In the
eighteenth century Poland was an independent country with its own
monarch. Constantly attacked by powerful neighbours it was eventually
divided up between Russia, Austria-Hungary
and Germany.
At the
end of nineteenth century a large number of Poles became involved
in the struggle against Nicholas II and
the Russian autocracy.
In
1893 Rosa Luxemburg and Leo
Jogiches formed the Social Democratic Party of Poland. As it was
an illegal organization, they went to Paris to edit the party's newspaper,
Sprawa Robotnicza (Workers' Cause).
During
the 1905 Revolution Luxemburg and Leo
Jogiches returned
to Warsaw where they were soon arrested. Eventually they were released
and joined the Bolsheviks in exile
and began planning the possibility of gaining Polish independence
by taking part in a world revolution.
Others
in Poland strongly disagreed with this approach. Roman
Dmowski, the main leader of the Polish nationalist movement, believed
the best way to achieve a unified and independent Poland, was to support
the Triple Entente against the Triple
Alliance.
Josef
Pilsudski,
a nationalist leader based in Galicia, disagreed and saw Russia
as the main enemy. Pilsudski began building a private army that he
hoped would enable Poland to fight for its independence from Russia.
Other Polish
revolutionaries such as Rosa
Luxemburg, Karl Radek, Felix
Dzerzhinsky and Leo Jogiches were
opposed to the
First World War and joined with others in Russia
such as Vladimir Lenin and Leon
Trotsky in calling for soldiers to use their weapons to overthrow
the Nicholas II.
Other
Polish revolutionaries such as Josef Pilsudski
took a different view of the war. Pilsudski built a private army that
he hoped would enable Poland to fight
for its independence from Russia. In
1914 Pilsudski and his 10,000 men fought with the Austrians
against the Russian Army.
As
a result of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and
the Versailles Treaty, Poland became
an independent country again after the First World
War.
Josef Pilsudski became the new leader
of Poland and during the Russian Civil War
his army made considerable gains and the Soviet-Polish Treaty of Riga
(1921) left Poland in control of substantial areas of Lithuania, Belorussia
and the Ukraine.
After his
success at Munich that led to the takeover
of Czechoslovakia in 1938, H believed that
Britain and France would not interfere in Europe as long as Germany
headed east towards the Soviet Union. He
therefore began to make plans for his next step. Poland was the obvious
choice as it was in the east and included areas of land taken from
Germany by the Treaty of Versailles.
Hitler began to make speeches demanding the return of Danzig, and
German access to East Prussia through Poland.
Neville
Chamberlain now changed tactics in an attempt to convince Hitler
that Britain would indeed go to war if Germany continued to invade
other countries. He made a speech in the House
of Commons promising to support Poland if it were attacked by
Germany. The British government also sent diplomats to the Soviet
Union to talk to Joseph Stalin about
the possibility of working together against Germany.
The British
government were still uncertain about signing a military agreement
with the Soviet Union, and while they hesitated Germany stepped in
and signed one instead. The Nazi-Soviet
Pact took the world by surprise. Fascists and communists had always
been enemies. However, both Hitler and Stalin were opportunists who
were willing to compromise for short-term gain.
In August
1939, a group of concentration camp prisoners were dressed in Polish
uniforms, shot and then placed just inside the German border. Adolf
Hitler claimed that Poland was attempting to invade Germany. On
1st September, 1939, the German Army
was ordered into Poland.
Following
the German invasion of Poland a Polish Home
Army was established under the leadership of its
commander-in-chief, General Tadeusz
Komorowski.
During the Second World War it was heavily involved
in the resistance to German occupation.
On 21st
September, 1939, Reinhard
Heydrich told
several Schutz
Staffeinel (SS) commanders
in Poland that all Jews
were to be confined to special areas in cities and towns. These ghettos
were to be surrounded by barbed wire, brick walls and armed guards.
The first
ghetto was set up in Piotrkow on 28th October 1939. Jews living in
rural areas had their property confiscated and they were rounded up
and sent to ghettos in towns and cities. The two largest ghettos were
established in Warsaw and Lodz.
