GOVERNING in exile AND secret
As Germany And the Ussr occupied poland’s territories, the polish state lived on in secret, Governed by the polish Government-in-exile
recognised by the western allies, The Polish president, government and commander-in-chief at first held office in Paris, then, after the fall of France in 1940, in London.
Formed under Prime Minister and Commanderin-chief General sikorski, Poland’s armed resistance movement was organised as ZWZ
Union of armed struggle in 1940. it became the ak Home army in 1942 – the biggest underground army in occupied europe. By 1944 an estimated 400,000 soldiers carried out military training, diversionary activities, sabotage operations and intelligence gathering in preparation for an armed national insurgency.
in Poland, the plenipotentiary delegate to the government in London held the highest authority, directing all clandestine civil administration. This included the judicial system, with courts that conducted trials and passed verdicts, including death penalties for traitors and collaborators. Clandestine radio stations informed the West of events in Poland.
Underground printing presses published newspapers and leaflets, providing vital information and helped to keep up morale. Over 700 press titles were published during the occupation. as German authorities closed all secondary schools and universities, teachers took up the struggle against the occupiers by providing clandestine study groups. Many teenagers were also active in the scout movement, learning skills that would prove vital for a chance of survival before the war’s end.
“BY 1944 AN ESTIMATED 400,000 SOLDIERS CARRIED OUT MILITARY TRAINING, DIVERSIONARY ACTIVITIES, SABOTAGE OPERATIONS AND INTELLIGENCE GATHERING IN PREPARATION FOR AN ARMED NATIONAL INSURGENCY”
Germans in reprisal for the Poles’ assassination of Kutschera.
Escaping after the action, one of the cars used by the assassins ran into a German checkpoint at the Vistula bridge, and two of the assassins jumped over the balustrade into the freezing Vistula River. ‘Lot’ escaped in a second car, but having been wounded during the action, he died later, after surgery, from his wounds. He was only 22 years old.
W-hour
By June 1944 the Russian offensive in Poland had started, this time on the side of the Allies. The Germans were in retreat and had begun to evacuate Warsaw. Reports were coming in that the Red Army was approaching the Vistula from the eastern suburbs of Warsaw. While diplomatic relations between Poland and the Soviets had not been re-established since the Katyn massacre, where 22,000 Polish POWS had been executed by the NKVD, Home Army Commander General ‘Bor’ Komorowski was convinced the Soviet attack was continuing towards Germany.
After consulting with the government delegate Jan ‘Sobol’ Jankowski, he decided to start the uprising to liberate the capital, therefore safeguarding the sovereignty of the Polish state before the Red Army entered. In the words of Jankowski, “We wanted to be free and owe our freedom to nobody.”
‘W-hour’ was set for 5.00pm on Tuesday 1 August 1944. The uprising was expected to last three days, or a week at most. Victory was all but certain. Most Varsovians welcomed the Warsaw Uprising with enthusiasm – for the first time in five years of occupation they had a chance to be free. “We were ready to give absolutely everything for freedom,” said Wanda Traczyk-stawska, a 17-year-old girl scout.
Many of the scout groups and units that had formed during the occupation became some of the most famous formations of the rising: Battalion Zoska, Parasol, Koszta, Odwet. With many soldiers being so young, between 16-24 years old, the bonds they forged would last for life. Many would choose heroic-sounding or mythological noms de guerre, but some would be nicknamed by their friends. The boys in Traczyk-stawska’s unit named her “Paczek”, meaning rosebud or doughnut. Another characteristic of the uprising was that boys and girls would fight together, side by side.
Traczyk-stawska would become one of the women who took up arms against the enemy and fought as a soldier in a unit under the direct disposition of General Antoni Chrusciel, whose nom de guerre was ‘Monter’ and was in command of all the fighting forces in Warsaw.
According to Bór-komorowski, the Home
Army strength amounted to nearly 40,000 underground soldiers in Warsaw. Today it’s estimated that on 1 August 25,000 soldiers took up the struggle and, as more joined in, the number would rise to nearly 50,000. However, only around ten per cent of them had guns. Every imaginable weapon that could be found was used. One of the most recognised guns of the rising is the 9mm sub-machine gun ‘Błyskawica’, meaning ‘lightning’, that was designed by Polish engineers and assembled in underground workshops. Much would depend on taking weapons off the enemy and on the supply of ammunition, of which there was a great shortage from the start.
