August 1, 1944 was as auspicious a day in Polish history as was September 1, 1939. Both days saw bloody, devastating, life-changing and earth-shattering events. Tens of thousands of lives were lost, futures stolen and dreams shattered. And that was only the beginning. Records from World War II show the statistical calamity that that encounter really was. Documents finally available, now provide the mountain of additional information for hundreds of new books on the subject. A subject we thought was nearly exhausted. Now 60 years later, we find it isn’t. In 60 days, 250,000 people sacrificed their lives fighting for the city that was their home. Norman Davies has been one of the most prolific authors on the subject of Poland. He tells the history as it was, not as someone would wish it to be. Controversial in his own right, he has always been one of the most faithful defenders of Polish history. The nation is grateful. Its far flung citizens too. Already proud, Poles stand taller after reading his books and sharing the copious information. So it is with “RISING ‘44” . Nine hundred plus pages of stories, pictures, interviews, documents and review of those sixty days of Hell. CNN recently produced “FORGOTTEN HEROES”; NBC also recently showed their documentary on the subject again in Los Angeles. Broken promises by Stalin and his Army left Varsovians to fend for themselves in a city already battered from the previous five years. As the Russians drank and smoked and played cards on the far banks of the Vistula, Polish bravery and heroism were redefined on the narrow, cobblestoned streets of Old Town and the once-elegant boulevards of the city itself. The initials of the Home Army and the Partisans were painted all over the city as inspiration. Centuries-old Cathedrals and Palaces and baroque apartment buildings were blown to bits by the Nazis, following the orders from Berlin to level the “city for it to be no more”. The tallest wall was ten feet high. Everything above it…..sky. Fallen sculptures in parks littered the pathways like gravel. Shattered stained glass meagerly glistened in the daylight seeping through the clouds of smoke and fire. Leafy green trees, scorched and singed as they flailed in the breeze against a burning building. Hospitals were the first targets since there lay people who couldn’t defend themselves and those who would later be wounded, would have no place to go. Burial grounds were anywhere and everywhere: parks, courtyards, the slopes down to the river. Crosses made from tree limbs, names and dates etched on the bark. You could actually hear the Russians’ laughter across the water during the digging. The Polish bridges were blown away, but not their spirit. In basements, typewriters furiously clacked as urgent letters to England and the United States were being written. “HELP!” “ PLEASE!” “ NOW!” were eventually smuggled out of the country, delivered and read and pondered and not acted upon. Only later did the Poles find out that they had been “sold down the river” at Yalta. Betrayal in its worst form. Even children took up arms, whether they were stolen guns or kitchen knives or simply sticks from a fence. Wily, skinny legs ran as fast as they could, delivering messages all the way across town, scurrying in and out of courtyards, down alleyways and under trucks, just to help save the city. Boys who barely knew their fathers, now became men themselves. Whoever hadn’t been killed or was too young to go to War in ’39 was really ready now. Women did more than wrap bandages. They jumped into the odiferous sewers and fired guns and tended to the wounded before building barricades from inherited treasures dropped from the upper floors. The French had done it, the Poles would too. Listening to Chopin’s music was like saying a prayer, listening to a love song, singing an anthem, obeying a call to arms……they would survive! History was written in the blood spilt on the streets of Warsaw. The bloodshed ended on October 3,1944. The Russians strolled in and took over, and another era of occupation and strife and agony ensued until Poland finally regained her freedom in the 1980s. Now a proud member of The European Union, Poland has regained its rightful place on the continent.

Caria Tomczykowska 7/16,2004

This exhibit is the joint undertaking of The Polish Arts and Culture Foundation, the Polish Consulate in Los Angeles and the Bay Area Association of Polish Veterans. We gratefully acknowledge the personal items on loan from the Warsaw Uprising survivors currently living in the Bay Area.The printed materials presented here are from the Archives of The PACF.

www.polishculturesf.org

www.warsawuprising.com

www.splendorofpoland.org.