In October
1939, the SS began to deport Jews living in Austria
and Czechoslovakia
to ghettos
in Poland. Transported in locked passenger
trains, large numbers died on the journey. Those that survived the
journey were told by Adolf Eichmann,
the head of the Gestapo's Department of Jewish Affairs: "There
are no apartments and no houses - if you build your homes you will
have a roof over your head."
In Warsaw,
the capital of Poland, all 22 entrances to the ghetto were sealed.
The German authorities allowed a Jewish Council (Judenrat) of 24 men
to form its own police to maintain order in the ghetto. The Judenrat
was also responsible for organizing the labour battalions demanded
by the German authorities. Conditions in the Warsaw ghetto that in
two years an estimated 100,000 Jews died of starvation and disease.
A
Polish government-in-exile was formed in London
under the leadership of Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz,
Wladyslaw Sikorski and Stanislaw
Mikolajczyk. Following the invasion of the Soviet
Union by the German
Army,
Joseph Stalin agreed in June 1941, to
invalidate the Soviet-German partition of Poland.
At the Wannsee
Conference held on 20th January 1942, Reinhard
Heydrich chaired a meeting to consider what to do with
the large number of Jews under their control.
Those at the meeting
eventually decided on what became known as the Final
Solution. From that date the extermination of the Jews became
a systematically organized operation. It was decided to establish
extermination camps in the east
that had the capacity to kill large numbers including Belzec (15,000
a day), Sobibor (20,000), Treblinka (25,000) and Majdanek (25,000).
Between 22nd July and 3rd
October 1942, 310,322 Jews were deported
from the Warsaw ghetto to these extermination camps. Information got
back to the ghetto what was happening to those people and it was decided
to resist any further attempts at deportation. In January 1943, Heinrich
Himmler gave instructions for Warsaw to be "Jew free"
by Hitler's birthday on 20th April.
Warsaw
contained several resistance groups. The largest was the Polish
Home Army. There was also the Jewish Military Union and the communist
Jewish
Fighter Organization (ZOB) led by Mordechai
Anielewicz,
Yitzhak Zuckerman, Gole
Mire and Adolf Liebeskind.
On 19th April 1943 the
Waffen SS entered the Warsaw ghetto. Although
they only had two machine-guns, fifteen rifles and 500 pistols, the
Jews opened fire on the soldiers. They also attacked them with grenades
and petrol bombs. The Germans took heavy casualties and the Warsaw
military commander, Brigadier-General Jürgen
Stroop, ordered his men to retreat. He then gave instructions
for all the buildings in the ghetto to be set on fire.
As people fled from the
fires they were rounded up and deported to the extermination
camp at Treblinka. The ghetto fighters continued the battle from
the cellars and attics of Warsaw. On 8th May the Germans began using
poison gas on the insurgents in the last fortified bunker. About a
hundred men and women escaped into the sewers but the rest were killed
by the gas. It is believed that only 100 Jews survived the 1943 Warsaw
Uprising.
In the
spring of 1943 the Nazi Government
in Germany announced that a mass grave had
been found in Katyn Forest near Smolensk
in the Soviet Union. Over 1,700 bodies
were discovered and the Germans claimed that men were Polish soldiers
who had been murdered by being shot in the head. It was suggested
that the men had been killed by the NKVD.
A
Polish government-in-exile in London demanded
an investigation of the deaths by the Red Cross.
Joseph Stalin refused claiming that the
Poles was a victim of Nazi propaganda. When they continued to complain
Stalin decided to break off relations with the Polish government.
In the summer of 1944
the
Red Army began to advance rapidly into German
occupied Poland. The
advancing Soviet troops refused to accept the authority of the Polish
government-in-exile and disarmed members of the Polish
Home Army they met during the invasion.
The Polish
government-in-exile in London feared
that the Soviet Union would replace Nazi
Germany as occupiers of the country. On
26th July 1944 the Polish government secretly ordered General Tadeusz
Komorowski, the commander of the Polish
Home Army, to
capture Warsaw before the arrival of the advancing Russians. Five
days later Komorowski gave the orders for the Warsaw
Uprising.
