And this year, the capital of Poland, Warsaw, will hold its breath for a minute, today, August 1. When the alarm sirens go off at 5pm, most people, regardless of political affiliation, will stand still to mark the start of the uprising against the German occupiers.
The Warsaw Uprising, which began on August 1, 1944 and ended in surrender after 63 days of fierce fighting, is considered the founding myth of the independent Polish nation-state. It symbolizes the will for freedom and the fighting spirit of Poles against foreign rule and totalitarianism.
After him Second World War, German politicians were not welcome at the celebrations for a long time. It was only after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 that a major shift occurred. The then president of Poland, Lech Walesa, invited Roman Herzog to the Polish capital in 1994. The guest from reunified Germany was not only to be there, but also to deliver a speech – a courageous decision by the former labor leader.
Herzog confuses rebellions
“It fills us Germans with shame that the name of our country and people will forever be associated with the pain and suffering caused in Poland millions of times over,” Herzog said at the memorial service in Warsaw. He asked for forgiveness from all Polish victims of the war “for what the Germans did to them”.
Herzog’s visit was controversial because his participation in the celebration came too early for many Poles. The veterans waiting with him for the ceremony to begin were saying to each other, “We don’t need that German today.” The fact that in an interview he confused the Warsaw Uprising with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) further strained his position.
Initial successes without strategic gains
The Polish reservations were justified, because the massacres carried out by the Germans left a deep trauma in the Polish collective memory. In order to regain control of the front-line city – the tank leaders of the Red Army reached the eastern suburbs of Warsaw in late July 1944 – the Nazi leadership in Berlin was ready to use any means.
The Polish underground army Armia Krajowa (AK) mobilized tens of thousands of fighters, of whom only one in eight carried a pistol. The aim of the AK leadership, which was subordinate to the exiled anti-communist government in London, was to liberate the capital from the Germans before the Soviet invasion, which was equally seen as a threat to Polish independence. After five years of a German reign of terror, the Poles wanted to drive out the invaders themselves.
The battle becomes a massacre
In the first days, the rebels were able to liberate large parts of the capital. However, the strategic points – the Vistula bridges, the main railway line and the airport, as well as the “German quarter of the city” – could not be captured.
German divisions quickly counterattacked. Heinrich Himmler assigned the Higher SS and Chief of Police Heinz Reinefarth the task of suppressing the uprising. Among his troops was the SS Brigade Dirlewanger, known for its notorious war crimes. “Reinefarth’s arrival turned the battle into a massacre,” writes German historian Stefan Lenstedt.
An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people, mostly civilians, were murdered in the Wola district of western Warsaw between August 5 and 7. Polish historians even speak of more than 50,000 victims. In many hospitals, patients were shot, nurses were raped and murdered “under all kinds of sadistic practices,” Lenstead says. “What should I do with the civilians?” asked Reinefarth, “I have less ammunition than prisoners.”
“The excesses were planned and desired,” Lenstead emphasizes. After a few days, SS officer Erich von dem Bach, under whom Reinefarth was subordinate, scaled back violence against civilians for fear of greater resistance in response to the excesses.
The Red Army is waiting
In the weeks that followed, German troops, supported by the German air force, tanks and heavy artillery, conquered one area after another. There was no Soviet help – it wasn’t until September 15 that the Red Army reached the east bank of the Vistula. It has not been proven, but there is a lot of evidence to suggest that Stalin consciously did not want to help the Polish insurgents in advance. Either way, it was already too late for effective help at this point.
The Western Allies, for their part, were limited to air support, which could not prevent defeat. Ultimately, the only thing left for the AK leadership was to surrender. The surrender agreement was signed on 2 October by AK Supreme Commander Tadeusz Komorovsky – codenamed ‘Bor’.
The outcome of the rebellion is tragic. About 18,000 rebels and up to 180,000 civilians were killed. German losses amounted to less than 2,000 dead soldiers and officers. At least half a million Poles were expelled from the city. Many were deported to German concentration camps or forced labor.
200,000 dead and a stone desert
Himmler was extremely pleased with the bloodbath. In a speech at the end of September 1944, he admitted that he considered the uprising a “blessing” because it made it possible to eliminate “the capital, the head, the intelligence of this people of 16-17 million people” who were “blocking our way to East for 700 years”.
From October 1944, the SS began to systematically loot and destroy the city. “Every block of houses must be burned and blown up,” was Himmler’s order. Soviet soldiers, who came to the undefended city on January 17, 1945, found an empty of people desert with stones.
Those responsible for war crimes in Warsaw were not punished. Reinefarth even became a member of the Schleswig-Holstein State Parliament and mayor of Westerland on the island of Sylt.
Polish victims are waiting for concrete proposals
Since Herzog’s appearance 30 years ago, German-Polish relations have changed for the better, despite some setbacks. The visits of leading German politicians to Warsaw on August 1 are no longer an exception.
Nevertheless, Steinmeier who will speak on Wednesday in the same place as Herzog – Krasinski Square – will not have an easy task. Despite the new wind between Berlin and Warsaw after the change of power in Poland in the fall of 2023, the question of reparations for the victims of the Third Reich still hangs over the two states like a Sword of Damocles. The last Polish survivors want concrete financial commitments, rather than another guilty plea.
Source: DW
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