Both Sides of the Warsaw Ghetto

Discussion in 'The Holocaust' started by Drusus Nero, Sep 11, 2015.

  1. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    Hello to all, wherever you are.

    I have two accounts of this most important of Holocaust 'incidents'.

    One is by a man who took part in the fighting, (a rare bird indeed). He's called David Landau, and he wrote his astounding book, "Caged", for his daughter and her decendants. I urge you to pick up a copy and read.

    The other is more disturbing. It's called "The Warsaw Ghetto No Longer Exists", a leather bound and illustrated report sent to Hitler as a belated birthday present by the commander on the spot, war criminal and mass murderer, Brigadefuhrer Jurgen Stroop.

    This article is an experiment of sorts, and is the first time I am aware of that anyone has put these two documents together in this format, outside of Yad Vashem.
    I will present a brief introduction, (in as far as you can squeeze the incredible sufferings of hundreds of thousands of desperate people into a few inadequate words).
    We will then move on to the body of the essay, day by day accounts of the 'Aktion', with a little commentary at the end of each from Drusus Nero,where appropriate. I will present Stroops report and others of his ilk in regular type,with his name bold black. Mr. Landau's excerpts and others from the sane side of the story, will be in Italics, with names in blue. Drusus comments will be prefixed green, and in smaller type, to differentiate from the quoted text and avoid confusion.
    Some of the events can be a little disturbing, but bear with us.


    This, of all Holocaust material, shows these Nazi soldiers for what they really were; animals masquerading as humans, with no restraint what-so-ever.


    BOTH SIDES OF THE GHETTO:The Warsaw Ghetto 'Grossaktion' 19th Feb - 16 May, 1943.


    BACKGROUND


    David Landau: For close to 50 years I lived without knowing how to begin to speak about Warsaw, where almost 500,000 Jews had been murdered for the unforgivable crime of having been born as Jews. After 46 years I have found my voice and words. I do not know how this miracle has happened. It is tragically late. Much too late for the whole story to be told and confirmed by the living. Of those who survived, only a handful are still alive. And I could not find nor remember all of them.

    Miriam Landau (David's daughter): To my way of thinking, when one reads or views writing or films on the Holocaust, it is important to remember that Jews did not go 'like sheep'. It is also important to remember there were survivors. Their very existence has taught all thinking humans to say, "Never again!". A combination of factors created a survivor but most strongly and foremost, fate. Then there were looks, age, friendships means and tenacity, and so many other factors too complicated and capricious to mention. To be a survivor was a lottery with very few chances and to 'win' was to carry a legacy of pain.

    David Landau: Do I still live in the ghetto, or does the ghetto still live in me?

    There was the Warsaw ghetto where people, who had been dying for weeks or months, died at night in our streets and were covered with newspapers. Death had waited like a vulture at their homeless door, as they made their last meal from the flesh of their own bodies. They consumed themselves. They left for death only skin and bones to chew.
    There was the Warsaw ghetto where people without a soul sought out pleasures of the flesh. The nightclubs where nothing was forbidden, the food, the music, the girls. One need ask where their money came from. It came from the quarters of the Devil, who had for their benefit taken the human form and dressed in the uniform of the Gestapo. The money the Devil handed over in Warsaw's ghetto came from the blood sale, and it could only be used for pleasure and the deadening of the soul.
    There was the Warsaw ghetto where people, who had not lost the Divine image in which, according to the Bible, they had been created, cared for others with whatever had been left to them. They built schools, helped keep hospitals open, organised shelters for the old and did not wait to be thanked. their work was a poor caricature of humans in real life. But their devotion filled this caricature with beauty and goodness, which still casts it's light within.
    There was the Warsaw ghetto where people resisted........


    The Warsaw ghetto was all this and more.

    My dear comrades! I could not eliminate all Jews and lice in only one year. But in the course of time, and if you help me, this end will be attained......Hans Frank, Governer-General of Poland, 7 October 1940

    You always ask and ask. Look, you can see for yourself. They are not like you and me. They are different. They look different. They do not behave like human beings. They have numbers on their arms. They are here in order to die..........Here you are on another planet. Don't forget that......
    Rudolf Hoss, explaining to his brother-in-law the meaning of the word 'Untermensch'.

    I once asked a little girl, "What would you like to be?" She answered, "A dog, because the guards like dogs"......Eyewitness to the Warsaw Ghetto, Prof. Ludwig Herschfeld


    COMMENTARY:After the fall of Poland, the city of Warsaw was a mess, with 10,129 buildings just piles of rubble. German authorities wasted no time in pushing Jews into seperate residential areas, forcing them to wear Stars of David, and restricting their work conditions to virtual slave labour in approved factories. On the 2nd of October 1940, construction began on a wall, built from rubble material still present in the city. A brief 'shortage' of glass was heard, while the builders topped the wall with it. By the 15th of November, 1940, it was finished; a 2 and one half by 1 mile area, originally home to 160,000 people, was now crammed between 1940-41 with over 460,000 Jewish people by mid March.

    Laws concerning occupancy became extremely harsh, to say the least. The death penalty was standard for just about every crime imaginable, including, poster defacement, failing to doff a cap at a guard, leaving the ghetto without permission, and a host of others. Children began to play a vital role smuggling food, as rations were severly restricted. They had no requirement to wear the Star of David, and at first their movements were tolerated in a relatively mild fashion. This soon altered, however, and the death penalty began to be imposed on them as well. (David Landau states that an entire book ought to have been written concerning these heroic and unfortunate children.)

    Starvation and epidemics from overcrowding began to chip away at the population. German and Polish contractors came in to spray insecticides, and robbed Jews of their possessions at the same time. SS officers confiscated furniture and valuables, never to return. When deportations began at 900/month in summer of 41', Hitler Youth would roam the streets in small groups on 'hunting' expeditions, taking pot shots at people who went to their windows. As the deportations increased, the Jews of Warsaw were now executed if found anywhere outside the ghetto, men, women and children.

    On the 22nd of July, 1942, Resettlement comissioner Herman Hofle called a meeting of the Judenrat council, nominally controlled by Adam Czerniakow. Hofle informed the council bluntly that all persons residing in the ghetto were to make themselves available for "resettlement to the east". Czerniakow was under no illusions as to what this stunning euphemism meant. He committed suicide. David Landau makes it clear that an uprising at this time would have been much more difficult and problematic to control for the Nazis, with the large population still present. But Czerniakow lacked the resolve. Deportations were stepped up, and by New Year of 1943, approx. 60,000 people still remained to be transported directly to Treblinka extermination camp.

    The Jews themselves had formed two main resistence groups (others were all from the Aryan side, like the Underground, the Home Army, and the People's Army. The Chaluzim Womens Battle Association were part of both main groups). The first group to emerge from a Zionist Youth group called Betar and was left wing; it was called the ZZW (Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy or Jewish Military Union). Commanded by Frenckel Pawel and initially headquarted at 10 Mila St, they set about purchasing and smuggling arms, explosives and other equipment. With only a trickle of outside help, (despite claims by the Polish Home Army and others) Frenckel's task was huge.

    David Landau's father contributed to Jewish charities and owned a tannery and two buildings from which he got rent, (sometimes, for he was a generous man). David himself was brought into the ZZW organisation through his activities with Betar. He smuggled goods, furs, and eventually small arms, before being inducted into the organization full time. His parent's building at 17 Muranowska was in a prominent position when the fighting began. David himself was a very trusted member of ZZW. Just before the 'aktion' commenced, Pawel Frankel gave him an SS uniform and insignia for use during the fighting. His 'Aryan' face and tall height put him at the top of ZZW's list for inclusion in this most controversial of activities, despite not being able to speak more than a few words of German. David also had to adopt various aliases, including Dudek, Janek, and Jan.

    The other organisation was initially smaller, but grew larger from better support originating in London (and possibly due to an innate Polish mistrust of leftist politics). Called the ZOB (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, or Jewish Combat Organisation) it was eventually lead by 24 year old Mordechai Anielewicz, and headquartered at 18 Mila St. Formed in October of 1942, it's aim was to oppose further deportations, and a similar smuggling, purchasing and training regime was established.

    On January 9th 1943, Himmler personally visited Warsaw, ordering a further deportation of 8,000. Sporadic, unorganised, armed resistence forced the termination of this event with the number of people deported at 6,500. Nazi authorities were now aware of the resistence . Pausing to take stock of the situation, Himmler waited until 16th of April, 1943 before issueing orders for the total obliteration of the ghetto. He also ordered SS OBGruppfhr Kruger to see to it that as much material as possible be salvaged from the city and it's slave labour factories working to supply the German military. The two objectives were at cross purposes with one another. Kruger placed this difficult brief in charge of the timid (for the SS) Oberfuhrer von Sammern-Frankenegg.

    Himmler wanted to present the Judenfrei city to Hitler as a birthday present, so the date was fixed for Monday 19th of April, or High Holy Day on the Jewish calender. To this end, in addition to regular Whermacht forces assembled, (giving the lie to postwar claims that 'aktions' against civilians like this had nothing to do with 'das Heer'), the Germans made lavish use of foreign renegades - Latvians, Ukrainians, and other nationalities. A feature was a contingent of Trawniki men, soldiers from the SS camp in Lublin District, consisting mostly of Ukrainians and renegade Poles. ( for the text, T-II is Treblinka, and 1/60 refers to one officer and 60 men)

    The stage was set for the largest of all revolts by Jews inside the Third Reich.......................



    DAY 1


    SS- Service Teletype Message

    The SS and Police Fuhrer of the District of Warsaw, Warsaw, 20th April, 1943
    Ref No.- I ab/st/Gr-16 07-Journal No.516/43 secret
    Re- Ghetto Operation
    The Higher SS and Police Fuhrer East, SS Obergruppenfuhrer and General of Police Kruger, or Deputy- Krackow

    The SS and Police Fuhrer of the District of Warsaw (Stroop), SS Brigadefuhrer and Major General of Police.

    Certified copy (Jesuiter) SS-Sturmbannfuhrer.

    Progress of the Ghetto operation on 19th April 1943:

    Closing of the Ghetto commenced 0300hrs. At 0600 detailing of the Waffen-SS (strength: 16/850) to comb out the remainder of the Ghetto. Immediately after the units had formed up, concentrated attack by Jews and bandits. The tank used in this action and the 2 heavy armoured cars pelted with molotov cocktails. Tank twice set on fire. At fist this enemy attack caused the retreat of the units. Losses in first attack, 12 men, (6 SS men, 6 Trawniki men). At about 0800 second attack by units under command of the undersigned. In the face of less intensive counter-attack, the second assault succeeded in combing out the blocks of buildings according to plan.
    The enemy was forced to retire from roofs and other prepared positions above ground level into cellars, dugouts or sewers. During this combing out we caught only about 300 Jews. Immediately afterward raiding parties were directed to dugouts known to us with the order to bring out the Jews and destroy the dugouts. About 380 Jews captured by this.
    It was noted that Jews had taken to the sewers: sewers were flooded completely to make staying there impossible. About 1730 hours we encountered very strong resistence from one block of buildings, including machine-gun fire. A special battle group crushed the enemy and invaded the houses, but without capturing the enemy. Jews and criminals resisted from base to base and escaped at the last moment by flight across lofts or through underground passages.
    About 2030 the external cordon was reinforced. All units were withdrawn from the ghetto. Reinforcement of cordon by 250 Waffen SS men.

    Continuation of operation on 20th April.


    DAVID LANDAU:
    At about six in the morning the first German units entered the ghetto. Clearly, they expected that it would not be easy this time as it had been in the past, They came equipped for battle, marching towards the center of the ghetto island nearest the Unschlagplatz, in the vicinity of Franciszkanska, Mila and Gesia along Zamenhofa. For some reason we were told not to move from our positions. We were probably no more than six to eight hundred metres away towards the north-eastern end of the ghetto and could have engaged the German column within a matter of minutes. Years after the war I was told that the policy of the ZZW and of the ZOB was not to fight in the open, as we would have no chance to inflict even the slightest losses. The explanation sounded reasonable in retrospect but I am not convinced that it would have been so in the first moments, when the Germans did not expect us in the open.
    Within the next half-hour, all hell broke loose. The 120 people in our group waited impaitently for an order but we never recieved one. The telephone rang three or four times. From the other side they told us that they had seen wounded Germans and Latvians brought out of the ghetto and that whole units were running in chaos. According to the information from the Poles, a unit of the German Army, on it's way to the Eastern front, had joined the fight. It was not clear to our informers whether the soldiers were held over especially for the Action or simply had some free time, and the chief hangman of the ghetto, Colonel Dr von Samren (Oberfuhrer von Sammern-Frankenegg) had invited them to join in hunting down the last jews.

    The greatest surprise we had on the first day was to learn that the Germans had begun to take us seriously. the Colonel had been removed and replaced by no less than a General. That information lifted our spirits enormously.
    Only when the day ended did we have the opportunity to hear any details. In their first foray, the Germans had come fully dressed for battle, marching along the center of Zamenhofa together with those Jewish police who were still left. As far as we could make out, the ZOB had let the Jewish police cross their hidden positions and when the Germans followed them, they were met with a hail of fire from machine guns and grenades. The sons of the super-race became disoriented and panicked. They left their wounded and dead in the middle of the street and ran away. They were gone within the first hour.

    It was hard for us, who had been sitting doing nothing, to believe what had happened. We felt ashamed and betrayed not to have participated in the act. Could there have been a more messianic dream than the one in which a Jewish bullet killed a German in the open battlefield of the ghetto? And we had missed it on the very first day when it became a reality.

    As if to rub salt in out wounds, we had visitors in the evening - two young boys of 16 or 17 who did not belong to any organised group but had managed in the last days to get hold of rifles and bullets. They had joined the shooting independantly. They showed us rifles and revolvers they had managed to take from the German SS who had been left dead in the street. They told of the fighting, and it sounded as if God had handed over the first murderers into the hands of the victims. The greatest triumph on that day we learned from the Poles. Not a single Jewish fighter lost his or her life. We were elated, proud, and unbelievably jealous and ashamed.


    To our half angry murmur of revolt, Frenckel had a short answer...."Tomorrow will be another day."

    COMMENTARY: German claims of over 600 people captured look a little weak. This is Stroop reporting of his predecessors failure, and he may be making his collegue's efforts look far better than was the case. Too, a toll of 12 for the entire days operation would seem a might low, considering the second operation was terminated at 2030, and all the surviving Germans retreated to their quarters for the evening. Given the policy of the Jewish fighters not to confront in the open, a claim of no deaths for the day could well be true. A big surprise is the failure of the SS to cut the telephone system to the outside of the ghetto. Maybe cutting in one area will affect their own communications? In any case, it's early days........
    .

