further distribution only with the publisher’s consent. July 30, 2024
Photo: Stefan Bałuk, public domain, Wikimedia.