The Home
Army had about 50,000 soldiers in Warsaw. There were a further 1,700
people who were members of other Polish resistance groups who were
willing to join the uprising. The men were desperately short of arms
and ammunition. It is estimated they had 1,000 rifles, 300 automatic
pistols, 60 sub-machine-guns, 35 anti-tank guns, 1,700 pistols and
25,000 grenades. The army also had its own workshop and were attempting
to produce pistols, flame-throwers and grenades.
On
the first day of the rising on 1st August, 1944, the Poles managed
to capture part of the left bank of the River Vistula in Warsaw. However,
attempts to take the bridges crossing the river were unsuccessful.
German
reinforcements arrived on the 3rd August. The
German Army used
600mm siege guns on Warsaw and the Luftwaffe
bombed the city around-the-clock.
British and Polish airmen flew in supplies from bases in Italy but
it was difficult to drop the food and ammunition to places still in
the hands of the rebels. The Royal
Air Force and
the Polish Air Force made 223 sorties and lost 34 aircraft during
the uprising.
Heinrich
Himmler gave instructions "that every inhabitant should be
killed" and that Warsaw should "be razed to the ground"
as an example to the rest of Europe under German occupation. As soon
as territory was taken the Nazi's took revenge on the local people.
In the Wola district alone an estimated 25,000 people were executed
by firing squad.
When the Old Town was taken
by the German
Army on
2nd August, the Polish resistance fighters were forced to flee via
the sewer canals. This network of underground canals were now used
to move men and supplies under enemy controlled areas of Warsaw.
On 20th August the Polish
Home Army captured
the Polish Telephone Company building and the Krawkowskie Police Station.
Three days later they took control of the Piusa Telephone Exchange.
On 10th September the Red
Army led by
Marshal Konstantin Rokossovy, entered
the city but met heavy resistance. After five days Soviet forces had
captured the right bank of the city. Rokossovy
then halted his troops and waited for reinforcements. However, some
historians have argued that Rokossovy was following the orders of
Joseph Stalin, who wanted the Germans
to destroy what was left of the Polish
Home Army.
The insurgents were forced
to leave Czerniakow on 23rd September. Three days later they were
forced to leave the Upper Mokotow area via the underground sewers.
On 30th September General Tadeusz
Komorowski appointed General Leopold
Okulicki as head of the Polish underground.
Running out of men and
supplies General Komorowski and 15,000 members of the Polish
Home Army were
forced to surrender on 2nd October 1944. It is estimated that 18,000
insurgents were killed and another 6,000 were seriously wounded. A
further 150,000 civilians were also killed during the uprising.
After the Polish surrender
the German
Army began
to systematically to destroy the surviving buildings in Warsaw. By
the time the Red
Army resumed
its attack on Warsaw, over 70 per cent of the city had been destroyed.
Over the next few weeks the Soviet forces took control of the city.
In February,
1945, Joseph Stalin, Winston
Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt
held a conference in Yalta in the Crimea.
With Soviet troops in most of Eastern Europe, Stalin was in a strong
negotiating position. Roosevelt and Churchill tried hard to restrict
post-war influence in this area but the only concession they could
obtain was a promise that free elections would be held in these countries.
Poland
was the main debating point. Stalin explained that throughout history
Poland had either attacked Russia or had been used as a corridor through
which other hostile countries invaded her. Only a strong, pro-Communist
government in Poland would be able to guarantee the security of the
Soviet Union. As a result of the conference the Allies withdrew their
recognition for the Polish government-in-exile.
The Polish
Home Army, under
the leadership of Leopold Okulicki,
continued the fight against the Red Army.
In March 1945, 16 leaders of the army were arrested and sent to the
Soviet Union where they were convicted
of sabotage.
Joseph
Stalin established a communist
dominated coalition in Poland after the war. Wladyslaw
Gomulka became
vice-president in the new government. However, Gomulka resisted attempts
to impose a Stalinist government on Poland. He was dismissed from
office in 1948 when he gave his support to Josip
Tito in Yugoslavia.