    UNITS EMPLOYED:
    SS- Panzer Gren Res. Batt...................6/400
    SS- Cav Res. Det................................10/450
    Police.....................................................6/165
    Security Service.....................................2/48
    Trawniki men......................................... 1/150


    WEHRMACHT
    1X 10cm Howitzer...................................1/7
    1X Flamethrower......................................./1
    Engineers................................................2/16
    Medical detachments..............................1/1
    3X 2.28cm AA Guns...............................2/24
    1 French Tank of the Waffen SS..............
    2 Heavy Armored Cars Waffen SS..........


    DAY 2

    I put Major of Police Sternhagel in command of todays operations subject to my further instructions as necessary.

    0700. Raiding parties consisting of mixed units 1/36 strong, were directed to comb out and search the remainder of the Ghetto intensively. This search is still in progress: it's first objective will be completed by 1100. In the meantime it has been ascertained that in the part of the Ghetto which is no longer inhabited but not yet released, and which contains armaments factories and the like, there are several centers of resistance which prevented the tank, stationed there from advancing. Two raiding parties crushed these centers of resistence and cleared the way for the tank. There were two wounded, (Waffen-SS) in this operation.
    The enemy is much more cautious than yesterday, since he had of course learned of the employment of heavy weapons.
    It is my intention to comb out completely the remainder of the ghetto and then to clean out in the same manner the uninhabited portion, which has so far not been released. It has been ascertained in the meantime that the latter part of the ghetto contains at least 10-12 dug-outs, even in armament factories. The whole operation is made more difficult by the fact that there are still factories in the Ghetto which must be protected against bombarment and fire, because they contain machines and tools. A further report will follow tonight.

    Following my teletype message of 20th April 1943 - Ref. No. St/Gr 16 07, re Ghetto Operation - I beg to report as follows.

    The resistance centers ascertained in the uninhabited but not yet released part of the Ghetto were crushed by a battle group of Wehrmacht, including engineers and flamethrowers. In this operation, one man was wounded, shot through the lungs. Nine raiding parties penetrated as far as the north wall of the Ghetto. Nine dugouts were found and their resisting inmates crushed and the dugouts blown up. What losses the enemy suffered cannot be ascertained accurately. Altogether, the nine raiding parties caught 505 Jews today: those among them who are able-bodied were earmarked for transfer to Poniatowo.
    At about 1500, I succeeded in the immediate evacuation of the block of buildings occupied by the Army Accomodation Office, said to contain 4,000 Jews.The German manager was asked to call on the Jewish workers to leave the block voluntarily. Only 28 Jews obeyed his request. Thereupon, I decided to evacuate the block by force or to blow it up. The AA Artillery- three 2cm guns used for this operation - lost 2 men killed. The 10cm howitzer, which was also used, dislodged the gangs from their strong fortifications and also inflicted losses on them, as far as we were able to ascertain. This action had to be broken off because of the fall of darkness. On 21st April we shall attack this resistance again: as far as possible it will remain sealed off during the night.

    In today's action we caught, apart from the Jews deported, considerable stores of incindiary bottles, hand grenades, ammunition, uniforms and equipment.

    Our Losses:
    2 dead (Wehrmacht)
    7 wounded (6 Waffen-SS, 1 Trawniki man)

    In one case, bandits had laid pressure mines. I succeeded in arranging that the factories of W.C Toebbens, Shultz & Co. and Hoffmann be ready to march off with their entire personnel on 21st April 1943 at 0600 in order to clear the area for cleaning out the Ghetto. The trustee Toebbens has pledged himself to lead the Jews, numbering about 4-5,000 voluntarily to the assembly point for evacuation. If, as in the case of the Army Accomodation Office, voluntary evacuation should prove unsuccessful, I shall clean out this part of the Ghetto by force. I beg to acknowledge receipt of the order which the Obergruppenfuhrer communicated by telephone today, and of the powers granted me.

    DAVID LANDAU:
    The second day of the Uprising belonged to the ZZW. Fate can be more sarcastic than the most caustic man. The day belonged to us less for the battles we led than for the shame which the organised German forces had to swallow from us, the last, most ill-equipped Jews of the ghetto who were already dead as far as they were concerned.
    The building at 17 Muranowska St. was four stories high and faced the ghetto wall across to a lookout and a building that housed the Polish underground on the other side. We had taken up our position there because it was one of the properties my family owned before the war. It consisted of a whole complex of entries and staircases in different directions.

    And I knew every nook and cranny.

    I had my own reason for choosing the building. I had made up my mind to raise the Polish flag and the Jewish sovereign flag over the fighting ghetto. I could not fulfill my plan on the first day because I was waiting for the Polish flag, which I had asked Janek Kostanski to deliver. Raising the flag was both symbolic and a secret signal to the Polish underground. It would tell them that the ghetto fight had begun and they could begin their uprising on the Aryan side. Sadly, we later found out that Polish organizations were not ready to fight. I had made my mind to raise the Jewish flag alone if by the end of the second day the Polish flag remained undelivered.


    I was overjoyed when early that morning a messenger came in to tell me that a young boy had come through the tunnel at Muranowska 7 with a message which he had been told to deliver only to me. He had come through the sewers and stunk to high heavens when he was brought to see me. I was standing on guard, dressed in the black uniform of the SS with a machine gun in my hand. From under his shirt the boy pulled out a packet wrapped in newspaper. I knew immediately what it was and understood why he had been told to hand it over only to me. His blue eyes and the smile on his face told me he must have lived with death for a long time and it no longer held any fear for him. He was living an adventure. When I asked him if he would be willing to put up the flag, he became elated. "Do you really mean it!? I warned him this would be unlike any adventure he may have had before.
    "The Germans will see you and you will not be protected. They will shoot at you with all they have. You may be dead before you reach the chimney."
    "It's alright. Sooner or later we all have to die; all Jews have to die. I have seen people die when they are shot; it isn't so bad. When do I go up on the roof?
    I told him to hang the two flags on the lightning pole on top of the chimney, and not to stand in one place for even a few seconds, but to keep moving while he hoisted the flags. I also told him he wouldn't be going up alone.
    "You will protect me from here!", he said eagerly,"and if anything happens to me it would be better than to you, because I am only a boy, and you are a fighter."
    He did not comment on my SS uniform and I slowly realised that he must be closely involved with the Underground, otherwise he would have been shocked by my appearence. I knew I could rely on his own sense of survival.

    On this, the 2nd day of the Uprising the Germans watched with fury, the Poles with elation, and the Jews with fire in their hearts, as both Polish and Jewish flags were raised by a group of children above the rooftops for all the world to see. Two young boys paid with their lives for their audacity. They wrote a chapter of courage and bravery which remains a symbol of the Uprising. I can only weep that their names remain unknown. However their leader, Jacek Eisner, the brave young flag smuggler, a child fighting in the Underground, lives to this day to tell the tale.

    Our command was united but as the ghetto had been divided into islands it was difficult to assess the progress of the battle. Only preparations made before 19 April made it possible to fight seperately but united at the same time.

    The General who had taken over the Action against us, (Stroop), had obviously not wanted to fore-go the celebration in honour of his Fuhrer's birthday completely. There was no activity against the ghetto before noon, except for some sporadic, aggravated fire against the flags we had managed to raise, for the price of the two young boys. But, celebrating Hitler's birthday did not stop the murderers for the whole day.


    After midday, they came. This time they paid no attention to the main section where they had been given the fiery reception the day previous. They tried their luck in another island and turned their attention to the brush makers factory. So sure were they that they approached the gate of the complex in orderly rows, fully armed. The entrance to the closed section was through the gate in Walowa St. Precisely as the columns entered the gate a hidden mine was exploded by remote control and lifted the orderly columns from the ground. In seconds, chaos, with Germans running for cover and firing more from fear than at targets. From a distance, one could distinguish the German firing which came in quick, continuous bursts ,while the short replies from the fighters came in intermittent spasms.

    Somewhere the hidden fight reached the open stage, as the leader of the group, Mark Edelman, told it. The fight must have had a tremendous psychological effect on the Germans. Three officers approached the line of fighters waving white signals. They proposed a fifteen minute cease-fire to remove the dead and wounded. They were willing to guarantee the Jews in the sector a peaceful relocation to working camps in Poniatow and Trawniki, allowing them to take all their possessions. "We replied with fire", Edelman reported.


    Less than 100 metres from us, the Germans placed a small artillery gun. Unfortunately, they positioned it in a way that made it impossible for us to attack it it with grenades or machine gun fire. Nevertheless, it was not a good day for the German General. In his report to Berlin, he had to admit that of the 4,000 he hoped to remove from the sector, only 28 came forward. He was ready to start military action with AA and howitzer guns to destroy the building, but as twilight approached he decided to leave it for another day.

    The Germans suffered considerable loss on the second day. It is remarkable that they were willing to lose face and ask for a ceasefire from the subhuman 'bandits' they had come to destroy.

    We had our own fight on that day. Early in the afternoon we saw a group of ZOB moving across from the area of the fight of the previous day, towards the section of the brush makers. There were some 80 - 100 fighters, (male and female) in the group. The road seemed empty from where we saw them. Then one of our guards noticed a column of Germans coming from the other direction.

    Soon the Germans were directly in the path of ZOB, heading toward the open field. They would have mown them down before the small group had any chance of action, but within a minute we had the order to open fire. The crossfire lasted some minutes before part of the German columns seperated and moved away while the rest remained to do battle. It was not a very serious effort from the professionals. Within 15 minutes they cut off and moved away from our position. It was, however, enough time and noise to alert the ZOB to move out from the open field.

    COMMENTARY: One might say that these two accounts are describing very different actions. Stroop seems to be very hassled. He had, (more than likely), opened his mouth a little to widely concerning the need to have this 'affair' terminated by the Fuhrers birthday. The day's events told him this was not going to be possible. The extra teletype message was, no doubt, accompanied by much explanation down the telephone as to what was going to be a possible time frame for shutting this one down.

    The mine exploded by ZZW in front of the Brush Works is bound to have forced far more deaths and woundings than the admitted total; (4 wounded are all that are left after one lung shot and the 2 artillery crewmen, and 2 from the morning raiding parties). The very fact that a 'cease-fire' was requested indicates a loss of many more than 4 wounded. And what of the large firefight late in the day? Caught in a crossfire, just breaking contact does not sound like a result with no casualties sustained. These casualty figures, I surmise, are being 'fudged' to spare Hitler a birthday disappointment.

    The Jews are getting bolder on Day 2. Raising the flag is not only a moral and signalling device, it's an intelligent way to get German Artillery to waste their efforts for the day on an inanimate target, rather than on something more vital in the way of position.. And rubbled buildings are far easier to defend. The Jewish morale is sky high with people emerging for the first time in a long time to move freely, smell the fresh air, exchange food and services, or just marvel that the ghetto fighters had brought them more precous time: For now, they taste something like victory. And like any brave and heroic people, they 'make hay while the sun shines'.


    DAY 3

    Progress of the Ghetto Operation on 21 April 1943.Start of operation: 0700. Cordoning off the entire Ghetto has continued since the start of operations.

    Since the special operation in the Army Accomodation Block had to be interrupted yesterday evening due to the fall of darkness, one battle-group reinforced by Engineers and heavy weapons was again put into action again. After combing out this gigantic block of buildings, which was found to contain an enormous quantity of dugouts and underground passages, about 60 Jews were caught. In spite of all efforts, no more of the 7-8,000 Jews who stayed in the block could be caught. They kept retreating from hideout to hideout through subterranian passageways, firing from time to time. I decided, therefore, to blow up these passageways so far as they were known and to set the entire block on fire. Not until the fire spread did screaming Jews emerge. We had no losses. Precautionary measures were taken in order that the conflagration be localized.

    The main body of our forces were detailed to mop-up the so-called uninhabited, but not yet released, part of the Ghetto by proceeding south to north. Before this action started, we caught 5,200 Jews from the former factories of Command for Armament and transported them under escort to the loading railway station. Three search parties were formed, to which special raiding parties were attachd in order to attack or blow out dugouts which were already known. This operation had to be interrupted when darkness set in, after one half of the area mentioned had been combed out.

    Apart from the Jews evacuated, 150 Jews or bandits were killed in battle and about 80 blown up in dugouts. The enemy today used the same arms as yesterday, particularly homemade explosives. Samples have been kept by the SS and Police Fuhrer. For the first time we discovered members of the Jewish Women's Battle Association (Chaluzim Movement). The following were captured. Rifles, hand grenades, explosives, parts of SS uniforms.

    Our Losses:
    2 Policemen, 2 SS men, 1 Trawniki man,(slight wounds)

    The result of setting the block on fire was that during the night those Jews who, despite all search operations still remained hidden in lofts, in cellars and other dugouts appeared outside the blocks, trying to somehow escape the flames. Large numbers, indeed, entire families, already aflame, jumped from windows and endevoured to let themselves down by means of sheets tied together or the like. Steps have been taken for these as well as other Jews to be liquidated at once. All through the night there were shots from buildings that were supposed to be evacuated. There were no losses in the cordoning chain. 5,300 Jews were caught for evacuation and removed.

    DAVID LANDAU:
    The chimney of 17 Muranowska St did not give way that day, (day 2). At dawn on the third day came the first fire on our position. The order came for us to leave. Heavy artillery was being directed toward the building. By 0700 we had moved out. The German special units did not appear inside the ghetto until hours later.

    On the first night the Germans had surrounded the ghetto from the outside. During the second day they began to learn our tactics. They realised that fighters were using attics, which gave them a dual advantage. While the Germans were exposed, the Jews were hidden until the last moment.

    And they were fighting from height. On the second night the Germans undertook an experiment to counteract this tactic and were very successful. Dressed in civilian clothes, with blackened faces, small units of Germans infiltrated the 'wild' streets and silently stationed themselves in attics. They came in small groups of 3 - 5 and took up assigned places so as not to expose themselves one group against another. silently, they managed to kill individual fighters, as they moved from attic to attic.

    By dawn of the third day, they had eliminated some 8 - 10 men and women. We heard about it in the early hours and felt enraged to the point of losing our senses; We had to match the German tactics. The opportunity presented itself so naturally we did not need to plan it. For some unrelated reason Frenkel ordered us to return to the headquarters at 17 Murinowska St.


    A small group of us were standing inside the building with Frenkel when the guard on the first floor signalled that two German officers were approaching with their machine guns at the ready. They stopped two houses away from us and were silently waiting while closely observing the surrounding area. The artillery had ceased. Obviously there was some co-ordination between those who were trying to destroy the chimney with the two flags and these two officers.

    Frenkel gave me an order: "Go and bring them here!" It came so suddenly I was shocked.

    "Me? How can I call them with my German?"
    "You are wearing their uniform!! Go and bring them here!!" He was angry.

    The atmosphere was growing tense and the guard from the first floor came once more and said,

    "They are still waiting for something."


    When Frenkel repeated his order I knew what I had to do. I asked three of our men to wait behind the entrance, hidden from the outside. I went out and began to signal to the two officers by placing my finger across my lips and pointing above my head. It worked. The two officers responded in a similar manner by asking with their fingers how many: two? I made the sign of four and encouraged them to follow me by going back into the entrance of the building.