In comparison, at the time of the outbreak of the rising, the German garrison in Warsaw had almost 20,000 well-armed and highly trained soldiers, yet at first the Germans sustained heavy losses.
Soldiers of the resistance
A Home Army soldier’s uniform was a red and white armband. Although the uprising started in the summer heat of August, those who were able to prepare, dressed in what suitably durable clothing they had. Many soldiers wore a mixture of civilian and any military clothing that they could find, making each soldier’s uniform rather individual and unique. But as the battle went on civilian clothing tore and wore out fast.
When the Home Army secured larger areas they also took over German warehouses and storage facilities, and so large quantities of German uniforms came into their possession, which they would use. Any soldier will attest to the importance of wearing boots and a helmet, as well as clothes with pockets and belts in battle. German belts with an eagle swastika on the buckle were worn upside down. Photographs of young smiling nurses and couriers wearing Waffen-ss camouflage anoraks over summer dresses and sandals create a striking contrast.
Ask any veteran soldier, and they will likely say that the bravest in battle were the nurses and first-aid girls. They would run straight into the raging battlefield with stretchers, and under fire from Germans they would try to save the lives not only of Polish soldiers but also of severely wounded Germans.
Couriers and liaison girls were vital in coordinating information between different units, which was exceptionally dangerous, as it meant having to run through enemy territory to do so. Unarmed due to the lack of weapons, they had no guns to protect themselves – when captured, they would often be raped before they were executed.
Adam Borkiewicz was the first historian of the uprising. In the opening lines of his book are the now legendary last words of courier Maria Comer, who upon capture was asked, “Bist du Banditin?” (are you a bandit?), to which she replied, “I am a soldier of the Home Army”, before she was executed on the spot.
Recognised by the Allies as a combat force, the Home Army was protected under the Geneva Convention. Yet the Germans killed Home
Army soldiers as “bandits and terrorists”, and consistently broke the rules of war with the continuous mass murder of civilians.
“ONE OF THE MOST RECOGNISED GUNS OF THE RISING IS THE 9MM SUBMACHINE GUN ‘BŁYSKAWICA’, MEANING ‘LIGHTNING’, THAT WAS DESIGNED BY POLISH ENGINEERS AND ASSEMBLED IN UNDERGROUND WORKSHOPS”
“THE GERMANS KILLED HOME ARMY SOLDIERS AS ‘BANDITS AND TERRORISTS’, AND CONSISTENTLY BROKE THE RULES OF WAR WITH THE CONTINUOUS MASS MURDER OF CIVILIANS”
“ON HIMMLER’S ORDER ALL COMBATANTS AND NON-COMBATANTS, INCLUDING WOMEN AND CHILDREN, WERE TO BE SHOT AND WARSAW WAS TO BE RAZED TO THE GROUND”
Civilian frontline
As news of the Warsaw Uprising reached Himmler, he appointed the command in Warsaw to Erich von dem Bach-zelewski, chief of German anti-partisan formations. On Himmler’s order all combatants and non-combatants, including women and children, were to be shot and Warsaw was to be razed to the ground.
Under the command of SS Gruppenfuhrer Reinefarth, the notorious RONA brigades of Kaminski and Dirlewanger started the assault on the Warsaw neighbourhoods of Ochota and Wola on 5 August. When they advanced, they would use women and children as ‘human shields’ in front of their tanks. As mass rape and systematic murder of civilians continued, during the course of a few days over 40,000 civilians were slaughtered.
The mass killings in Ochota and Wola count among the worst atrocities of the war. This only reinforced the Home Army soldiers’ belief that now the rising had started, there was no turning back – it was a battle to the end. Every street, every house was fought for.
The Germans used heavy rocket launchers, which civilians nicknamed ‘cows’ due to the moaning sound they made when the missiles were launched. People caught in their range as they exploded became ‘living torches’ coated in flammable liquid. Another terrifying German weapon was the so-called ‘Goliath’, a small remote-controlled tank filled with explosives.