Stanislaw
Mikolajczyk,
the deputy prime minister, fearing for his life, fled the country.
During
the 20th Party Congress in February, 1956, Nikita
Khrushchev launched an attack on the rule of Joseph
Stalin. He condemned the Great Purge
and accused Stalin of abusing his power. He announced a change in
policy and gave orders for the Soviet Union's political prisoners
to be released.
Krushchev's
de-Stalinzation policy encouraged people living in Eastern Europe
to believe that he was willing to give them more independence from
the Soviet Union. In
June 1956 there was a massive anti-government and anti-Soviet demonstration
in Poznan. The marchers, protesting against poor living standards,
low wages and high taxes, were dispersed by Soviet tanks.
Nikita
Khrushchev visited
Poland and in October 1956 agreed that Wladyslaw
Gomulka should
be given the post of first secretary of the Communist Party. Gomulka
was told that as long as the Polish government supported the Soviet
Union in foreign affairs they could develop their own domestic policies.
Gomulka liberalized the
communist system in Poland.
Only 10 per cent of farmland was collectivized and the country traded
extensively with capitalist countries in Western Europe.
In 1970 Poland experienced
an economic crisis. After riots took place Wladyslaw
Gomulka resigned
from office and was replaced by Edward Gierek.
In an attempt to solve the country's economic problems Gierek instigated
an ambitious industrialization programme. This plunged the country
into debt and in 1980 the country suffered from food shortages.
Lech
Walesa, along with some of his friends in the anti-communist trade
union movement, founded Solidarnosc
(Solidarity). It was not long before the organization had 10 million
members and Walesa was its undisputed leader. In
August 1980 Walesa led the Gdansk shipyard strike which gave rise
to a wave of strikes over much of the country. Walesa, a devout Catholic,
developed a loyal following and the communist authorities were forced
to capitulate. The Gdansk Agreement, signed on 31st August, 1980,
gave Polish workers the right to strike and to organise their own
independent union.
In 1981
General Wojciech Jaruzelski, replaced
Edward
Gierek as
leader of the Communist Party in Poland. In December 1981, Jaruzelski
imposed martial law and Solidarnosc
was declared an illegal organization. Soon afterwards Walesa and other
trade union leaders were arrested and
imprisoned.
In November
1982 Lech Walesa was released and allowed
to work in the Gdansk shipyards. Martial law was lifted in July 1983,
but there were still considerable restrictions on individual freedom.
Later that year, in the recognition of the role he was playing in
Poland's non-violent revolution, Walesa was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize.
Reformers in Poland were
helped by the fact that Mikhail
Gorbachev had
gained power in the Soviet Union. In 1986
Gorbachev made it clear he would no longer interfere in the domestic
policies of other countries in Eastern Europe. Wojciech
Jaruzelski was now forced to negotiate with Walesa and the trade
union movement. This resulted in parliamentary elections and a noncommunist
government and in 1989 Solidarnosc
became a legal organization.
In 1989, Mikhail
Gorbachev revealled
to the world that in March 1940, Joseph
Stalin had given
the orders for the execution of 25,700 Polish soldiers in Soviet prison
camps. He also admitted that two other mass graves had been found
in the Katyn
Forest area.
In December
1990 Lech Walesa was elected President
of the Republic of Poland. He was not a success and his critics claimed
he developed an authoritarian style in running the country. His behaviour
was erratic and he was criticised for his close links with the military
and security services. In November 1995 Walesa was defeated by the
former communist, Aleksander Kwasniewski.
In November
1995 presidential election Aleksander
Kwasniewski (leader of the Democratic Left Alliance) defeated
Lech Walesa (51.7 per cent against 48.3
per cent). Over the next few years he worked hard to get Poland admitted
to North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
In attended summit meetings in Madrid and Washington and on 26th February,
1999, signed the documents that ratified Poland membership of NATO.
In 2000 Kwasniewski was re-elected as president with 53.9 per cent
of the vote.