    Although my uniform was good enough to be accepted from 25 metres away, the hand painted trims would have given me away if they had come closer. As I disappeared into the gate, I signalled them to follow me through. They came and stopped at the entrance. Nothing happened to frighten them. Slowly....they moved in, following me as I made cautious steps toward the staircase. Before they could realise their mistake they had wires strung around their throats. Their machine guns didn't even fire before we had them out of their hands. I turned around to see their eyes bulge out of their sockets and their hands held firmly by our fighters, while they convulsed in a useless effort to save their lives.

    Frenkel's first words to me as he came down from the floor above were,

    "If I give you an order you better pay attention to it first time. Understood?" I realised his strain was no less than my own and with a sudden coolness, I said,

    "Yes, Sir."


    COMMENTARY: As you might have guessed, the above passage is proof positive that Jurgen Stroop is losing control of the 'grossaktion', and fudging the figures to cover it up for his superiors. No mention what-so-ever is made of the two officers David Landau lured into Muranowska 17 to their deaths. David mentions 8 - 10 fighters that have been killed moving from attic to attic, so Stroop has probably suffered losses from these 'special raiding parties' that he mentions as well. The "Master Exterminator" cannot claim to be winning yet. But he has much larger resources to draw from, whilst the Jews are getting fewer and weaker all the time. The Brigadefuhrer is striving to put the best possible face on this affair in his nightly teletypes to Berlin.

    By the way, the above listed losses of "2 SS men" are not the officers in question. This will be made clear later when men of rank are killed and mentioned by rank in Stroops report. The five men admitted are all enlisted men.

    DAY 4

    Progress of the Ghetto Operation on 22 April 1943 up to 1200hrs

    Battle group has once more invaded the large block of buildings, which by now have largely burned out or were still aflame, in order to catch those Jews who were still there. As shooting again started from one block, (aimed at the men of the Waffen-SS), this block, too, was set on fire, with the result that a considerable number of bandits were scared from their dugouts and shot whilst escaping. In addition about 180 Jews from the surrounding courtyards were caught. The main body of the units continued the cleaning-out of the unsearched buildings, starting from the line we had reached yesterday. This operation is still in progress.
    As on preceding days local resistence was broken and the dugouts discovered were blown up. Unfortunately there was no way of preventing some of the bandits and Jews from staying in the sewers below the Ghetto where it is almost impossible to catch them, since the flooding has been stopped. The city administration is unable to prevent this. Neither the use of smoke candles nor the addition of creosote to the water had the desired affect.

    Co-operation with the Whermacht is splendid.

    Progress of Ghetto Operation, 22 April 1943.
    Report on action up to 1200hr has already been submitted by teletype. Continuing, I beg to report....

    The above mentioned search action in the remaining blocks by detailed raiding parties, which met with resistance in some places had the following result: 1,100 Jews caught for evacuation, 203 bandits and Jews shot, 15 dugouts blown up. Captured: 80 incendiary bottles and other booty. Units employed: As reported by teletype message on 20th April, 1943, Journal No. 516/43 secret.

    Our Losses:
    SS-Untersturmfuhrer Dehmke (killed); enemy hit a hand grenade he was carrying.(SS-Cav Res. Batt)
    1 Sergeant of Police (shot through the lungs).

    When the engineers blew up the dugouts, a considerable number of Jews were buried in the rubble. In a number of cases it was necessary to start fires to smoke the gangs out.
    It must be added that since yesterday some of the detailed units have been fire on time and again, even from outside the Ghetto, that is to say, from the Aryan part of Warsaw. Raiding parties going in immediately succeeded in one case in capturing 35 Polish bandits, Communists, who were liquidated at once. Today, when it was necessary to carry out executions, it happened repeatedly that the bandits collapsed, shouting Long live Poland! and Long Live Moscow!"

    The operation will be continued on 23 April, 0700 hrs.

    DAVID LANDAU:
    The previous evening, during a lull in the action and artillery bombarments, I took part in a planning session to discuss possible courses of action to trick our German opponents.


    The best idea came from a man who had been trained in the Polish Underground, and had served in the Army before the war. His plan seemed well thought out. He suggested we organize groups of 8 for attic forays. He argued that the Germans surely would not go in large groups. He estimated then, and this turned out later to be correct, that they would be working in twos and threes at most. They had the advantage of their machine guns and a limitless supply of bullets. We could not match them in this respect. They would shoot whole magazines and we could reply with single shots. Even if we could be successful, our gunfire would give us away immediately. Should another group of Germans be close by we would have no chance of escape. There had to be at least two or three of us against each of the Germans and we had to stop them from calling out.

    The details were slowly worked out. We decided to station ourselves in an attic in a spot where the darkness would hide us. We would observe the movements of those who would be passing our position and make sure that we made no mistake before acting. I was placed with the first 8 before i had a chance to volunteer.
    We had orders to move to Nowolipki, our shoes wrapped in rags for silence; and take up position there in one of the attics which had become a thoroughfare for the fighters. We lay crouched in one spot the whole night, hardly moving from our confined space.

    When first light broke, our bones were aching, but we had not seen any Germans. Nor had we seen any fighters moving through the roof. By the time we returned to our quarters there was already a report about four men killed in the night. There were no shots fired and they were not killed in any attic; they had been knifed to death on the ground floor in one of the houses in Franciszkanska. The 16 men who had gone out in two groups were ordered to rest as much as possible, but first we were told that the failure to meet up with any Germans would have to be made up on the coming mission.

    The order was to go back to the position we had occupied the first night. This time, fortune came our way. Late in the night, whispers reached our ears.


    We froze...............

    Three shadows were climbing up the attic across from where we had taken up our positions. They stood behind the chimneys without speaking. After a few moments it became clear that they were not part of our group, and there was no reason for ZOB members to take up guard duty in attics during the night. Attics were only used for contact between different positions. Although we were 8 and they were only 3 there was no way we could jump them. The few metres were too great a distance between us. We waited without clearly knowing what we were waiting for. We knew who was to give any order and the way the order would be given; but nothing happened.
    It was sheer luck that came to the rescue of our impatience. We heard one of the three say in the best German, in a voice that was hardly audible,


    "Watch out for me. I'm going over to the other side for a piss".

    Of all places, he came over to us and nearly stepped on one of our men. It was the last thing he did.

    With the speed of a snake, our commander was behind him with one arm around his throat and the other hand on his mouth, in total silence. In an instant, he was sitting down again with his prey and with the two of us helping him. All this was happening in absolute silence, as if in some old silent film. By the the time the other two Germans began to call in whispers,
    "Ulbrich." Four of us were moving towards them. Again they whispered, "Ulbrich?". The call sounded nervous. they made the mistake of moving from their secure places.

    It was enough for us.

    This time we paid less attention to the order of silence. Only four jumped them, but the eight of us finished the job. the struggle didn't last more than a few seconds. When it was over, we thought we were the only ones left, but from another corner came a louder voice in Yiddish,

    "Thankyou, whoever you are. but you were lucky we did not jump on you! You were only shadows when you came out, but you were too far from us. We were forced to lie down. We too could hear the first whisper in German and realised where the greater danger was. You could have fooled us with your first move. We could niether see nor hear anything. Your second move told us you were Jews. Thankyou! Now we still have to get to Muranowska before dawn.


    COMMENTARY: Jurgen Stroop continues to lie through his teeth, as is seen in the above text. Listing only two losses for the day, both of them go down in a manner that is totally divorced from the group of Germans encountered by David's group in their attic. The question remains, how exactly, does the Brigadefuhrer account for all these men he is losing to off the record to Berlin? Remember, these are not renegade Poles or faceless Ukrainians and Latvians. Stroop is losing 'valued' SS men every night to Jewish fighters.

    It's also gratifying to see that Stroop finally gives mention to the promised help from outside the Ghetto. Generally, the 'Aryan' Poles have not given the support that they earlier discussed; (the entire reason for raising David's flag over Muranowska 17 was to signal the outside revolt, something that just did not occur). But, some support is better than nothing, and the 'Aryan' Poles are well aware that their resources are not exactly cornucopic either. So they bide their time, in the main.

    However, as we shall see, the tide is turning. The ZZW and ZOB are running out of everything. And they can hide from artillery, but in a bunker on fire is another thing altogether. Lack of medical supplies also doom their wounded, and lack of food, as always.


    DAY 5

    Progress of the Ghetto Operation 23 April 1943. Start 0700:
    For the purpose of the day's combing out the whole of the Ghetto was divided into 24 districts. One reinforced search party was assigned to each district with special orders. These assignments given to the search parties had to be completed by 1600 hrs.
    Result of this action: 600 Jews and bandits ferreted out and captured, about 200 Jews and bandits killed. 48 dugouts, some of them quite elaborate, blown up. Apart from valuables and money, some gas masks were also captured.
    Units had been informed that we intended to terminate the operation today. During the morning the Jews became aware of these instructions. Therefore the search parties were once more detailed after an interval of 1 to 1 and a half hours. The result was that, as usual, Jews and bandits were discovered in various blocks.

    From one block, shots were even fired at units forming the cordon. An attack by a special battle-group was ordered, and in order to smoke bandits out, every building was set on fire. The Jews and bandits held back until the very last moment and then fired on the men of the units. They even used carbines. A number of bandits who were shooting from balconies were hit by our men and fell to the street.

    Furthermore, we discovered a place said to have been the headquarters of the PPR. We found it unoccupied and destroyed it. It was on this fifth day that we found the most dangerous terrorists and activists, who so far had found ways to dodge every search and evacuation.

    One German citizen (Volksdeutscher) reported that some Jews again had escaped into the Aryan part of the city through sewers. We learned from an informer that there were some Jews in a certain house. A special motorized raiding party invaded the building and succeeded in catching 3 Jews, 2 of them females. During this operation the motor car was pelted with one incendiary bottle and one explosive; thereby, 2 policemen were wounded.
    The whole operation is rendered more difficult by the cunning way in which Jews and bandits act; for instance, we discovered the hearses which were used to collect the corpses lying around at the same time bring living Jews to the Jewish cemetary, who thus escape from the ghetto. Now this way of escape, too, is barred by continuous checks of the hearses.

    At the termination of today's operation at about 2200, we discovered that again about 30 bandits had passed into the so called armaments factory in order to find refuge there. Since in this factory goods of great value to the Wehrmacht are stored, they were requested to evacuate the building by noon, 24th April so that we may attack that labyrinth of a bulding tomorrow.

    Today 3,500 Jews were caught who are to be evacuated from the factories. To date a total of 19,450 Jews have been caught for removal or have already been evacuated. Of those about 2,500 Jews are still to be loaded. The next train will start on 24 April 1943.
    Strength as of 22 April without 150 Trawniki men: These have already been put at the disposal of the Eastern Command as reinforcement for another assignment.

    Our Losses:
    2 Police Sergeants (SB) wounded.
    1 Trawniki man wounded.

    The operation will be continued on 24 April at 1000 hrs.
    This hour was chosen so that Jews who may still be in the Ghetto will believe the operation was actually terminated today.

    DAVID LANDAU:
    Up until the end of the third day our spirit to fight was growing and we were truly the victors, just as we felt it in our vins and in our emotions. This began to change by the fourth or fifth day No longer did the Germans enter the Ghetto in parade formation; no longer did they act openly and arrogantly. They had to resort to systematic brutality; they began to destroy the ghetto by fire.

    It may have been something learned from Jewish fighters. When the Germans had used mattresses fromthe Tobens factories as shields, someone from the Jewish side had thrown a molotov cocktail and the mattresses had gone up in flames. It may have given the Germans the idea. On their way into the ghetto one or two would approach a building with flamethrowers, while others positioned themselves ready for those who jumped from the upper windows trying to escape the fire.

    The success of the action was, according to the report of the General, so great that he came with a photographer, with black clouds of heavy smoke from the burning houses as background. No longer was ZOB able to co-ordinate the details of each unit. No longer a report given every night. The General now felt secure enough to have night patrols stationed in the ruins to intercept anything that moved.

    The toll on our fighters grew heavier. while some German units were engaged directly in the fighting, others sniffed out bunkers. Experts were employed for this. Helped by sniffer dogs and here and there by the previous Jews they had managed to capture. They would leave one of them alive and make this unfortunate person follow them as they approached a bunker. The living sacrifice would call out in Yiddish,
    "Jews, you can come out, the Germans have gone!".Sometimes the ruse worked.

    In this way they broke the back of the fight. Civilians who had been elated on the first evening of the fight, became desperate when the bunkers they were sheltering in became living graves. The air gave out, the heat became unbearable, their water supply dried up, children and the weak ones died, and there was no way to dispose of bodies which began to decompose.

    The success at the beginning of the Uprising turned into a curse for the survivors waiting to be discovered by their killers. When a bunker was discovered, the sapper unit would be ready to force an opening over it, through which they would throw gas filled grenades. It was not unusual for those forced out of bunkers to be ready with a grenade of their own. A third of all who were discovered in bunkers died this way.

    COMMENTARY: With one bunker after another falling to German forces, Jurgen Stroop must have begun to feel that the scales were finally tipping. But, bunker busting is a slow and dangerous process. Support elements for 'combined arms warfare' need to be on hand for every single dugout. And other elements cannot skip ahead without incurring losses again. So, one position at a time, the 'aktion' continues. By Stroops figures, there are still approx. 40,000 Jews left in Warsaw. That is a lot of bunkers, although Stroop is not aware of the true figure. (He only knows how many he has captured or bodies counted).

    And the combat groups, ZZW and ZOB, have not surrendered by half. Gone are the broad movements, and the co-ordination that made them possible. Now each unit is a seperate entity unable, except by chance, to conduct liason' with other friendly units, or mount large scale attacks and co-ordinated defensive moves, There is only one avenue looming....Underground....but not quite yet. Their morale is still intact...but the Germans will bust that wide open as well........and soon.


    DAY 6

    Progress of operation on 24 April 1943, start: 1000 hrs.
    Contrary to preceeding days, the 24 search parties which had again been formed today did not start at one end of the Ghetto, but went in from all sides simultaniously. Apparently, the Jews still in the Ghetto were deceived by the fact that the operation did not start until 1000 hours, believing that the matter had been terminated yesterday. The search action, therefore, was particularly successful today. This success is also due to the fact that the NCOs and men have become accustomed to the cunning tactics of the Jews and bandits and they have aquired great skill in tracing the inumerable dug-outs.

    Towards evening, the raiding parties having returned, we attacked a certain block in the north-eastern corner of the Ghetto. In this labyrinth of buildings there was a so-called armments firm reportedly having goods worth millions for manufacture and storage. I had notified the Whermacht of my intentions on 23rd April to remove the goods belonging to them by 1200 hours. Since the Whermacht did not start the evacuation until 1000 hrs, I felt obliged to extend the time until 1800.

    At 1815 a search and battlegroup entered the premises, the building having been cordoned off, and found a great number of Jews inside. Some of these resisted. I ordered the building set on fire. Not until the streets and all courtyards on either side were well aflame did the Jews, some of them on fire, emerge from these blocks, or endevour to save themselves by jumping into the street from windows and balconies, having first thrown down beds, blankets and the like. Over and over again we observed that Jews and bandits, despite the danger of being burnt alive, preferred to return to the flames rather than be caught by us.