Many civilians lived in basements throughout the uprising and only went out on street level when absolutely necessary, moving through underground passages and basement tunnels created by demolishing the walls between cellars. The longer the rising went on, the harder their situation became.
At times, in certain areas, the relationship between the civilian population and Home Army soldiers became understandably strained. Nevertheless, they held out. The truth is that without the support of the civilian population the uprising could not have continued. It was the civilians that helped to set up and worked in hospitals treating the wounded, built barricades, cooked food and collected water, they put out fires and provided shelter for soldiers. It was with their help that the battle could continue.
Battlefield Warsaw
The insurgents adopted defensive tactics and achieved significant success in the city centre, capturing the PAST state telephone company building, the Holy Cross Church and the police headquarters. They also mounted offensive actions in the Zoliborz area, attempted assaults on the railway station and tried to establish a link between the city centre and the old town area. Unfortunately, these attempts proved unsuccessful and became some of the bloodiest battles of the uprising.
The insurgents ultimately failed to capture the most essential military targets and were locked in an uneven battle against continuous German reinforcements of heavy weapons, systematically destroying buildings and Polish positions with artillery fire supported by air raids.
The Germans systematically killed civilians following any retreat by the Home Army. Knowing that civilians would be murdered once the Home Army had been forced to abandon its positions was the absolute worst times of the uprising, said Traczyk-stawska: “A soldier, when he is firing, when he is in battle, he does not feel pain even when he is wounded,” she said. “Pain comes later, and even when a soldier is dying, then that death is a very different situation – compared to civilians, who suffer much worse deaths than soldiers. A soldier has a different mindset. He is armed. He is fighting. He is in a state of euphoria and the adrenaline is very high. But civilians… they were dragged out and executed… defenceless.” The suffering of civilians is something that Wanda Traczykstawska thinks about constantly, to this day.
Home Army soldiers were a motley crew. One soldier in Traczyk-stawska’s unit, ‘Kruczek’, forever the avid reader, would crawl along a torn barricade on his back, his jacket bulging up, filled with books that he had found along the way in some bombed out, abandoned buildings. Another soldier in their unit was unwilling to be separated from his wife and child, and brought them along with him – crawling through the torn barricade, the wife would carry their wrapped up new-born baby in her mouth, like a lioness. Scenes like this would seem improbable in a film, and yet in real life they happened. The Warsaw Uprising was filled with many surreal or miracle-like experiences.
The fall
After fierce fighting, the German units captured the last defences of the old town on 2 September. With the fall of the old town, no single building was left standing, and the conditions of the insurgents worsened with each day. The catastrophe forced Colonel Karol Ziemski to begin an evacuation. Every attempt to break through the German lines and connect with the city centre had failed, and the only way out of the siege was through the sewer tunnels. The municipal sewer system ran under most of the city and had been used by couriers throughout the uprising. The conditions in the sewers were very difficult: insurgents waded in darkness through toxic waste, with the risk of Germans hearing them from above and releasing poison gas or explosives into the tunnels. It took around four hours to cover two kilometres.
For two days, over 5,000 insurgents escaped through the sewers. On 2 September the last Home Army units left the old town. Behind them they left some 40,000-50,000 civilians. The old, sick and wounded were shot by the Germans, and the rest where transported to Mauthausen and Sachsenhausen.
This is one of the most tragic chapters of the uprising. The fall of the old town also prevented
“THE CONDITIONS IN THE SEWERS WERE VERY DIFFICULT: INSURGENTS WADED IN DARKNESS THROUGH TOXIC WASTE, WITH THE RISK OF GERMANS HEARING THEM”
the city centre insurgents from connecting with units in Zoliborz and Kampinos Forest, and allowed German forces to concentrate on suppressing each individual stronghold of resistance. Despite the insurgents’ great determination, the Germans had an overwhelming advantage, both in manpower and military resources. The Karl-gerät 040 siege gun caused huge devastation, along with shelling by German artillery and the Luftwaffe, which made nearly 1,400 sorties over Warsaw, fighting the insurgents and destroying the city.