(1)
Neville
Chamberlain, statement issued to the media (1st
April, 1939)
As the
House is away, certain consultations are now proceeding with other
Governments. To make perfectly clear the position of the Government
in the meantime before those consultations are concluded, I now have
to inform the House that, during that period, in the event of any
action which clearly threatened Polish independence and which the
Polish Government accordingly considered it vital to resist with their
national forces, the Government would feel themselves bound at once
to lend the Polish help. They have given the Polish Government an
assurance to this I may add that the French Government have authorised
me to make it plain that they stand in the same position in this matter
as do his Majesty's Government.
(2)
Anthony Eden, radio broadcast (29th August,
1939)
Our obligations to Poland will of course be honoured; not only because
our pledged word has been given, but also because it is now universally
understood that something of much greater significance is at stake
than the determination of one frontier or even the freedom of one
people, however brave.
The world
has to choose between order and anarchy. For too long it has staggered
from crisis to crisis under the constant threat of armed force. We
cannot live for ever at the pistol point. The love of the British
people for peace is as great as ever, but they are no less determined
that this time peace shall be based on the denial of force and a respect
for the pledged word.
(3)
Janine Phillips was living with a family
just outside Warsaw. She wrote down her thoughts about the invasion
of Poland in her diary (1st September, 1939)
Hitler
has invaded Poland. We heard the bad news on the wireless a few minutes
after spotting two aeroplanes circling round each other. Just before
breakfast about ten minutes to ten, I was returning from the privy
when I heard aeroplanes in the sky. I thought it was manoeuvres. Then
heard some machine-guns and then everyone
came out from the house to see what was happening. Grandpa said, "My
God! It's war!" and rushed indoors to switch on the wireess.
The grave news came in a special announcement that German forces have
crossed the Polish border and our soldiers are defending our country.
Everybody was stunned. With ears glued to the
loudspeaker we were trying to catch the fading words. The battery
or accumulator, or both, were packing up. When we could no longer
hear a whisper from the wireless set, Grandpa turned the switch off
and looked at our anguished faces. He knelt in front of the picture
of Jesus Christ and started to pray aloud. We repeated after Grandpa,
"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name."
Soon after
tea, Uncle Tadeusz, my new Aunt Aniela and Papa arrived from Warsaw
with some more bad news. Papa said that we were not going back to
Warsaw because it was safer to stay here, in the village. He arranged
for a wagon to bring our winter clothes and other belongings. I wondered
what will happen to our school, but Mama said that when a country
is fighting for its survival, there is no time for schooling. All
evening Papa has been trying to get the wireless going but did not
succeed. Tomorrow, he'll try to get to Warsaw and see what can be
done about the set which is so vital to us just now. Please, dear
God, let our brave soldiers beat the nasty Germans.
(4)
Victor Klemperer, diary (1st September,
1939)
On Friday morning the young butcher's lad came and told us:
There had been a wireless announcement, we already held Danzig and
the Corridor, the war with Poland was under way, England and France
remained neutral, said to Eva, then a morphine injection or something
similar was the best thing for us, our life was over. But then we
said to one another, that could not possibly be the way things were,
the boy had often reported absurd things (he was a perfect example
of the way in which people take in news reports). A little later we
heard Hitler's agitated voice, then the usual roaring, but could not
make anything out. We said to ourselves, if the report were even only
half true they must be already putting out the flags. Then down in
town the dispatch of the outbreak of war.
(5)
Manchester Guardian (2nd September,
1939)
Germany's
sudden attack on Poland yesterday morning has been followed by an
ultimatum to Germany by Great Britain and France. Germany is warned
that unless the German troops are immediately withdrawn Britain and
France will without hesitation fulfil their obligations to Poland.
This announcement
was made by the Premier last night in a crowded House of Commons.
Mr. Chamberlain said :
"If
the reply to this last warning is unfavourable - and I do not suggest
that it is likely to be otherwise - his Majesty's Ambassador is instructed
to ask for his passport.
We shall
stand at the bar of history knowing that the responsibility for this
terrible catastrophe lies on the shoulders of one man - the German
Chancellor. He has not hesitated to plunge the world into misery in
order to serve his own senseless ambitions.