    Over and over again the Jews kept up their firing almost to the end of the action; thus,the engineers were forced to invade an exceedingly strong concrete building under protection of a machine-gun towards nightfall. Termination of todays operation: on 25th April 1943 at 0145 hrs, 1,660 Jews were caught for evacuation, 1,814 pulled out of dugouts, about 330 shot. Inumerable Jews burned or perished when dugouts were blown up. 26 dugouts destroyed and large amounts of paper money, especially dollars, were captured: this money has not been counted.

    Our Forces:
    As on preceeding day, minus 50 men of the Waffen SS

    Our Losses:
    2 SS men and 1 Trawniki man wounded.

    Altogether, there have now been caught in this action 25,500 Jews who lived in the former Ghetto. Since there are only vague estimates available of the actual number of Jews, I assume that now only small numbers of Jews and bandits still remain in the Ghetto.

    Operation will continue on 25 April. at 1300 hrs.

    I beg to acknowledge receipt of teletype messages Nos. 1222 and 1223 of 24 april, 1943. As far as can be predicted, the present large scale operation will last until Easter Monday inclusive.
    Today, large posters were affixed to the surrounding Ghetto walls announcing that anybody entering the former Ghetto without being able to prove his identity will be shot.

    DAVID LANDAU:
    The Poles on the 'Aryan' side were suprised how war-like the battle sounded. They could hardly believe what they saw and heard. German Red Cross ambulances were running in and out of the Ghetto; constant firing rang out; artillery was being employed; once or twice they saw aeroplanes circling the Ghetto. Before the fires started in earnest, heavy smoke hung above the walls. In some historical documents there is mention of a diversionary fight instigated by the Polish underground on day two. I knew nothing to confirm it and I am not in a position to deny it. If it did take place, on day two or any other, it made little impact. We recieved help from both Underground Armies, the Home Army, and the People's Army.

    They were small contributions, but in the scale of things they were worthwhile contributions

    COMMENTARY: The tone of Jurgen Stroop's reports are starting to change. He now refers to this area as "The former Ghetto". As his murderers begin to grow in confidence, they forget their earlier hassles and get on with the job. But information concerning the true state of their enemy is letting them down. They do not know the true number of people and fighters they have yet to 'comb out'. They are also losing people from their operational 'gruppe' to other areas that in the first quarter of 1943 are far more important and dangerous to the overall situation at the front.

    A mystery is the departure of the Trawniki Detachment. Originally composed (supposedly) 1/150, all 151 of them were taken away from Stroop yesterday. But today, he lists a Trawniki man as wounded! He must have either lied about the number originally present, or he has kept the unit for his own task force and simply informed Berlin that they are on their way to Eastern Command Reinforcement pool.

    50 SS men have been taken from the his Warsaw Gruppe as well. Stroop must be anxiously scanning the situation reports for the Eastern front, hoping that another Stalingrad like emergency doesn't terminate his operation in Warsaw and send his people clanking into Russia! Fighting partisans is hard work and the Ostfront is drab and dangerous, with no comfortable city billet to retire to at the end of a long day.
    And, until they reach the end of these seemingly endless bunkers, tommorrow is just another day at the 'office'.


    DAY 7

    Progress of Operation 25 April 1943, start 1300 hrs.
    For today, 7 search parties were formed, strength 1/70 each, and individually allotted to a certain block of buildings.
    Order: Every building is to be combed out once more; dugouts have to be discovered and blown up, and the Jews have to be caught. If they resist in any way or if dugouts cannot be reached, the buildings are to be burned down.' apart from these operations undertaken by these 7 search parties, a special operation was launched, situated outside the former Ghetto wall and inhabited exclusively by Poles.

    Today's operations by almost all of the search parties ended in the starting of enormous conflagrations. In this manner the Jews were forced to leave their hideouts and refuges. A total of 1,960 Jews were caught alive. The Jews informed us that among them were certain parachutists who were dropped here as bandits who had been equipped with arms from some unknown source. 274 Jews were shot.

    As in the preceeding days, innumerable Jews were buried in blown-up dugouts and, as can be observed over and over again, burned to death. With today's bag of Jews we have, in my opinion, caught a very considerable part part of the bandits and lowest elements of the Ghetto. Intervening darkness prevented immediate liquidation. I am going to try to obtain a train for T-II tomorrow. Otherwise, liquidation will be carried out tomorrow.

    Today, also, armed resistence was reapeatedly encountered; in one dugout, three pistols and some explosives were captured. Furthermore, considerable amounts of paper money, foriegn currency, gold coins and jewellery were secured today. The Jews still have considerable property. While last night only the glow of the fire could be seen above the former Ghetto, today, one can observe a great sea of flames.

    Since we continue to discover great numbers of Jews during the combing out accomplished regularly and according to plan, the operation will continue on 26 April 1943. Start 1000 hrs. Including today, a total of 27,464 Jews have been captured.

    Our forces:
    As on previous day

    Our Losses:
    3 members of the Waffen SS and one member of the Security Police wounded.

    Total Losses to Date:
    Waffen SS..............................27 wounded
    Police.......................................9 wounded
    Security Police.........................4 wounded
    Wehrmacht...............................1 wounded
    Trawniki Men............................9 wounded
    ................................................50 wounded

    Waffen SS......................................2 dead
    Wehrmacht.....................................2 dead
    Trawniki men..................................1 dead
    ........................................................5 dead

    The operation on 25 April was terminated at 2200 hrs.

    General impact of the execution of the operation.
    The Polish residents in Warsaw are much impressed by the toughness of our operations in the former Jewish residential area. As can be seen from the reports, since the start of the action a general calming down (apart from little incidents) has taken place, especially within the city of Warsaw. From this fact one may conclude that until now bandits and sabotuers were living in the former Jewish residential area and now have been destroyed.
    In this connection it may be of some interest that an illegal ammunition store exploded when we burned down a certain bulding in the area we were working in at the time.

    DAVID LANDAU:
    The open fights came to an end with the battle that took place at Muranowska on the 25th - 26 april. Our group gave a strong account of itself. On that day we exchanged fire with the murderers from the early hours till late in the afternoon. As the houses in which we fought were directly against the wall of the ghetto, the Germans had obviously decided not to attack with flamthrowers. By the time the battle was over on that spring evening we had lost a considerable number of fighters. Many others were wounded.

    I went out into the street. The smoke filled my nostrils and the sky was aflame. Our medical workers were busy collecting our fallen, and during the evening we gave them as respectful a burial as conditions allowed. after that, our commanders informed us that arrangements were being made on our side and on the 'Aryan' side to evacuate our group through the sewer system to join the Polish partisans in the forests
    We were told that each of us was now free to decide to go with the group that was leaving, or to remain. From that moment on, everyone was free to make their own arrangements for the future.

    Only three or four members of ZZW left that night. At dawn we were told we would not engage the Germans in any battle unless it was impossible to avoid it.

    COMMENTARY: The Combat organisations have finally bowed to the inevitable and gone completely to ground. Dwindling resources, exhaustion, losses, the 'back to the wall' nature of the fight.....all have combined to drive the leadership and fighters off the streets and away from pitched battle.....The Germans will have to find other methods to lure the Jewish combat forces into the open, so they can wrap this operation up as quickly as possible.

    By contrast, Stroops forces are picking up speed. The tone and language in the nightly teletypes are becoming more and more triumphant. More and more desperate people are coming forward with information. But Stroop also deludes himself into believing two things. Firstly, that the fight will be over sooner rather than later, and two, that he is coming closer to finding the 'hub' of the various organisations the Jews have formed. ZZW remains intact as an entity, it's 'important' members still very much alive. ZOB is in a similar position. These people are not giving up easily.

    Additionally, it's just laughable to read Stroop's "Impact statement" from "the people of Warsaw". Clearly a case of Polish people telling him what he wishes to hear. And what would you do when faced with even a mild questioning by these thugs? You would wax lyrical about their toughness, too! Wouldn't you?

    It would be suicidal madness to do anything else!

    DAY8

    Start of Operation: 1000 hrs.
    Today the whole of the former Jewish residential area was once more combed through by search parties, each of them allotted to the same district as before. In this way I was trying to arrange that leaders get into the streets, blocks of buildings and courtyards which they know already and that thus they are able to penetrate deeper into the maze of dugouts and underground passageways. almost every raiding party reported resistence, which, however, was broken entirely either by return fire or by blowing up the dugout. It becomes increasingly clear that it is now the turn of the toughest and strongest of the Jews and bandits

    Several times dugouts have been forcibly broken open, the inmates of which had not come to the surface durig the whole operation. In a number of cases when the dugouts were blown up, the inmates were hardly in a condition to crawl to the surface
    .
    The captured Jews have reported that many of the inmates had become insane from the heat, smoke and the explosions. Several Jews were arrested who had close liason with Polish terrorists, and had collaborated with them. Outside the former residential area, 29 Jews were arrested.

    During today's operation several blocks of buildings were burned down. This is the ultimate method which will force this trash and subhumanity to surface. Arms, incendiary bottles, explosive charges, and considerable amount of cash and foriegn currency were captured. today I also arranged for several so-called armament and defense enterprises to evacuate their stoes at once, so that these blocks into which Jews now have slipped under the protection of the armament of the Wehrmacht and the Police, can be combed out.

    In one case we found the same situation as had often been observed before, namely that behind the pretense of a big enterprise there existed almost no stores and goods. One factory was closedimmediately and the Jews evacuated.

    Result of today's operation:

    30Jews evacuated, 1,330 Jews pulled from dugouts and immediately destroyed, 362 Jews killed in battle. Caught today altogether: 1,722 Jews. This brings the total caught to 29,186. Morover it is very probable that numerous Jews have perished in the 13 dugouts blown up in the conflagrations.
    At the time of writing not one of the Jews caught remains within Warsaw. The scheduled transport to T-II was unsuccessful. Strength: As on previous day.

    Our Losses: None.

    End of today's operation at 2145 hrs. Will be continued 27 April at 0900.

    DAY 9

    Progress of the operation on 27 April, 1943. Start: 0900 hrs.

    For today's operation 24 raiding parties were formed as on several days last week; to search the former jewish Ghetto by smaller search parties. these parties pulled out 780 Jews out of dugouts and shot 115 Jews who resisted. This operation terminated about 1500; some had to continue their activities becuse they had found more dugouts.

    At 1600, a special battle group of 320 officers and men started cleaning a large block of buildings situated on both sides of the so called Niska St. in the NE part of the former Jewish residential area. After the search, the entire block was set on fire, having first been completely cordoned off. In this action a considerable number of Jews were caught. As always, they remained in dugouts,which were either below ground or in the lofts of buildins, until the end. They fired their arms to the last moment and then jumped into the street from as high as the fourth floor, having previously thrown down bed, mattresses etc, but not until the flames made any other escape impossible.
    A total of 2,560 Jews were caught, of whom 547 were shot. Moreover, an unspecified number of jews perished when dugouts were blown up. The sum total of Jews caught in the former residential area now amounts to 31,746.

    From an anonymous letter we learned that there was a considerable number of Jews in a block of buildings adjoining the NE part of the residential area. A special raiding party under the command of 1st Lt. of Police Diehl was despatched to attack these buildings. The raiding party discovered a group of about 130 men, strongly armed with pistols, rifles, light-machine guns and hand grenades, who resisted. Diehls men succeeded in destroying 24 bandits and arresting 52 bandits. The remainder could not be caught or destroyed since darkness intervened. The buildings, however, were surrounded at once, so an escape will hardly be possible.

    Moreover 17 Poles were arrested, among them 2 Polish policemen who ought to have been aware of the existence of this gang. In this operation we captured, amongst other things, 3rifles, 12 pistols partly of heavy calibre, 100 Polish "pineapple" grenades, 27 german steel helmets, quite a number of German uniforms, tunics and coats which even bore ribbons of the East Medal, some reserve magazines for machine guns, 300 rounds of ammunition etc. The leader ofthe raiding party had a difficult task because the bandits were disguised in German uniforms, but despite this he asserted himself successfully with great dash. Among those caught and killed there were some Polish terrorists who were definately identified.

    Today we also succeeded in catching the founders and leaders of the Jewish-Polish defense formation. Their external appearence shows that it is now the turn of those who were the leaders of the entire resistence movement. They jumped from burning windows and balconies, abusing Germany and the Fuhrer and cursing German soldiers.
    SS men that descended into the sewers discovered that a great number of corpses of perished Jews are being washed away by the water.

    Strength of Active Forces:
    3/115............ German Police
    4/400............ Waffen SS
    1/6................ Engineering Serv.
    2/30.............. Security Police
    2/21.............. Engineers.

    Our Losses:
    3 wounded (2 Waffen SS, 1 Trawniki man)

    Termination of operation: 2300. To be continued on 28th April at 1000 hrs.

    DAVID LANDAU:
    That morning, everything was completely quiet in our corner. We had strict orders not to go outside buildings and contact was to be made only where it was possible to move directly from one building to another.

    Around midday, two covered trucks came along from the other side of Muranowska. Two guards jumped down and took up positions with their guns at the ready. From the drivers cabin two other guards got out at the same time as if in a rehearsed action. They went around to the back of the trucks and, with a flip at the corner. opened them up. They had brought a group of Jews in from outside, who were now made to leave the vehicles and stand in a single row. The trucks moved back some metres and an officer appeared from somewhere. With a move of his hand he ordered the unfortunate Jews to lie down in the middle of the road. There was some hesitation. A short burst of machine gun fire over their heads explained what was wanted of them; they obeyed.
    As they spread out on the ground - men, women and teenagers - two men were called to stand up. They were given a rope. Each man had to take hold of one end and move to the end ofthose spread out on the ground. The rope was put out at the feet of the victims.

    Looking down from our hidden positions, we wondered what it all meant.

    When the rope was lined up the two men were asked to line up the soles of the others straight against the rope. The exercise seemed slow, but there was no hurry, as the two Jews pulled individuals by the head and feet to line them up. Finally it was all done. The two who performed the work so dilligently were told to take their places at the end where the trucks were waiting.
    Now, the four Germans with their machine guns ready came forward. We could not make out what they said but it was obviously some order. They moved back and immediately the trucks drove forward.

    Now we understood it all.

    While one side of the trucks remained on the ground, the wheels of the other side rolled over the miserable victims, precisely over their knees. The screams rose up to us. Those at the end who tried to get up and run never made it. They were run over or died by bullet.

    When it was all over the four soldiers and the officer climbed back into the cabins, reversed out, and depated, leaving their victims wriggling like worms. Two of us went down from our hiding place to see what we could do.
    Our leaders stood at the closed gate.
    "No one will leave the building. The Germans have not left them for nothing. They have left them alive to tempt us out of our hiding. Understood? No one will go outside!"
    Most of those in the building agreed with our commanders. Those who did not could only feel anger, but obeyed. Once more our leader proved correct. after half an hour, one of the trucks came back to the corner. Two SS guards stepped out and made their way slowly along the writhing group, of whom not a single one had managed to rise. Slowly, with measured steps, they walked along the row with 2 revolvers and finished off their victims.

