Posted on 03/21/2005 9:08:07 AM PST by twinself
(((ping)))
The one remarkable thing about the Warsaw ghetto uprising is the fact that the Ghetto Jews who took part in it had nothing more sophisticated that a simple hand gun to use against the Nazis. They had limited ammunition but unlimited courage. They lasted about twice as long as the entire French Army of 1940. This amazing story of the Warsaw Ghetto can not be told often enough as far as I am concerned.
The problem is, that this thread is related not to Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943, but to Warsaw Uprising in 1944, which was different event.
Just as long as it doesn't sound like "Lady Pank." (I actually remember back in the 80s when they played their video on MTV)
The only jazz-rock Polish queen I remember from back then was Basia Trzetrzelewska (gee I wonder why she didn't want to go by her last name, LOL).
I've just started reading Norman Davies Uprising 44. It's going to take awhile to get all the way through it.
Right, there were two uprisings, in 1943 and 1944.
But why commemorate only the one of 1944, omitting to remember that the one of 1943 was likewise a demonstration of the Polish courage and tenacity?
Because they are two different events the second of which is almost unknown in the West. The Warsaw uprising of 1944 involved 50,000 of Polish Home Army troops, led to the liberation of the Polish capital for two months and ended in the destruction of the city as expected help from the Soviet Army did not materialize.
Uh, wait a second there.
An examination of American newspapers and magazines from 1944 show that indeed the uprising of that year was covered, and publicized--and that there was much resentment that the Soviets did not hurry to Warsaw, to help.
On the other hand, the uprising of 1943 was barely known of at the time, and not in the newspapers and magazines at all.
It is also high time that these heroes whose memory was suppressed by the Communist regime are finally recognized and honored. A few years ago, the German President when visiting Warsaw was amazed to learn of the 1944 Uprising; he had heard only of the 1943 Ghetto Uprising. The 1944 survivors are fast dying out, and Norman Davies has captured their story.
But to be fair, the closest Allied troops to Warsaw were hundreds of miles away in 1943, it was much tougher to get detailed information on what exactly was happening then. Remember most didn't know about the concentration camps until the camps were actually liberated.
Right, sir, and now we have the situation where the 1943 uprising is better known than the one of 1944 (mostly because of the best-selling book by John Hersey, "The Wall," published circa 1950).....which is the opposite of the situation back in 1943, 1944.
I am sorry, I do not have much access to the "American newspapers and magazines from 1944". What I notive is that most of people in America today know about the uprising in Warsaw Ghetto of 1943 and if they hear about general Warsaw uprising of 1944 they confuse it with the first.
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