Eighteen
months ago I prayed that the responsibility might not fall on me to
ask the country to accept the awful arbitrament of war. I fear I am
not able to avoid that responsibility.
It only
remains to set our teeth and enter upon this struggle, which we so
earnestly endeavoured to avoid, with a determination to see it through
to the end.
We shall
enter it with a clear conscience and with the support of the Dominions
and the British Empire and the moral approval of the greater part
of the world.
We have
no quarrel with the German people except that they allowed themselves
to be governed by a Nazi Government. As long as that government pursues
the method which it has so persistently followed during the last two
years there will be no peace in Europe."
(6)
Reinhard Heydrich, document, Jewish
Question in Occupied Territory, sent to to Security Police Special
Units in Poland (21st September, 1939)
I refer
to the meeting that took place today in Berlin and want to point out
once again that the overall measures planned (thus, the final objective)
must be kept strictly secret.
Distinctions
must be drawn between: (1) the final objective (which will require
more extensive time periods), and (2) the phases towards fulfillment
of the final objective (which will be carried out on a short-term
basis).
It is obvious
that the task ahead cannot be determined from here in every detail.
The following instructions and guidelines will simultaneously serve
the purpose of prompting the commanders of Special Units to do some
practical thinking.
I. The
first prerequisite for the final objective will be, for one, the concentration
of Jews from the countryside into larger cities. This must be carried
out expeditiously. Attention must be paid to the requirement that
only such cities may be designated as areas of concentration which
are either railway junctions or are at least situated on a railway
line. One prevailing basic rule will be that Jewish congregations
of less than 500 members will be dissolved and moved to the nearest
city of concentration
II. Jewish
Council of Elders.
(1) Each
Jewish congregation must set up a Jewish Council of Elders it will
be fully responsible, in the truest sense of the word, for an exact
and prompt execution of all past or future directives.
(2) In
case of sabotage of such directives, the councils will be advised
that most severe measures will be taken.
(3) Deadlines
given to the Jews for departure into the cities.
(7)
Anthony Eden, Memoirs: The Reckoning
(1965)
As I expected, Maisky defended Russia's actions in Poland and the
Baltic States on the grounds that it was essential "that certain
vital strategic points should be under her own control". He claimed
that his country's demands had not been grasping. The Soviet frontier
with Poland even now included less territory than Tsarist Russia had
held. As for the Baltic States, the problem was once again strategic.
In a world such as this, 'where wild beasts are loose, every country
has to
take certain precautions for its own safety.' I replied that this
did not justify the Soviet action in Finland, which country enjoyed
great sympathy all over the world.
(8)
William
Gallacher, The Chosen Few
(1940)
Efforts have been made by enemies of the Soviet Union to associate
the Non-Aggression Pact with the invasion of Poland. Nothing could
be further from the truth. Poland was betrayed when Colonel Beck,
supported by Chamberlain and Daladier, refused the aid of the Red
Army. There was no other means in this world of saving Poland. Hitler
had an army over a million strong in East Prussia and along the Polish
frontier, a great mechanised army, capable of carrying through the
encirclement of Warsaw. The only possible way to stop such a movement
was for two great Soviet armies to move into Poland, one from the
north-west towards East Prussia, the other from the south- west towards
Cracow. With such a deployment, Warsaw and all Poland would have been
safe.
(9)
Abraham Lewin kept a diary while living in Warsaw during the Second
World War.
Yesterday
the Germans, with the help of the Jewish police, rounded up young
Jewish girls, and women both young and old, and also men with and
without beards on the street and in particular among the occupants
of 38 Dzielna Street. Two lorry-loads of German, air force, SS and
men from other units, as well as a smaller vehicle with officers in
it, drew up at the entrance of 38 Dzielna Street. First of all they
photographed all the young girls - incidentally, they then picked
out girls and women who were particularly respectable-looking and
expensively dressed. Then they pushed all the Jewish men and women
in to the bath-house that is in the corner of the courtyard of the
above mentioned building. Once inside they photographed all the women
again. Then they forced the men and women to strip completely naked.