    We were close enough to kill the bastards. But, realising that by doing so we would be giving away our positions to others who were waiting just around the corner, we held back.
    During the night we moved the bodies from the road and piled them up in the gateway of one of the buildings. The next morning, another group of Jews were brought to the same place. At first we thought they would be subject to the same cruelty, but we were wrong. The Germans must have been surprised that the bodies were removed, for the Jews never left their truck.
    The black covers were placed back in position, the truck reversed into the corner and drove out of the ghetto.

    COMMENTARY: In an effort to bring as many fighters into the open as possible, Jurgen Stroop is using informants and psychological atrocities to lure Jewish fighters out of hiding. The discipline these people show is quite extra ordinary. It would be a mental releif to be able to take on the Germans as before, but the Polish Underground and the Home Army can see the writing on the wall, both for the Ghetto, and for their future.

    Arrangements are made to salvage as many Jewish fighters as possible from the conflagration that is the Warsaw Ghetto. They will be given their release from their oaths of service, and will escape out through the sewer system. for their part, the germans are convinced the Ghetto cannot last many more days of operations. Stroop is crowing about catching "the richest and most influential' of the Jews.

    But, he doesn't know the half of it. The people left behind are still armed, but have no ties to the 'Aryan' side. They will hunker down in their bunkers and fight even harder than before. Desperation makes tenacious individuals of us all.

    DAY 10

    Progress of operations on 28 April, 1943. : Start 1000 hrs.

    Today 10 raiding parties were dispatched for combing out the whole of the Ghetto. Proceeding step by step, these party's again discovered a number of dugouts, which were found to have been prepared as long ago as the middle of last year. a total of 335 Jews were forcibly pulled out of these dugouts. Apart from these operations, we continued to attack the nucleus of the Jewish military organisations, situated at the borders of theGhetto. We succeeded in shooting ten more bandits, beyond those caught yesterday, and arresting 9, whilst capturing more arms ammunition and equipment.

    In the afternoon a battle group was again directed against a block of buildings which had already been combed out: this building wa set on fire, and as on previous days, large numbers of Jews emerged, forced out by the smoke and flames. At another point an Engineer officer, seconded by Wehrmacht to units involved, opened a dugout situated about 3 metres below ground after a great deal of tough work. From this dugout, which had been ready since October of last year and was equipped with running water, toilet, electric light and other equipment We pulled out 274 of the most influential and rich Jews.

    Today we again encountered very strong armed resistence in many places and broke it. It becomes progressively clearer that we are now encountering the real terrorists and activists, because of the extension of the operation.
    Result of today: 1,665 Jews caught for evacuation of whom 110 we shot.
    Many more Jews were killed by flames and an unspecified number of Jews destroyed by dugouts being blown up. Due to the successes of today, the total of Jews caught has risen to 33,401 altogether. This number does not include Jews who were burned or destroyed in dugouts.

    Our Strength:
    As on previous day

    Our Losses:
    3 wounded (1 Police, 2 Waffen SS)

    Termination of operation: 2200 hrs. To be continued on 29 April, 1943, 1000 hrs.


    DAVID LANDAU:
    Like family members returning from a funeral, the few of us who were left turnedour backs on the opening to the bunker, which had been our main artery to the world for many months. Suddenly it was cold, lonely, and we no longer felt the closeness to each other; the knot that held us together had finally given way completely.
    I was the first one to leave the ruin of the building and go outside. The ghetto was burning fiercely. The sky was light red from the flames and smoke and the thousands of sparks that moved across it - red points moving across a background of red, dying as they moved. the sound of the fire in the chilly air was devestating. I turned to see some of the others had followed my footsteps. They too stared, entranced by the burning ghetto. Words failed us; only the sound of the crackling flames was heard.

    I remembered that in our apartment, my father had paved the attic with small gold bars. Never before had it held so much meaning to me. It belonged, after all, to my father.

    I shivered from the cold that was coming as much from inside me as from the night. Was I a mourner for my father? If so, why was I thinking of gold? If i had such a great thrist for life, why was I feeling so resigned? I did not belong to anything or anyone anymore, yet I was going, of all things, to find gold bars in an attic, in the middle of the night, in a burning ghetto, not knowing why. As I came closer, I saw that the building was no longer there. A huge pile of bricks and mortar lay in it's place - the building with the two flags that had mocked the swastika before the eyes of the world. I cried, I wailed, for the flames, for the living Jews and for the dead, for the children who marched with us to the death wagons in August, and for the first and only time, for me.
    Over the sound of flames I heard somebody approaching. I had my hand on my gun before i realised they were my companions in the lost fight, One of them spoke.

    "What are your plans?"
    I had no plans, and I said so with a shrug. Then i found my voice.
    "My father had hidden bars of gold somewhere in these ruins." They looked at each other as if to confirm I had lost my mind. "This house belonged to my parents, the whole block. During the first year of the war we managed to remove all the leather from our tannery and sell it. It wa sold for gold and my father hid the bars in the attic under the floorboards."
    "Do you think we might find it if we dig?"
    the question brought me back to my senses. "If you want the gold, then start digging, but deep down. You can have what you find. And you too,"

    Somehow this returned me to my faculties, and I knew I wanted to leave the ghetto. I turned back to the mountain of bricks and mortar, bowed my head silently, and thought...

    "I salute you, Ghetto." It was a last gesture to all that I was leaving behind.

    EPILOGUE
    The 'Grossaktion' continued until Stroop terminated it on Day 29, (May 16th). Isolated pockets held out for longer. Polish civilians on the 'Aryan' side could still hear gunfire weeks, even months, later.

    David Landau survived only after many more close calls. In one instance, he was actually placed on a transport cattle-car to a death camp, but escaped, to be reunited with his wife, Luba. They emigrated to Australia after the war, and had one daughter, Mirriam. In 1993, David was reunited in Warsaw with that same boy, Jack Eisner, (Jacek), who had planted David's flag on the chimney pot of Muranowska 17. David had always assumed that Jacek was dead. Jack Eisner called him "Dudek The Great", a name that other children had bestowed on the legendary Jewish fighter.

    David produced the manuscript for his book, "Caged", and finished it a very short time before his death.

    Brigadefuhrer Jurgen Stroop returned to his duties as Police Chief of Greece, a role he had before Warsaw. At the Nuremburg Trials, he was sentenced to death for shooting hostages in Greece, but extradited by the People of Poland. There, Stroop was re-trialed for his part in the Warsaw ghetto, and sentenced to death once again, executed on the scene of his greatest crime, in Warsaw (8th September,1951)....One life for so many thousands.

    As for Warsaw, it died a third death.
    As the Red Army approached in 1944, "London Poles" rose in revolt, after the Soviets had encouraged them by radio and other means. The juggernaut was not very far from the city, relatively speaking, and liberation looked certain for Warsaw's fighters.

    The Red Army stopped.

    Pleading a spring 'thaw', lack of supplies, exhaustion of the troops, (anything really to avoid going forward) , Stalin systematically prevented all help from reaching the city. A London sponsored revolt was not on his wishlist. Close enough to see the fighting from high vantage points, half- Polish Marshal Konstantin Rokossovskiy sat on his hands, saying "We had no reason to move forward." They waited for the revolt to be crushed, which the SS did with great relish.
    By the end of the war, no other city in Europe was more systematically destroyed. Less than 2% of it's buildings stood intact.

    For the Jewish fighters....this thread is a tribute. And we depart with words for them from the Spanish Civil War...

    "It is better to die on your feet, than live on your knees!!"....

    ('La Pasionata'....., in a radio broadcast to the people of Madrid during the Fascist siege)
     
  2. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Well done young man !

    Ron
     
  3. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    Thst means a lot to me, Ron.

    Many thanks!!!! :) :) :)
     
  4. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    Just a few notes to expand a little on the text.


    Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) 'Hunting Parties'

    The Third Reich was a political AND social movement, from one end of German society to the other. From it's earliest days in power, great amounts of money, time, and personal effort were put into reforming the German people, shaping their minds, indoctinating them for what was called 'The New Order' in Europe. Post WW1, ordinary civilians were frightened by the prospect of another 'great war'.

    The 'movement' set out to change all that.

    To this end, a fresh start was wanted, a new generation of people who would embrace their cultural, political and racial destiny.

    The two most important pieces of this puzzle were the organisations known as 'Jungvolk' (Young folk), and the Hitlerjugend,(Hitleryouth) or H.J.
    To call the HJ organisation 'paramilitary' would be an understatement. Graduates from 'jungvolk' went straight to Hitlerjugend without pause. There, the Reich spent lavishly on equipping and training these kids for military service. Exercises, rallies, uniforms, marches, multiple weekly meetings, all took up much of the time of these young persons. Their first 'leader' Baldur von Shirach, spent much of his time indoctrinating his young charges by glorifying military service in his many speeches at HJ rallies, especially when wartime came.

    Shirach, who had never been in anything other than a Nazi political uniform, gave speeches that told of "The Frontline Experience", a mystical aim that very many of these kids came to aspire to.

    The popular image that was put forward in the Nazi newsreels and press was of a youth movement very much in step with the Partei and the German people. Hitler Youth raised money for German charities and volunteered their services for social progams. In many ways, modern people still think of them in this way, still taken in by Goebbels 'enlightenment' service all these years later.

    Some still believe this carefully crafted image
    .
    Jewish people, however, saw a much darker and sinister side of the HJ coin. It went without saying that Jews were not welcome, either in Jungvolk, or HJ. This went the same for slavs, southern europeans, and anyone, really, that had been classified as 'racial trash' The same treatment also applied to free thinking 'herrenvolk' Germans who decided not to join the HJ; they were beaten and abused just the same, their parent's houses and property vandalized, and their school life and studies interfeared with.

    It all came to a head when Hitler made the public call, post Stalingrad, for a conscription call-up of young men from the class of 1927. Goebbels went into overdrive, reassuring worried parents, smoothing over the cracks of parental concern,

    What resulted was the "12th SS 'Hitlerjugend' Division", 13,000 fanatics whose service to the movement was about to be 'rewarded' with the 'privelage' of 'The Frontline Experience'. HJ Div went directly from advanced training to serve in Normandy, (their fanaticism was put to good use, holding open a 'shoulder' of the Falaise Pocket for beaten elements of the rest of the Heer to escape through); on a more sinister note, they quickly gained a reputation with Allied soldiers as "Those Little Bastards" (and began to commit atrocities of their own).

    For some in the division, the label of 'bastards' this was literally true. Some of the German inmates in the many camps in Germany were parents to HJ children that had been 'turned in' to the authorities for various crimes. The Nazi Party and the SS, were, literally, mother and father to children like them.
    .
    During wartime, also, Allied prisoners on the run from Stalag Camps in Germany used to complain loudly about discovery by these 'little monsters', forever hiking in the fields and forrests, watching everything and everyone. Quite a few escaping allied prisoners on the run were discovered by HJ youths and returned to camp via information passed onto the authorites.

    In Warsaw, (and other ghettos), these youths in uniform were seen to be the very worst examples of what this regime could achieve in the way of humanity. They held back nothing when it came to apeing their elders. Spurred on by an avalanche of newsreels and literature portraying Jews as "the scum of humanity", the ghetto 'hunts' were also entirely legal.

    The 'hunts' were not sanctioned 'officially', but the authorities did nothing to prevent them either.

    ANYONE could kill a Jew of the Reich!


    This historical lesson that our society has absorbed from the 'Hitlerjugend Experience' has a definate link to our own era that I personally ran across.
    When my daughter joined our local Australian Army Cadet unit (70 Regional Cadet Unit or RCU), we discovered very quickly that The Australian Army refuses, flatly, to train children in strictly para-military methods, like tactics larger weapons training,military history, or to 'indoctrinate' them into our version of politics as we see it.
    In my youth, I joined a local cadet unit called "The Legion of Frontiersmen". We had Army instructors, but they were not sanctioned by the Australian Army, and we recieved very little in the way of financial or material support from them. The reason?, These veterans were teaching us combat tactics, (like 'contact drill', or first aid for wounds like 'sucking chest wounds' and the like). As kids, we did not understand this. After I left the LOF, it was disbanded.
    The Hitlerjugend have, by extension, taught us much.to avoid in free thinking society.




    The Reasons Behind The Red Army "Halt" Before Warsaw in 1944


    1920

    As a young Commisar, Josef Djugashvali (Stalin) came to see the rout by Marshal Piludski's Polish National Army of the invading Bolshevik Red Army as a national disgrace.
    The Treaty of Riga granted Poland territory at Soviet expense. The new border is referred to as 'The Curzon Line'

    1939

    The Nazi-Soviet Pact hands Stalin an opportunity that he has waited long and very patiently for. The swift German victory gives the Red Army an unmissable chance to take back all the territory lost to Piludski without much effort at all. The Red Army lollops to 'The Pact Line', the new border with Germany.

    Amongst the many Polish soldiers interned after the cessation of hostilites, just over 10,000 reservist officers from the Polish Army are taken prisoner. These men, mobilized only in 1939, are widely considered inside Poland to be the elite of their national forces. Families quickly lose contact, not hearing a word, a letter, nor anything from the Soviets.

    1941

    Re-establishment of relations between Poland and the USSR. Polish Generals Sikorski and Anders, plus Ambassadors Kot and Romer, make numerous and persistent inquiries of Stalin, Molotov and Vyshinski as to the location of the 10,000 officers captured by the Russians in 1939. No satisfactory answers were forthcoming.

    3 December...Kremlin....Conference between Sikorski and Stalin. (Kot, Anders, and Molotov all present)

    Sikorski: I have with me a list containing the names of approx. 4,000 officers who were deported by force and who presently still remain in the prisons and labour camps. Even this list is not complete since it contains only names which we were able to take from memory....these people are here. Not one of them has returned.
    Stalin: That is impossible. They have escaped.
    Anders: Where, then could they escape?
    Stalin: Well....to Manchuria.
    Anders: It is impossible that they all could escape....I know that groups of Poles were already prepared for release and departure, but they were retained at the last moment.
    Stalin: Surely they have been released, but as yet, have not arrived.
    Sikorski: Russia is immense and the difficulties great. Maybe the local authorities did not carry out the orders.
    Stalin: I want you to know that the Soviet government has not the slightest reason to retain even one Pole. I released even Sosonkowski's agents who attacked us and murdered our people.



    1942

    26 January...... Moscow,...... Foreign Office.

    Polish General Sikorski, talks to British Ambassador Sir Stafford Cripps. The 'border issue' is raised. Sikorski has never officially given up on Poland's claim to the 1939 borders. Cripps tells him "Russia has established certain principles in the matter of state frontiers which she considered beyond discussion."