In the end, all the insurgents could do was to hold onto their positions. With time the conflict reached a virtual stalemate. Despite the brave efforts of Allied airmen, the Warsaw Airlift had not been successful. The route from Italy was too difficult, and by the time some airdrops were conducted most supplies fell into enemy hands. Churchill couldn’t persuade Stalin to give Allied flights landing rights in the USSR to help get supplies and ammunition to the insurgents in time. Western assistance had failed. The conditions for civilians became unbearable and the Home Army had no resources left with which to fight. The situation was unsustainable. It is still remarkable that the rising lasted for as long as it did – 63 days.
Capitulation
The last shot of the uprising was fired on 2 October. In the final capitulation terms, agreed between representatives of the Home Army command and Van dem Bach, Home Army soldiers were to be treated as POWS according to the Geneva Convention. Civilians were not to be killed or persecuted.
Around 11,600 Home Army soldiers surrendered, along with about 2,000 women. Wanda Traczyk-stawska was one of the 1,800 women that would end up as a POW in Stalag VI-C Oberlangen, where in a beautiful twist of fate, they would later be liberated by The Polish First Armoured Division led by General Maczek.
Elsewhere, many Home Army soldiers would be freed or escape German captivity and continue to fight before the war’s end.
The mass evacuation of the civilian population from Warsaw, which the Germans insisted upon, is an unprecedented event in Europe’s history and remains one of the most tragic and haunting scenes of the war. First taken to a transit camp, in contradiction to the capitulation agreement, over 100,000 Varsovians were sent as slave labour to Germany, and tens of thousands were sent to concentration camps, including Mauthausen, Ravensbrück and Auschwitz. The exact number of people who perished in the uprising will remain unknown.
An estimated 18,000 Polish insurgents lost their lives, while German deaths are estimated to be similar. It was the civilians that suffered the most incomprehensible loss: Between 180,000-200,000 civilians died during the 63 days of battle. At the Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery in Wola, over 100,000 people are buried, most in mass graves.
The landscape after battle
For the three months that followed, the demolition of Warsaw was done methodically, house by house, on Hitler’s orders. Around 8590 per cent of Warsaw was destroyed.
As the Red Army finally entered Warsaw in January 1945 they ‘liberated’ a pile of rubble. In their wake, the NKDV arriving from the east had been disarming and arresting Polish insurgents all along. Many of the labour and concentration camps established under German occupation retained similar functions under the new Soviet occupiers. Poland’s borders were changed and fell under the Soviet sphere of influence. The legitimate Polish Government-in-exile in London didn’t return to Poland, where Stalin had a Soviet-friendly government installed.
The geopolitical landscape had changed – the rest of the world moved on. However, some Polish soldiers continued to fight, joining WIN and different partisan groups in forests. From a more academic point of view, fighting at this stage may seem irrational, if not suicidal, but it had an emotional logic. In Poland, one occupying force had simply been replaced by another. Some describe this period as a civil war. The last of the ‘doomed soldiers’, Józef Franczak, was killed in 1963.
Even those who tried to rebuild or start ‘normal’ civilian lives were rarely able to do so: the majority of Home Army soldiers were persecuted and imprisoned at some point, and many were executed in the years of Stalinist repression that followed. Polish soldiers returning from the West did so at their own peril, and they too were often arrested and prosecuted as ‘traitors’.
Reading about the lives and profoundly unjust fates of Emil ‘Nil’ Fieldorf, executed in 1953, or Captain Witold Pilecki, executed in 1948, and so many others, is heartbreaking. But in the years that would follow, speaking publicly about the Warsaw Uprising was not allowed. “Not a word about the rising. Not a word about the Home Army. As if we never existed,” Wanda Traczyk-stawska recalled. Only with the fall of communism did this change. In Poland today, the rising it is a subject of constant, passionate debate and public discourse, yet it still remains relatively unknown in the West.
The Warsaw Uprising and its aftermath remains not only crucial to understanding WWII and Poland today, but is also part of our shared European history: it is the story of the Allies who fought for freedom – and lost.
“THE EXACT NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO PERISHED IN THE UPRISING WILL REMAIN UNKNOWN”