German officer divided them into pairs made of one from each sex from
among the Jews. They matched young girls to old men, and conversely,
young boys to old women. Then they forced the two sexes to commit
a sexual act. These scenes were filmed with special apparatus that
had been brought in for that purpose.
(10)
Anthony Eden, Memoirs: The Reckoning
(1965)
The Warsaw
rising had begun on August 1st. It was set off by the local Polish
commander without consultation with us and without co-ordination with
the Soviet forces advancing on the city, though the Poles had tried,
and continued to try, to establish contact with the Russians. However,
the Soviets had themselves a direct responsibility, for it was their
organization, the so-called Union of Polish Patriots, which had called
on the population to rise on July 29th. When Mikolajczyk arrived in
Moscow two days later, Stalin promised that he would send help to
the insurgents.
It is
true that a German counter-attack held up the Soviet advance and that
it was not the Russian habit to assault a city frontally. Yet, when
all is said, the conclusion seems inescapable that Stalin, surprised
by the vigour and success of the rising, was content to see the underground
and the remaining political and intellectual leaders of Poland destroyed.
It did not suit him that the Poles should liberate their capital themselves;
nor could he allow Mikolajczyk and his followers to return to Poland
with their underground organization intact. He now refused to let
American aircraft land on Soviet airfields after dropping supplies
on Warsaw. British aircraft, many with Polish pilots, flew to their
extreme range from the Mediterranean, but could hardly affect the
issue.
(11)
Anthony Eden, Memoirs: The Reckoning
(1965)
The Polish
Prime Minister and Foreign Minister were at this meeting. They announced
that the underground in Poland were prepared to come into the open
and meet the conditions of the Soviet commanders without any prior
agreement between the two Governments. As against this, M. Mikolajczyk
told us that the underground were determined to maintain Poland's
territorial integrity. This was natural enough for men who were risking
their lives in a Poland remote from our discussions, but Mikolajczyk
added that the fact that he was willing to discuss frontier questions
had troubled the Poles in his own land.
Three
days later I spoke to the Soviet Ambassador, telling him that the
Prime Minister and I were anxious to reach a solution, not only because
of the Polish question itself, but because failure would have repercussions
on all Anglo-American-Soviet co-operation. The British people could
never forget that they had gone to war on account of the invasion
of Poland. I told him that, as leader of the House of Commons, I knew
there was a growing feeling among many members that Poland must be
given a fair deal. When I added that the Poles were suspicious that
the Soviet Government did not wish their Government to return to Warsaw,
but would prefer to set up a communist administration, Mr. Gusev emphatically
denied this.
(12)
Winston Churchill, speech in the House
of Commons (7th July, 1943)
We learned yesterday that
the cause of the United Nations had suffered a most grievous loss.
It is my duty to express the feelings of this House, and to pay my
tribute to the memory of a great Polish patriot and staunch ally General
Sikorski. His death in the air crash at Gibraltar was one of the heaviest
strokes we have sustained.
From the first dark days
of the Polish catastrophe and the brutal triumph of the German war
machine until the moment of his death on Sunday night he was the symbol
and the embodiment of that spirit which has borne the Polish nation
through centuries of sorrow and is unquenchable by agony. When the
organized resistance of the Polish Army in Poland -was beaten down,
General Sikorski's first thought was to organize all Polish elements
in France to carry on the struggle, and a Polish army of over 80,000
men presently took its station on the French fronts. This army fought
with the utmost resolution in the disastrous battles of 1940. Part
fought its way out in good order into Switzerland, and is today interned
there. Part marched resolutely to the sea, and reached this island.
Here General Sikorski had
to begin his work again. He persevered, unwearied and undaunted. The
powerful Polish forces which have now been accumulated and equipped
in this country and in the Middle East, to the latter of whom his
last visit was paid, now await with confidence and ardor the tasks
which lie ahead. General Sikorski commanded the devoted loyalty of
the Polish people now tortured and struggling in Poland itself. He
personally directed that movement of resistance which has maintained
a ceaseless warfare against German oppression in spite of sufferings
as terrible as any nation has ever endured. This resistance will grow
in power until, at the approach of liberating armies, It will exterminate
the German ravagers of the homeland.