    19 February to the End of March

    A Soviet newspaper in February and a Tass communique in March both declare the same thing, namely, that an alleged Polish denial of rights to Ukrainians and Belorussians, (until 1939 they were Polish citizens) was "Contrary to the Atlantic Charter" and that the Polish government in London was "not representative of the people."

    A new Polish language newspaper also appears in Moscow, "Wolna Polska" (Free Poland), claiming to be the organ of the Union of Polish Patriots, a new body devoted to "Uniting all Polish patriots living in the USSR.", and stating it's aim was to "Regain for Poland every inch of Polish ground, but not to claim an inch of other people's land." President of this new group, Wanda Wasilewska was the daughter of a Polish Colonel and member of the USSR Supreme Soviet.

    Polish Colonel Berling (another founder of the UPP), is an officer who has opted to stay in Russia, rather than depart for the Middle East as General Anders has (to join his Polish division raised in the west). Berling puts his the group at Stalin's disposal, and is granted permission to form 2 or 3 divisions from the Polish soldiers still captured during 1939 and still held in Russian camps.
    At the same time, 'Tass', 'The Moscow Kosciusko Radio Station', 'Wolna Polska' and the Communist Warsaw paper 'Liberty Tribune' all begin a synchronized campaign denouncing the London Polish government and the Home Army.

    Early April......

    German Radio announces the discovery of mass graves in Katyn Forrest, near Smolensk, containing the bodies of thousands of Polish officers in uniform. Discovered by the German Intelligence Corps, they were alerted to the site by the puzzling presence of birchwood crosses erected by Polish speaking villagers.
    Germans announce from Berlin that they had set up a Committee of Inquiry, whose findings 'proved' that the Russian NKVD carried out the killings.
    Relations between the Soviets, the London Polish government and the Home Army, already threadbare, are strained to breaking point. In occupied Poland, General Komorovski notes the effect on the Polish people as well, citing a "tremendous impression" had been made.

    April 16th...Official Soviet statement released.

    "Goebbels gang of liars have, in the last two or three days, been spreading revolting and slanderous fabrications about alleged mass shootings by Soviet organs of authority in the Smolensk area in the spring of 1940. The German statement leaves no doubt about the tragic fate of the former Polish war prisoners who, in 1941 were in the areas of Smolensk, engaged in road building and who, together with many Soviet people, inhabitants of the Smolensk area province, fell into the hands of the German hangmen after the withdrawl of Soviet troops from Smolensk."

    April 17

    General Kukiel, Polish Minister of National Defense, (London), announces a Polish government application for impartial "on-the-spot" investigation into Katyn Massacre.
    On the same day, Berlin announces it's own impartial investigation through the German Red Cross.

    Soviets "refuse" permission for the Red Cross to examine Katyn's graves, on the grounds that it would be held under terrorist auspicies.

    April 21

    Stalin sends a message to Churchill, accusing Sikorski's Government of "...striking a treacherous blow at the Soviet Union to help Hitler's tyranny....", and, "...adopting a hostile attitude to the Soviet Union.". The Soviet Government, his message said, has therefore decided "...to interrupt relations" with that government.

    Winston Churchill attempted to mediate, sending two very long and eloquent messages to Stalin. None of Churchill's arguments could persuade Stalin to change his mind.


    April 22.....Official Soviet Newspaper, "Pravda", ("Truth")

    Wanda Wasilewska, in an article she wrote, predicts the creation of a Polish Army in Russia to fight side by side with the Red Army. Wanda is also very quick in claiming that this Army would not be under the juristiction of the Polish government in London, claiming they were preventing active resistance to the Germans.


    May 9.........

    In a truly amazing example of political prescience, Wanda's 'prediction' comes to pass in an official announcement from Moscow that the Council of the People's Commissars had authorized the formation of the 'Polish Kosciusko Division', and that this was already in motion.


    Meanwhile............

    Soviet radio broadcasts to Poland reach fever pitch as their anti-Sikorski campaign continues.

    Typical examples.......

    "The Polish government has taken the treacherous step of an understanding with Hitler, foe of the Polish and the Russian people, foe of all peace loving people!!
    "The Polish Government's aggressive lust has lead it to agreement with the Hitlerite government, which is tearing asunder the Polish nation!!"

    The Soviets also threaten to cut off material aid to the Underground and Home Armies (under their legendary leader and trainer since November 1939, General Rowecki) Rowecki's troops are conducting an increasingly effective campaign against German rear areas.
    The reaction from inside occupied Poland, at a time when the Germans were 'turning the screws' and stepping up their own efforts is nothing short of furious....

    Gen. Rowecki is insensed by the developments, and in view of the dispute, informs Sikorski that he has now cut down his own operations against the Germans, especially against their lines of communication to the East.

    Rowecki also proposes an "offensive reaction" by the Polish Secret Army against the Soviets, were they to to enter Poland in pursuit of the Germans without first reaching an understanding with the existing government in exile.
    His 'reaction' includes sabotage in the eastern territories, destruction of Red Army lines of communication (where possible), and battles against the Soviets wherever success was likely; or staying underground until the right moment to strike.

    Appalled, Sikorski over-rules him, preferring diplomatic means to end the dispute.


    1943

    June 30..........Gen. Rowecki's Hideout.....

    Out of the blue, the Gestapo cordon off an entire street where General Rowecki is located, and arrest him. They fly him to Berlin at once for a brutal and prolonged interrogation. Rumours abound of betrayal, destiny, accident and conspiracy.

    Rowecki's resourcefulness and intelligence are sorley missed, but he has also left a legacy of failure to compromise and failure to win a useful understanding with the Communists. This is to cost Poland dearly.

    July 3.......Gibraltar

    General Sikorski climbs into an RAF aircraft. The aircraft takes off, and crashes into Gibraltar harbour.

    The circumstances surrounding the crash are so mysterious, the cause has never been explained.

    Sikorski offered a unity of purpose to Polish affairs, something he imposed on the Secret Army to guide it's attitude toward the Soviets. He was also very level headed, and these qualities are now gone with him.

    Sikorski's death opens the way to Warsaw's, (and Poland's) agony in 1944 and beyond. Whether by accident, design or destiny, events had played into Stalin's hands once again.


    EPILOGUE

    We know very well today that it was the Soviet NKVD who were reponsible for the Katyn Forrest killings.

    They were enacting the exact same thing they had perpetrated upon the Red Army during the Great Purge of 1937. Getting rid of the intellectual leadership was standard Soviet practice for political and social domination. It was this that Stalin was attempting to hide.
    Unfortunately for Warsaw, and for Poland and it's long suffering people, the above combination of events conspired to rob Poland of any chance of a democratic government until Lech Walesa's "Solidarity" upset the applecart after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    In 1944, at 8:15 pm on the 29th of July, Moscow Radio broadcast a a message directly to the city of Warsaw, exhorting the inhabitants to rise up and fight. Poles in Warsaw were told...........

    ".....The Polish Army now entering Polish territory, trained in the USSR, is now joined by the People's Army, to form a Corps of the Polish Armed forces, the armed arm of our nation in it's struggle for independence.
    It's ranks will be joined tomorrow by the sons of Warsaw........"
    The message ended with.....
    "Poles, the time of liberation is at hand! Poles to arms! There is not a moment to lose!"

    If that is not an exhortation to IMMEDIATE action, I don't know what is.
    Leaflets were also dropped, directly on the city of Warsaw.........

    "Poles! The time of liberation is at hand...Poles to arms!...Every Polish homestead must become a stronghold in the struggle against the invader....there is not a moment to lose!"

    Konstantin Rokossovoskyi's 1st Ukrainian Front sat still, and watched it happen; only 20 kms away, and close enough to watch the fighting, (and later even temporarily withdrawing from a Guderian inspired local counter-offensive for good measure).

    They waited, while General Heinz Guderian scraped together reserves; there were some of the worst units in the German Army at Warsaw.


    One more thing. Author Chris Bellamy in his large book on the Eastern Front from the Soviet perspective, ('Absolute War'), dismisses Polish claims. In a shockingly brief and dismissive 3 page description of events, (in a book running to 687 pages in the body of the work), Bellamy proves himself a bloody liar when it comes to this issue. In the very last paragraph of those three pages, Bellamy states of Stalin...

    "He was not responsible for the outbreak of the revolt...."

    After all the leaflets? The many radio broadcasts exhorting action IMMEDIATELY?

    When the Poles had been waiting for the arrival of the Red Army for over four years?


    Bellamy also claims 1st Ukrainian Front were "100kms away". If this was so, they would not have been able to view the fighting at all, nor would they have needed to stage a withdrawl in the face of theshort lived Guderian Counteroffensive.

    Bellamy claims many mainly Soviet sources, and draws extensively from our old friend David Glantz.

    I think Glantz and Bellamy ought to cease spoon-feeding us this Soviet era trash.

    The Russians he studies with are just as concerned only with the reputation of the Soviet Union as Josef Djugashvali was in 1920.

    Stalin's political machinations had won out, both in 1945 and in 2015.
    But in 1944 it was poor Poland that disappeared off the map as a free entity....again
     
  5. Gibbo

    Gibbo Senior Member

  6. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    Thanks Gibbo...

    You are, of course, correct.

    When, for better or worse, Betar seperated itself from the pre-Aktion activities of ZOB (for reasons of security), many of those familiar with their activites began to accuse them of working for the communists.

    When they broke off from the WZO, (World Zionist Organisation) and began to make statements about Jewish people returning to Israel ONLY through a sustained military campaign, (which turned out to be correct), many of those "in the know" began to feel that Betar had been infiltrated and 'turned' into something like the Komsommol, (A Moscow based and funded organisation for for the purpose of exporting Communism to the world).

    I forgot to state this, and should have put, "Betar was a PERCEIVED left wing organisation", but I simply ommitted this in the hurly burly of a very complex post.

    The whole political and military situation in Poland generally was quite complex, and people were very confused as to exactly who was on whose 'side'.

    This situation, of course, was exactly as Josef Stalin had engineered it....divide, conquer and rule, ( very old, tried and true Machiavellian tools of statecraft that Stalin was infamous for).

    Polish politics became a four-sided situation, (The Western Allies "London Poles", The Germans, The Soviets, and Zionist groups....well, five really, because many Poles wanted an independant Poland totally free of any outside interference)

    Me too. Just a mite confused.... :Hydrogen:

    Gibbo, are you Polish? ;)

    Once again, many thanks for your reply!
     
  7. Gibbo

    Gibbo Senior Member

    No, I'm British. I have read a couple of books on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

    'Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising' by Israel Gutman, a survivor of the ZOB acknowledges the ZZW but concentrates on the ZOB.

    'Flags over the Warsaw Ghetto' by Moshe Arens, a former defence minister in a right wing Israeli government, aims to give the ZZW its full share of the credit.
     
  8. steelers708

    steelers708 Junior Member

    It's become the common mis-conception to believe that Stalin ordered his troops to halt in front of Warsaw in 1944 but the facts from both Soviet and german records don't support this assertion. I've not read Bellamy's book but if you look at any maps you'll see that the boundary line between the 1st Ukrainian Front and the 1st Belorussian Front placed the former approximately 100kms from Warsaw.

    As to the 1st Belorussian Front they're advance on Warsaw was hit and delayed by a powerful counter-attack by the IV SS and XXXIX Panzerkorps at Praga during which the Soviet 2nd Tank Army was badly mauled. In his "The Soviet-German War 1941-1945: Myths and Realities: A Survey Essay" David Glantz wrote:

    The Warsaw Uprising:

    No case of Red Army action or inaction on the Soviet-German front has generated more heated controversy then its operations east of Warsaw in August and September 1944 during the Polish Home Army's Warsaw uprising against German occupation forces. While most Western historians have routinely accused Stalin of perfidy and deliberate treachery in permitting the Germans to destroy the Warsaw Poles, Russian historians counter by asserting the Red Army made every reasonable attempt to assist the beleaguered Poles.

    In fact, in late July 1944 the Stavka ordered its 2 Tank Army to race northward to Warsaw with the 47 Army and a cavalry corps in its wake. After encountering two Wehrmacht divisions defending the southern approaches to Warsaw, the tank army tried to bypass the German defenses from the northeast but ran into a counterstroke by four Wehrmacht panzer divisions, which severely mauled the tank army and forced it to withdraw on 5 August. During the ensuing weeks, while the Warsaw uprising began, matured, but ultimately failed, the forces on the 1 Belorussian Front's right wing continued their advance against Army Group Center northeast of Warsaw. For whatever motive, however, the forces on the 1 Belorussian Front's right wing focused on defending the Magnuszew bridgehead south of Warsaw, which was being subjected to heavy German counterattacks throughout mid-August, and the forces on the front's left wing continued their advance to the Bug River north of Warsaw and attempted to seize crossings over the river necessary to facilitate future offensive operations.

    Throughout the entire period up to 20 August 1944, the 1 Belorussian Front's 47 Army remained the only major Red Army forces deployed across the Vistula River opposite Warsaw. On that date the 1st Polish Army joined it. Red Army forces north of Warsaw finally advanced across the Bug River on 3 September, closed up to the Narew River the following day, and fought their way into bridgeheads across the Narew on 6 September. Lead elements of two Polish divisions finally assaulted across the Vistula River into Warsaw on 13 September but made little progress and were evacuated back across the river ten days later.

    Political considerations and motivations aside, an objective consideration of combat in the Warsaw region indicates that, prior to early September, German resistance was sufficient to halt any Soviet assistance to the Poles in Warsaw, were it intended. Thereafter, it would have required a major reorientation of military efforts from Magnuszew in the south or, more realistically, from the Bug and Narew River axis in the north in order to muster sufficient force to break into Warsaw. And once broken into, Warsaw would have been a costly city to clear of Germans and an unsuitable location from which to launch a new offensive.
     
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  9. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    Thanks Steelers....nice of you to reply.

    I will not let Glantz's bland assertions go unchallenged.

    Just give me till tomorrow.......Its nearly 1 am here in Darwin, and my wife is sick of me sitting up night after night tapping away at this computer.

    The fact that you have taken the time to post is just great. I love hearing from others, even when we disagree!! ;)

    More to come. It probably derserves it's own thread. I thought I would leave a 'quickie' message, just to let you know, but i will reply in detail, to this tail of the story that wags the Warsaw dog!

    Stay tuned....... :pipe:
     
  10. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    Good morning Mr Steeler....Inability to sleep has driven me back to the ol'keyboard.

    I've checked my own sources, and I can safely say that the solution to this debate is in the best traditons of Russo-Polish historical affairs...namely, its a complex, many sided mess.

    Meantime, I will answer your question as simply as possible. Suffice to say that you and I, Steeler, are both right, and both wrong

    First, I would like to say something about the David Glantz quote above, There is one line from it in the last paragraph that really 'gets up my nose'...."Political and moral considerations aside......" Glantz has forgotten Clausewitz, ("War is state policy....).
    War is politics, first and foremost.
    Glantz is doing everyone a dis-service by sticking to a strictly military explanation for the Red Army halt..

