Get the Ricochet app
Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.
Actually, I fly my flag more than two times a year. Two times a year I do fly my flag for Poland. I fly it for Polish Jews on April 19th for the Jewish Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw, and then again on August 1st for the Polish Home Army, Warsaw Uprising.
The Warsaw Jewish Ghetto Uprising, April 19, 1943.
The uprising started on 19 April when the ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who ordered the destruction of the ghetto, block by block, ending on 16 May. A total of 13,000 Jews were killed, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. Stroop reported 110 German casualties, including 17 killed. The uprising was the largest single revolt by Jews during World War II. The Jews knew that victory was impossible and survival unlikely. Marek Edelman, the last surviving ŻOB commander who died in 2009, said their inspiration to fight was "not to allow the Germans alone to pick the time and place of our deaths".
The Polish Home Army Warsaw Uprising, August 1, 1944.
The Warsaw Uprising (Polish: powstanie warszawskie; German: Warschauer Aufstand), shortly after the war also known as the August Uprising (Polish: powstanie sierpniowe), was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led by the Polish resistance Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa). The uprising was timed to coincide with the retreat of the German forces from Poland ahead of the Soviet advance. While approaching the eastern suburbs of the city, the Red Army halted combat operations, enabling the Germans to regroup and defeat the Polish resistance and to destroy the city in retaliation. The Uprising was fought for 63 days with little outside support. It was the single largest military effort taken by any European resistance movement during World War II.
We live in an age when memory becomes inconvenient because begging for freedom rather than fighting for freedom requires sacrifice.
Today is August 1st, and it is the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising and my flag will be out for Poland.
Discussion (10)
CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Of all of Stalin's evils (and his plate was overflowing) that was the most despicable. Letting the Germans kill the fighters would make taking over that much easier.
CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Thank you for that history lesson Doug. This is a somber moment. And yet, at the same time, it is uplifting to see people desiring freedom so much that they are willing to face certain death. I sometimes wonder if we are approaching that moment and what will be my reaction to it.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Every year on August 1st Warsaw and other cities in Poland come to a stop at 5:00 PM.
CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
My late Aunt, Christina Turczyn was one of them. A brave and lovely lady, she died in Detroit/Sterling Heights MI.
She beat Stalin - she survived, came here and lived to see Poland free.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
It was the arrogant and intransigent Poles, emboldened by Britain's foolish guarantee, that brought us all World War II.
Oh, and they were major-league "anti-Semites," too, though people should remember that many of the Jews in Eastern Europe were Communists.
You're seeing five of ten comments. Sign in, or join for just $5 per month, to read them all and add your own.