I was often brought into
contact with General Sikorski in those years of war. I had a high
regard for him, and admired his poise and calm dignity amid so many
trials and baffling problems. He was a man of remarkable pre-eminence,
both as a statesman and a soldier, His agreement with Marshal Stalin
of July 30th, 1941, was an outstanding example of his political wisdom.
Until the moment of his death he lived in the conviction needs of
the common struggle and in the faith that a better Europe will arise
in which a great and independent Poland will play an honorable part.
We British here and throughout the Commonwealth and Empire, who declared
war on Germany because of Hitler's invasion of Poland and in fulfillment
of our guarantee, feel deeply for our Polish allies in their new loss.
We express our sympathy
to them, we express our confidence in their immortal qualities, and
we proclaim our resolve that General Sikorski's work as Prime Minister
and Commander-in-Chief shall not have been done in vain. The House
would, I am sure, wish also that its sympathy should be conveyed to
Madame Sikorski, who dwells here in England, and whose husband and
daughter have both been simultaneously killed on duty.
(13)
Konrad Adenauer,
Memoirs 1945-53 (12th July, 1952)
After the conquest of
Poland by Germany in September 1939 a Polish government in exile had
been formed by General Sikorski in Paris; it later moved to London.
This government in exile demanded territorial expansion in the West
after the conclusion of the war against Germany, but it also demanded
territorial acquisitions in the East, namely the Eastern Galician
oil region which Poland had taken from Russia in the war of 1920 and
which the Russians had ceded to the Poles in the subsequent Treaty
of Riga. The Russians had taken back this area, under an agreement
with Hitler, after the Germans had marched into Poland in September
1939.
Soviet Russia had no intention
of giving up Eastern Galicia and the British government found itself
in a difficult situation when, in the summer of 1941, Russia became
Britain's ally. As Herr von Weiss told me more than once, the anti-Soviet
tendency of the Polish exile government in London was quite obvious.
In the meantime in Moscow a group of Poles friendly to the Soviets
had constituted itself as the 'Union of Polish Patriots' on 1 March
1943.
(14)
Winston Churchill, speech in Fulton,
Missouri (5th March, 1946)
A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied
victory. Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist international
organization intends to do in the immediate future, or what are the
limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytizing tendencies. I
have a strong admiration and regard for the valiant Russian people
and for my wartime comrade Marshal Stalin. There is sympathy and goodwill
in Britain - and I doubt not here also - toward the peoples of all
the Russias and a resolve to persevere through many differences and
rebuffs in establishing lasting friendships.
We understand
the Russians need to be secure on her western frontiers from all renewal
of German aggression. We welcome her to her rightful place among the
leading nations of the world. Above all we welcome constant, frequent,
and growing contacts between the Russian people and our own people
on both sides of the Atlantic. It is my duty, however, to place before
you certain facts about the present position in Europe - I am sure
I do not wish to, but it is my duty, I feel, to present them to you.
From Stettin
in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended
across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the
ancient states of central and eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague,
Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Sofia, all these famous
cities and the populations around them lie in the Soviet sphere and
all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence
but to a very high and increasing measure of control from Moscow.
Athens alone, with its immortal glories, is free to decide its future
at an election under British, American, and French observation. The
Russian-dominated Polish government has been encouraged to make enormous
and wrongful in-roads upon Germany, and mass expulsions of millions
of Germans on a scale grievous and undreamed of are now taking place.
The Communist
parties, which were very small in all these Eastern states of Europe,
have been raised to preeminence and power far beyond their numbers
and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control. Police
governments are prevailing in nearly every case, and so far, except
in Czechoslovakia, there is no true democracy. Turkey and Persia are
both profoundly alarmed and disturbed at the claims which are made
upon them and at the pressure being exerted by the Moscow government.
An attempt is being made by the Russians in Berlin to build up a quasi-Communist
Party in their zone of occupied Germany by showing special favors
to groups of left-wing German leaders.
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