    The politics here RULED the battlefield, in the same way as Sedan or Goosegreen.


    Guderian

    Guderian's counteroffensive was a "powerful attack". It was launched, (in typical Guderian fashion), to prevent the entire collapse of the Eastern Front. Warsaw was a transport hub, (with 8 major roads leading out of the city, 4 main railway lines). It was a supply center and troop concentration area of paramount importance. It had factories that could supply and equip many German soldiers. It's loss meant the beginning of the end for the Ostfront.
    The Soviets also felt that Warsaw was vital, to their own leap to Berlin, and for the same logistic and communications reasons.
    Guderian was committing some of the best units he had, and into the very teeth of a large and powerful Soviet assault of their the 2nd Army. But he had no reserves of quality to speak of, just a mish-mash of units normally used for Partisan fighting, some of the very worst units in the Army or SS.
    Guderian's strength amounted to "some 450 tanks and SP guns...." The known of Soviet strength is for 12 days earlier, (18 july) at 808 tanks and SPs.

    "The Soviet 2nd Army commander was faced with heavy casualties, a growing shortage of fuel and ammunition and an immediate threat to his rear. His all our effort to comply with the Soviet Supreme Command's orders, (to break through the 50 mile ring of German Warsaw defenses and enter Praga, an outer Warsaw suburb) between 5 and 8 August, was not feasable. At 0410 on 1 August, he ordered his units to break off the attack and go over to the defensive, prepatory to a withdrawl."
    "The first Soviet offensive against Warsaw had failed when it's spearheads were at some points within 6 or 7 miles of the city's eastern suburbs. By 1 August - the day the uprising began - the initiative had passed completely to the Germans and it stayed with them for several days."...(George Bruce...The Warsaw Uprising)

    Guderian had blunted the Bear. It was the sound of this titanic confrontation, almost as big as Kursk, that the people of Warsaw heard. In fact, the battle was so close, that from 29 July, it rattled their windows, with constant 'boom' sounds on the horizon. Soviet 2nd Army lost (estimated) 425 tanks and SPs. They might have stopped moving forward on 1 august, but they did not break off battle and retreat until 5 August.

    They got a lot closer than 100 kms, then.

    .

    Premature Actions

    The Soviets had not anticipated such a ringing defeat. They could replace these losses, but for the moment, not.

    Remember the date for the First radio broadcast and the leaflet drop exhorting the people of Warsaw to action immediately?

    29 July.

    The Soviets dropped these leaflets prematurely, not anticipating the strength of Guderian's attack, or it's stunning results. They counted on no serious interference to their occupation of Praga, and it failed. Their Radio broadcasts on the same day were also premature.

    While this awesome confrontation was being fought on Warsaw's doorstep, Polish General Bor-Komorovski chose this moment, virtually as the Soviets came to a halt forward, to lose his head.

    'Bor' was the man in charge of Warsaw's 40,000 fighters of the Home Army. It was his decision to flick the switch and order the Uprising.
    For 15 days prior to 29 July, Bor had been ignoring his own intelligence people and other who all assured him that NOW was the time, each day. But Bor had a level head.

    But on the evening of 29 July, he lost his composure. An intelligence report from his own service told him that the Soviets had broken through Praga and beyond. This false report, the leaflets and radio messages from Moscow, and the sound of booming guns, caused him to give the order.

    This "go" order was entirely his own decision, and had nothing to do with orders from London, Moscow,or anyone else but Bor-Kamorowski.

    It was a terrible error.


    Polish Politics and Josef Stalin

    The AK were patriots. They made little secret of the fact that not only were their highest government leaders all based in London, but that they wanted a post-war Poland free of Soviet interference.

    Stalin thought differently.

    As the Red Army began to retreat from Warsaw's outer areas, a different sound became apparent. Silence.

    Where was the Red Army?

    Komorowski's decision was fine for the Poles and their political aims. They had wanted to liberate Warsaw as a symbol, trying all the time for an opportunity to squeeze their operations between a German retreat and Soviet occupation. They also and the AK wanted the Soviets to recognise the London government as legitimate.

    Stalin didn't like that either.

    Stalin also began to engage in face to face talks, in Moscow, with the London Polish Prime Minister, Mikolajczyk.

    Their first meeting occurred when the sounds of the 'booms' in Warsaw were well and truly still there, and the Uprising was already running into trouble, coping with Kaminski's thugs, or Dirlewanger's criminals. These rock bottom quality SS units committed unspeakable atrocities that cost many thousands of lives when they took a district back from the Poles.
    In fact, Jan Jankowski (Deputy PM London) sent a desperate message to Moscow on 2 August, asking for Soviet help immediately. The Uprising had un-solvable issues, with Warsaw's civilians bearing the brunt of it. Komorowski also sent desperate pleas to Moscow on the same day (2 August), nervously complaining about lack of support....

    "We are waiting for supplies to be dropped. The Soviet artillery can be heard. We do not notice any Soviet attack on the city.".

    For the first four days, everyone in Warsaw was asking the same question...Where is the Red Army? Why don't they help us? Soviet radio had fallen silent, and no aircraft, (either German or Russian) flew over Warsaw. Both the airforces were busy with 2nd Army's battle.

    Mikolajczjk had a meeting with Stalin on August 3. It foundered immediately as Mikolajczjk opened with expressions of interest in London Polish recognition, and Polands future frontiers. Stalin expressed surprise that the Polish Home Army could back this up,militarily speaking. "What is an army without artillery, tanks or an air force?"
    Of this Mikolajczjk replied that they needed weapons and supplies more than anything. Stalin sat down to arrange it in Mikolajczjk's presense, ordering the "ten divisions of Rokossovskiy's army" to provide air dropped arms and other supplies in the area of Warsaw or in Praga. The meeting broke up. No result was achieved due to the Polish lack of liason' or communication with Soviet units. (a legacy of Sikorski's death, and patriotism at fault from all concerned)

    A German counterattack in Warsaw itself turned the screws even harder. Wola district was overun, and a brutal massacre of civilians shocked everyone to the core. This event on 6 August also coincided with the disappearence of battle sounds from the Praga district.
    Jankowski fired off a telegram to the Kremlin that made Stalin's political antennae twitch uncontrollably....

    "Since the battle for Warsaw began the Red Army on the Warsaw front has stopped all military operations."
    (being in London, he was not in a position to know)
    "A complete cessation continues even now, while for the second day the Germans heavily bombard the town from the air. In other words, there is no Soviet intervention.
    This incomprehensible, passive and ostentatious behaviour of Soviet troops at a distance of a dozen kilometres from Warsaw has it's political significance, a matter which the government must raise with Allied quarters, jointly with the Premier, who is now in Moscow. The question is urgent and it's immediate solution is necessary in view of the further development of our action."

    This dangerous political slant spread like wildfire through diplomatic ranks. Rumours spread from London back to Warsaw began infecting the morale and opinions of AK troops and civilians alike.

    Mikolaczyk now had one last meeting on 9 August. He made the same requests as previous,.....Stalin replied coolly

    "All these struggles in Warsaw to me seem unreal....It would be different if our armies were approaching Warsaw, but unfortunately, this is not the case." Mikolaczyk pleaded. Stalin, relented..."Perhaps it could be done."


    Mikolajczjk then sent a message to London, leaving out the above line (in red) from the message, conveying the impression that all the Red Army had to do was "regroup and bring up artillery". Sending this off to Washington as well, Mikolajczjik managed to put forward the idea that doubts existed as to Stalin's intentions over Warsaw, something not true at this early stage. This inflicted, diplomatically, far reaching damage upon relations between Soviet-Russia on one hand and the British and Americans on the other.

    See what bad politics can do?


    Stalin's Backflip

    Bor Komorovski sent one desperate message after another to London. his troops were not only hard pressed and running short of everything imaginable, but the low quality German toops in the city were running riot. The arrival of German reinforcements, 27,000 troops, made matters far worse.

    Soviet attitudes to a joint-planned relief effort killed the plan in embryo form. They wanted Poles to operate exclusively under their command, but the Poles felt differently, wanting to liberate the city under their own flag, by their own officers and in their own uniforms.

    Relations between the London Poles and Moscow also stood in the way.

    On 12 August, after a particularly vicious attack had split Warsaw into three areas, The London Poles were gossiping to the Western allies. The impression that Russian troops were deliberately staying put was gaining traction in Washington as well as Downing Street.
    When these rumours reached Moscow, Tass issued a communique that reflected a hardening in Soviet attitudes. Tass made reference to..."those who rose up in Warsaw were allegedly in contact with the Soviet Command, that the latter did not render military assistance.". It went on....,

    "Tass is authorized to declare these statements and hints in the foreign press either the result of a misunderstanding, or else the manifestation of slander against the Soviet Command.
    It is known to Tass that on the side of the London Polish circles who are responsible for what is happening in Warsaw, no attempt was made to inform beforehand the Soviet Military Command, or to co-ordinate with the Soviet Command any type of action in Warsaw. In view of this, the responsibility for all that is taking place in Warsaw falls exclusively on the Polish emigre circles in London."

    Actually, responsibility for all that was taking place rested with Bor-Kamarowski, but Tass and Stalin were not to know that. On the same day, Churchill sent an impassioned plea for arms and assistance directly to Stalin.

    Stalin wasn't very happy about all of the above.

    13 August saw Mikolajzcyk appealing to Stalin once again, with what was becoming the 'usual' requests. At the end of the message, he over-reached himself once again,
    "Warsaw has kept up the fight by super-human efforts in spite of an ever increasing shortage of arms and ammunition. It is both in your interest and in ours that you should reach Warsaw to liberate it, not just to clear up the wreckage and bury corpses. any assistance given by the USSR at this moment will be of great political importance in future Polish-Soviet relations."

    And Stalin didn't appreciate this in the least......

    Author George Bruce calls this message "remarkable for it's lack of realism and it's one-sidedness. Mikolajczyk blandly ignored the fact that only four days earlier he had recieved an account of the Red Army setbacks and the severe battles it was fighting with the Germans. Evidently the British government had not recieved a full account of Stalin's report from Mikolajczyk..."

    Churchill sent a message to Anthony Eden the next day (August 14), gossiping and asking Eden if Middle East Command, (Which Eden was touring) could do anything for Warsaw. The last paragraph showed his real knowledge of the battle situation of the Soviets, (who only communicated battlefield information after an operation was complete). Churchill was still in the dark. His own Intelligence Service (the only semi-reliable source he had for up-to-the day situation reports in this part of the world), were at this time making very slight guesses about a possible Soviet setback. Churchill's message to Eden said (in part).....

    "But what have the Russians done? I think it would be better if you sent a message to Stalin through Molotov referring to the implications that are afoot in many quarters and requesting that the Russians should send all the help they can."


    Three days after Mikolajczjk's message, Stalin decided he'd had quite enough.


    Mikolajczjk had been operating on the word of Stalin that he would do all he could. Stalin, his patience at an end, sent him a stunning message....

    "I recieved your letter about Warsaw. I feel obliged to let you know that after our conversation I issued orders to the Soviet Command to drop arms intensively in the Warsaw area. Moreover, a parachutist was dropped but was unable to fulfil his task because he was killed by the Germans.
    After a closer study of the problem I became convinced that the Warsaw action, which had been started without the Soviet Command's knowledge and without any contact with it, is a reckless adventure causing useless victims among the inhabitants.
    It should be added to this slanderous campaign with allusions that the Soviet Command had misled the population of Warsaw, was developed in the Polish Press. In view of the foregoing the Soviet Command decided openly to disclaim any responsibility for the Warsaw adventure because it must not and cannot assume responsibility for the Warsaw affair."

    George Bruce calls this "an appalling breach of faith". Not a breach of responsibility, but a 'breach of faith'.

    Further, Andrei Vyshinsky, (Soviet Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs), on the same day as Stalin's bombshell, informed the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow that the Soviet Union could not object to American and British aircraft dropping arms in the region of Warsaw...."But decidedly object to American or British aircraft, after dropping arms in the region of Warsaw, landing on Soviet territory, since the Soviet Government does not wish to associate themselves directly or indirectly with the adventure in Warsaw."


    AFTERMATH


    Washington and London already had suspicions that Stalin planned to 'sovietize' Europe.

    Now the London Polish Government in exile embarked on a sustained press campaign that gave vent to all the animosity they had harboured for years, charging the Soviets with a catalogue of past misdeeds and accusing them of deliberately staying their hand and letting Warsaw, the Home Army and the citizens be destroyed, causing one Polish politician to remark,

    "They are relentless felons."

    Mikolajczjk issued yet another impassioned mesage to Stalin, in which he tried to "pour oil on troubled waters", but the fed up-dictator was having none of it. Having already made up his mind, he refused to budge.



    On the 17th of August, Polish and German forces were engaged in the heaviest fighting yet for a portion of the city known as 'The Old Town." German Commander Von Dem Bach Zelewski had made his preparations for this decisive blow, pulling together troops and munitions, and on the 17th, opened fire for the first time with the largest heavy rail-gun in the Army's arsenal, an immense monster mortar (nicknamed "THOR") that threw seven foot long projectiles weighing in at 1 and 1 half tons. After a five hour bombardment, a party of German officers approached Polish positions in the Old Town, calling for surrender.

    Von Dem Bach's terms were generous by Warsaw and SS standards. He offered, in exchange for immediate surrender, combatant status for Home Army with , with rights accorded by the Geneva Convention.

    Komorovski now had a chance to end the Uprising, to wipe away his previous gamble of beginning the Uprising without liason with the Soviets and before he could properly ascertain the military situation. Now, concussed from previous fighting, he gambled again on a resumption of a Soviet offensive and liberation before his people and resources ran dry.

    He turned down von Dem Bach's surrender offer..

    Author George Bruce wrote of this decision,.......
    "Perhaps his concussion had temporarily taken away his reason, for there is a kind of madness in Komorovski's rigid determination to go on swimming in this niagra of blood until the flag of Old Poland was raised for the London government amid the hell of a Russo-German battle in a ruined city."

    Komorovski could not bring himself to surrender his hopelessly outmatched command until October 2nd.

    On September 4, Churchill and the cabinet drafted a strong protest to Stalin, (which read in part....)

    "The War Cabinet wish the Soviet Government to know that public opinion in this country is deeply moved by the suffering of the Poles.
    Whatever the rights and wrongs about the beginnings of the Warsaw uprising, the people of Warsaw themselves cannot be held responsible for the decision taken. Our people cannot understand why no material help has been sent from outside.....The fact that such help could not be sent on account of your refusal to allow United States aircraft to land on aerodromes in Russian hands is now becoming publically known....."

    Churchill, the Cabinet, and now the Allied nations on both sides of the Atlantic, were still in the dark.

    Stalin's personal reaction to all of this criticism is not recorded. He had done his best to be co-operative militarily with the Poles, but his ambition for a Communist Government in postwar Poland had alienated the Home Army, who had no desire to fight under Soviet leadership, or in Soviet uniform. The Uprising was launched when his forces were taking a reversal from the biggest tank battle fought in fought for many a month. After such exertions, neither he, his officers, nor his soldiers appreciated Polish accusations.

