Poland commemorates 80 years since Warsaw Uprising

This August 1, like every year, the capital of Poland, Warsaw, will hold a minute of silence to mark the beginning of the uprising against the German occupation ahead of the Nazi retreat west.

At 5 p.m. local time, alarm sirens will blare in remembrance of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, bringing the city and its inhabitants, regardless of their political views, to a standstill.

The Warsaw Uprising began on August 1, 1944, and the bitter fighting dragged on for 63 days before the Polish Home Army was finally forced to surrender to the Nazis. A source of national pride for many Poles, the day symbolizes Poland's fight against totalitarianism and foreign rule, and its desire for freedom.

After World War II, German politicians were long unwelcome at the annual memorial services. That didn't change until the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.

In 1994, then Polish President Lech Walesa invited his German counterpart Roman Herzog, the president of a recently reunified Germany, to Warsaw to give a speech — it was a bold move at the time for the former labor activist.

Roman Herzog a controversial guest

"It fills us Germans with shame that the name of our country and people will be eternally linked with the pain and suffering that was inflicted on Poles millions of times over," said Herzog at a memorial service marking the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. 

Laying a wreath at the monument to the rebellion, Herzog said he bowed down "before the victims of the Warsaw Uprising, as before all Polish victims of the war. I ask forgiveness for what Germans did to you."

Herzog's visit was controversial, as most Poles believed it came too soon. Many Polish veterans waiting with Herzog for the ceremony to begin that day were against his being in Warsaw.

"We don't need this German here today," many Poles thought. It didn't help that Herzog had previously confused in an interview the 1944 Warsaw Uprising with the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which was an act of resistance by Polish Jews against the German occupiers during World War II.

Nazis prepared to use all means necessary

The massacres carried out by German forces in Poland have left deep wounds in Polish collective memory. At the time, Nazi leaders in Berlin had been prepared to use any means necessary to regain control of the frontline city as the Soviet Union's troops advanced westward. By late summer of 1944, the Red Army's tanks had reached the eastern suburbs of Warsaw.

The Polish underground resistance movement Home Army (AK) mobilized tens of thousands of fighters, though only one in eight carried a pistol. The aim of the AK leadership, loyal to the Polish government-in-exile in London, was to liberate Warsaw from German occupation before the Soviet army arrived.

The Soviets were seen as a threat to Polish independence. After five years under Germany's reign of terror, Poland wanted to drive out its occupiers on its own.

War crimes and sadistic practices

In the first few days of the uprising, insurgents were able to liberate large parts of the capital. However, they could not capture strategic objects — such as bridges over the Vistula River, the central railroad line, or the airport.

German forces were quick to launch a counterattack. Heinrich Himmler assigned the task of crushing the uprising to the SS and police commander Heinz Reinefarth. His troops included the Dirlewanger Brigade, a Waffen-SS unit that consisted mostly of convicted criminals and was notorious for committing war crimes.

"Reinefarth's arrival turned the battle into a slaughter," wrote German historian Stephan Lehnstaedt. Between August 5 and 7, an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people, mainly civilians, were murdered in the Wola district of western Warsaw.

Some Polish historians have spoken of more than 50,000 victims. In several hospitals, patients were shot dead and nurses were raped and killed. "There were all kinds of sadistic practices," Lehnstaedt explained.

Reinefarth is reported to have asked what to do with the civilians: "I have more prisoners than I do ammunition," he reportedly stated.

"The killings sprees were planned and deliberate," said Lehnstaedt. Reinefarth's superior, SS commander Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, only limited violence against civilians after a few days because he feared it would provoke stronger resistance.

Uprising did not receive enough support

In the following weeks, German troops, supported by the Luftwaffe, tanks and heavy artillery, recaptured one district of Warsaw after the next.

Meanwhile, help for the rebellion from the Soviet army failed to materialize. The Red Army did not reach the eastern edges of the city until mid-September. Though not proven, there is much to suggest that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin deliberately did not come to the aid of the Polish insurgents.

For their part, Western Allies provided some air support, but it was not enough to prevent the uprising from failing. In the end, all that remained for the AK was to surrender. On October 2, 1944, Polish general Tadeusz Komorowski, codenamed Bor, signed the capitulation treaty.

The Warsaw Uprising ended with some 18,000 insurgents and 180,000 civilians dead. German losses amounted to fewer than 2,000 killed soldiers and officers. At least half a million Poles were forced out of the city. Many were sent to labor camps or deported to German concentration camps.

Heinrich Himmler called uprising a 'blessing'

Top Nazi Heinrich Himmler was later said to have been "very satisfied" with the excessive killing in the Warsaw Uprising. In a speech at the end of September 1944, he said that he considered the uprising a "blessing," as it would allow for "this city, which is the intellectual capital of a 16-to-17-million-strong nation" to be "liquidated."

In October 1944, the SS began systematically looting and destroying the city. One of Himmler's orders read: "The whole town must be leveled to the ground, i.e., houses, streets, offices — everything that is in the town."

When Soviet soldiers entered the deserted city on January 17, 1945, they found only rubble.

Those responsible for these war crimes in Warsaw were never convicted. Reinefarth even pursued a political career, becoming mayor of Westerland on the island of Sylt and a member of the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament.

German-Polish ties still strained

Since Herzog's visit to Warsaw 30 years ago, German-Polish relations have improved considerably, though there have been some setbacks, particularly under Poland's previous right-wing government.

But now, it is no longer exceptional for German politicians to visit the Polish capital on August 1.

Nonetheless, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will not have an easy task when he speaks on Krasinski Square in the same place as Herzog before him.

The question of reparations for the victims of the Third Reich still hangs over relations between Germany and Poland.

The Polish survivors of German crimes during World War II, as well as their families, want to see concrete financial commitments instead of another admission of guilt.

This article was originally published in German.