There are events in history that shape nations. Sometimes it is a positive event and sometimes things just don't turn out the way they were hoped. The Warsaw uprising of 1944 was one of those latter events. For a bit of background, Poland is one of those nations that has had very turbulent history. The establishment of a Polish state is often identified with the adoption of Christianity by its ruler Mieszko I, in 966. This nation lasted until 1795 when it was partitioned by its neighbors. In 1918 it once again became a self-governing state, only to be subjected by the Nazis in 1939. It was the stated goal of Adolf Hitler to wipe the Polish state and Polish people from the face of the earth and so began years of repression.

By mid 1944 it was obvious to all that Germany was on the state of collapse.  There were various resistance factions in Poland at the time and they were fairly well organized. It was realized by the people both in Poland and the government in exile, that something had to be done to reestablish Poland as a free nation before the Soviets could take the capital and install a puppet government. So the plans for an uprising in Warsaw that would establish this government were put into place.

Unfortunately, those in Poland did not realize that their fate had already been sealed. Part of the deal the Churchill and Roosevelt made with Stalin was that the Soviets would have control of Poland when the war was over. Thus the uprising was doomed from the start. Once it was obvious that insurrection had begun, the Soviet advance stopped outside the city, the Allies provided only a pittance in terms of support  with weapons and supplies, and so, despite nearly two months of fighting, the uprising came to an end. Tens of thousands were killed, Warsaw was nearly razed to the ground and Poland could only look forward to 50 more years of oppression, this time under the Soviets. 

Of course, there is a lot more to it than what I've provided in this brief synopsis. The resistance movement made a number of major mistakes in the uprising, and the Germans did not do very well in their response to it. One of the major mistakes made by the Germans was that the ground war (as there was little fuel for air operations in this theater) was basically an SS operation. Their cruelty and ruthlessness did little more than embolden the resistance movement and make the operation even more costly in terms of lives. The largest massacre of WW II was of civilians in Warsaw during the early days of the insurrection, even topping one of Stalin's more horrific mass executions of captured Polish soldiers in the beginning of the war.

Throughout the book, author Robert Forczyk has used available archival materials to bring this story to us. Thanks to a goodly number of period photos from all sides of the conflict as well as the superb illustrations of Peter Dennis, we are able to visualize what it was like during the insurrection.

It is a gripping tale of bravery, tactical errors, and a look that what could have been were not the Allies so callous in their unwillingness to provide assistance. It is a book that I think every scholar of WWII should have on their shelves.

April 2009

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