    Subjected to some very ham-fisted diplomacy by the London Poles, from Whitehall, and Washington, Stalin embarked on a decision that cost him much credibility. Having done his utmost to help, he now swung totally the other way, and sat on his hands.

    So, Glantz and Bellamy were right.

    But so were we,

    Rokossovskyi's Army DID sit still, and others......They did their best, losing many men, and once the story went public, they stayed putt, waiting for orders that did not come, and when Stalin finally did let them go, they were too late to save Komorovski's people from a barbaric enemy.




    DRUSUS NERO.......

    Told you it was complex!


    Just to lighten the mood, (for this is a very serious topic)...

    My Struggle with the Polish Language
    Typing "Mikolajczjk", and other Polish names and places over and again was an mind-numbing experience! I still had to look at the darned book each time. And those Polish names are a joy to pronounce!
    I'm not the only English speaker, though, to find Polish spelling a little difficult, or pronunciation of Polish names a drag.

    When I first saw Lech Walesa mentioned in the media in the 80's, I remember journalists calling him "Lech Wallellsa". This changed to "Lech Val-ensa", "Lech wall-ee-sa", to "Lech Val-on-ska", and finally "Lech Vaull-wen-ska". It seemed that every night that we got an update about Solidarity, we had a different reporter, and a different, New Lech for a New Poland.

    Just to confuse the issue, one of my bosses at the KFC store I used to work at was Polish, from Crackow (Crrr-ar-kov). She and I were talking about the situation in her old country one evening. When i mentioned the name of Lech, she lost her patience with my butchering of his name, and said that nobody pronounced his name correctly.

    She told me it was "Lark Va-lin-shki"

    President Ronald Reagan, when making speeches that referred to Poland, used to call this brave and intelligent nation
    "PO - Laynd".

    I also remember President Jimmy Carter on an official visit, had problems with his interpretor. Jimmy got off Air-force One, and stepped forward to the microphone. His welcoming greeting, according to the interpretor, was that he had "Left America, never to return."
    The interpretor also translated Jimmy's "...desires for the future of Poland", as "LUSTS for the future....." One can well imagine what the Polish audience thought of Jimmy. Presumably,the offending interpretor was cashiered.

    Lets have a go at pronounciation of Polish names and places, shall we?...(Rating system, the more ??'s,= the more confusion)


    Bor-Komorowski..................(Bar-Kom-or-ov-ski)
    Chocim................................(Cho-chimm)...
    Danilowiczowska St...........(Dar-ni-lov-ch-ov-shka...??)
    kazimierz.............................(Kah-jim-ee-airzz...?)
    Janowiec..............................(Yah-noveeech)
    Lublin....................................(Loo-bleen)
    Moklajczjk.............................(?????????)
    Lwow.....................................(Lur-vov....????)
    Zywiciel..................................(Shzz-wiv-itch-eel....???)
    Czarodziejek..........................(Szzar-odge-chi-yek....????)
    Gutrajcht.................................(Gutt-raa-jusht....?????????)
    Joachimowicz..........................(Yo-ar-cheem-oh-vichhh..........????
    Szczesliwa...............................(????????????)

    I am certain anyone Polish, German Czech, or Russian is laughing their arse off at me!

    For thoseof us who are linguistically challenged, have a go yourself! :P

    Anyhow, hope you enjoyed, and until next time

    Christopher
     
  11. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    So, what say you, now that you know what Bellamy didn't mention?


    This was not Stalin's fault, yet, he still managed to achieve a HALT that stuck fast for many days, dooming the revolt.

    So, in the best traditions of a politically correct result, we are ALL both right.....and wrong. :lol:

    Glantz does his usual trick of taking the view of those that pay his research grant....
     
  12. steelers708

    steelers708 Junior Member

    I don't have a lot of time so this will be brief for now, due to having to keep leaving my pc it's took me an hour to read your reply.

    The appeals from Radio Moscow on 29th July and the one the next day from the Soviet authorized PKWN are open to interpretation as to whether it was a direct appeal or just rhetoric, Laurence Rees in his book WWII Behind Closed Doors; Stalin, the Nazis and the West says that "this fell far short of a direct intsruction to the Home Army to rise up in Warsaw and link up with the advancing Red Army. so far, it was just encouraging rhetoric."

    You appear to agree with me that the German counter-attack stopped the Soviet spearheads and handed the initiative to the Germans.

    I can't understand why you seem to give Guderian the credit for the counter-attack, he was out of work untill the 21st July when he was appointed OKH Chief of Staff replacing Kurt Zeitzler,
    whilst he may have had responsibility, via Hitler, for strategic planning the commanders on the ground who actually carried out the conter-attack were Heeresgruppe NordUkraine commander, F-M Model and 9th Army commander General von Vormann.

    The Soviet 2nd Tank Army was part of the 1st Belorussian Front which was the Front facing Warsaw, the Northern boundary of the 1st Ukrainian Front was 100kms from Warsaw, therefore no 1st Ukrainian Front forces were anywhere near Warsaw.

    Did I say brief, I've been up and down for another 90 minutes trying to type these few lines, sorry it's not more detailed at this time.
     
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  13. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    Good to hear from you.....levave it for tommorrow, as Im about to. PLEASE pick apart my posts......It's what I do with my spare time...No holding back!

    If we want people to read and learn, we must get it RIGHT!

    See ya tommorow!!!

    Christopher
     
  14. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    Yes....Might have been for Ist Belorussian Front, but 2nd Army certainly was near Warsw.....very near.....near enough to hear the booms, and rattle the windows....

    Ive already conceded that point.

    No-one ever mentions 2nd army. They all concentrate on Rokossovskyi, siting in a chimney stack lookout post, and watching the fighting from far away. This I have also conceded, but, acknowledgement must also b given that other elemrnts of the Red Army, (the other 'arm' of the pincer, in fact, were right there..

    Now, guderian may well have departed on 21 July. Point conseded, but I ask who was responsible for the operational staff work that a major move by four divisions needs to put them in position. Planning for this thrust must have gone on prior to 21 July. The concept for the action would be from Guderian? Yes or no?

    That action ws just the type of bold move Hurrying Heinz was famous for.

    but these are minor points.

    The overall thrust of my argument remains the same.

    Red Army elements WERE close to Warsaw. They were pushed back, at the EXACT same time Bor-Komorovski was launching his operation to liberate Warsaw.
    5 days later, when they were in desperate trouble, and the sounds of battle had disappeared in Warsaw, the Poles put two and two together, and it came out five.

    They had the distinct impression that the Red Army had retreated...and this was true. WHY they retreated was another question, and another assumption was made, because of their inate distrust (well founded) of Red Army intentions. Komorovski told his superiors in London. They went to Stalin with this nonsense. Stalin, after doing all he could, lost patience with a diplomat who was also affecting his relationship with his senior Allied partners.

    Stalin, then, withdrew his support, and held his units in place, wanting to wash his hands of the entire affair, which he rightly claimed, had nothing to do with him. The Red Army wanted to be in Warsaw by 5-8 August (which the German counterattack made impossible), and quite naturally, roused the Poles to assist this by rising up in revolt, ( a standard practice of theirs). There was no political malice to this, it's just the way the Red Army operated, in conjunction with local forces, where possible.

    While they waited for Stalin to cool down, Komorovski's people went from bad to worse. By the time Stalin relented, Warsaw was rubble, the London Poles were finished, and the Germans were in retreat.

    This all suited Stalin down to his summer bloomers.. and for once, he could honestly say "It wasn't my fault", even though he was the only one to profit from it.

    The Poles thought differently....they gossiped to their allies, who beilieved them, because Stalin had lied so often in the past.

    So, do you think we have it down to brass tacs? :pipe:
     
  15. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    I would have to get a gold star for that!!!! :) :)
     
  16. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    Just imagine how this would have turned out if Home Army was capable of taking Warsaw without Soviet help.

    Then Stalin's 'halt' would have been seen to be exactly as Stalin wanted....an ally, fed up with a junior partner playing political games with them, and waiting while the Poles got on with the job.

    Poor Uncle Joe....damned if he did....and damned if he didn't!

    But of course, Stalin was well aware the Home Army was a paper tiger. He had told them to their faces. Stalin always believed Poland were backstabbing him, and they proved him right.

    Maybe, Poland was better off taking Churchill's tongue in cheek advice to Stalin...

    "Maybe it would be better, Your excellency, if we moved Poland much further westward..." :)
     
  17. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    This thread would have to be the only time I have EVER defended the actions of one Josef Djugashvali, (Man of Steel), Stalin.

    I hate the bastard.

    But in this case, his hands were clean....and the Western Allies, Poland, Britain, the United staes, looked ridiculous.

    That deserves a gold star alone! :P
     
  18. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    oh shit....now I know the confusion.....

    It's the 3rd Tank Corps.

    "The Soviet 3rd Tank corps, by=passing strong enemy resistence in the Zielonka district from the NE in the evening, now drove the enemy fom the towns of Wolomin and Radryzmin, only 12 to 16 miles NORTH east of Warsaw. But this units situation was perilous.

    Far ahead of the main body of the 2nd Tank Army, it was running short of ammunition and fuel, while units of the 39th Panzer Corps fought on in wolomin and Radzydmin. More serious, five German armoured divisions were now converging in the direction of Radzydmin-Wolomin.

    Early on the 31st July, the 1st armoured parachute regiment of the 'Hermann goering division" attacked from Praga toward wolomin. Main forces of the 19th PzDiv lunged at Radzymin from the SW along the Warsaw-wysszkow road, and from Wzyszkow the 4th PzDiv hit out in support. the main body of SS; Viking' was moving from the Wegrow to attack wolomin on the following day, while strong forces of the Deaths Head PzDiv were on the march from siedlice towards stanislawow in order to cut off the soviet units on the north East of the Dluga river, (3rd tank corps positions.

    Thus, just as the uprising in warsaw was about to begin, the approaches of the Warsaw subueb of Praga became the scene of one of the biggest tank battles fought in Poland in the summer of 44'. Some 450 German tanks and SPs were deployed. The most known of soviet strength is that 12 days earlier (18 July), the 2nd Tank Army put 808 tanks and SPs into the field.

    In order to aid the hard pressed 3rd tank corps, the 2nd Army (NOT the 2nd Tank Army...(my italics) commander ordered an artillery and air bombardment on German positions at dawn.....(no doubt, rattling warsaw's windows.....my italics) and under the weight of it, withdrew towards Okuniew. 50 tanks of the 'Detahs Head' counter attacked in a westerly direction from the Stanislawow area to try to link up with the Herman goering div and 19th Pnzr, then engaged in a tank battle with soviet units at Okuniew and Ossow.

    Despite powerful air support this move was narrowly defeated and on the evening of 31 July the 8th Tank corps took Okuniew, but it's attack later that dya on the German strongpoint of Ossow was driven back with heavy losses. Later that evening, the initaitive began to pass, in this Praga sector of the front, to the Germans.
    The Soviet 3rd Tank corps, was still isolated north of 8th Corps and like 16th corps had spent the day opposing numerous heavy attacks by German armour, artillery and infantry.

    The soviet 2nd Army commander was faced with heavy casualties, a growing shotage of fuel and ammo and an immediate threat to his rear. his all out effort to comply with the soviet supreme command's orders, to break through on the 50 mile ring of German defenses and enter Praga between august 5 and 8 was not feasable.

    At 4:10 am, on 1 August, he ordered his units to break off the attack.

    The first Soviet offensive against Warsaw had failed when its spearheads were at some points withing 6 or 7 miles of the cities eastern suburbs. By 1 August, the day the warsaw Uprising began- the initiative had passed to the Germans and it stayed that way for several days.


    So....if it wasn't Rokossovski's men "6 to 7 miles away"....who was it, exactly?



    NOW do I get a gold star? :biggrin:
     
  19. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    So...to restate in just a few words...brevity and all that.

    The Red Army approached Warsaw, expecting to be in the city by 5 August. They dropped leaflets, and used Radio broadcast to tell Warsaw's inhabitants to start their resistence

    The Red Army got to Warsaw's outskirts, close enough to be heard and rattle windows.

    They were temporarily defeated.

    The broke off their attack , but it took them five days to break contact and retreat.

    Thee Poles started their own operation the very next day after the broadcasts, and the same day as the Red Army stopped attacking

    The Poles in Warsaw realised that a something was wrong. They could not hear battle sounds anymore. Their commander went to the highest level to find out what was going on.

    Pole diplomats talked to Stalin. They asked him for help. He said YES, but at the moment we are going backwards.

    The diplomats think he is telling them lies.

    They go to their big brother Allies and tell them this. They do not tell them the Red Army is in retreat.

    Many more attempts are made to get help by the Poles, from the Russians. Because of lack of communication between Home Army and Red Army, these attempts fail. The Poles don't want to fight as servants of Uncle Joe, but in their uniform they must be to fight with them. All allied ntions ae aware that stalin wants a communist government in Poland, so they see all of stalin's moves with this in mind, including his perceiieved lack of help.

    The Poles comtinue to badger stalin.The brits join the chorus. The brits know less about the true situation than even the Poles, and don't trust the Russians anyway.

    When the americans start to play the Polish tune as well, stalin loses patience, and washes his hands of the whole business.

    The Red Army recieve no orders to move forward. They are not in retreat anymore. With no order to advance, they sit still and regroup.

    Warsaw surrenders.

    Britain and America join with Poland in carping to the world press about Soviet lack of co-operation. If the Poles had let them know the true situation, they could not have blamed the russians to begin with, so the Poles stick to their guns, and so do the Brits and Yanks, because they trust the Poles more than they do the russians.

    Drusus Nero and Steeler engage in a debate that changes everyones reputation for better or worse....

    Drusus pulls his hair out having to type out all those tricky Polish names and places

    and it's all the Poles fault :ph34r:
     
  20. Drusus Nero

    Drusus Nero Banned

    :)

    Personally I collect Gold stars!!!


    One more thing. It does not matter if, militarily, the Russians cannot move forward after their defeat and in front of Warsaw and any subsequent withdraw to a better defensive position. Stalin has already made up his mind, so it wasn't going to happen, Red Army in shape or not.

    This is what Glantz is ignoring. The Politicians control the moves of the Red Army now, and will do so until September when the Soviets resume their offensive.

    The Red Army has more than enough resources to campaign in Romania and Hungary, at the same time as pushing for Berlin.

    It's what I expect from Glantz, an apologist for the USSR that he is. An historian of worth he also is, but telling the Russians what they most want to hear all the time is pointless cronyism. Note Glantz's language used in his books. Its full of Zukhov style prose....."The Lublin Warsaw axis" for instance.

    I dont mind him as a writer, but when he begins to make statements for the approval of Vladimir Putin, it gets a little cold.

    Putin is a Stalin in disguise. Its time people like Glantz recognised this.

    I am not the only one who has issues with him.
     

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