Poland and Georgia fight for freedom

Poland and Georgia fight for freedom

Poland and Georgia fight for freedom
Georgian Officers Fighting for Poland
by Gia Kandashvili

See
http://www.tvpolonia.com/player/index.php?path=58&mov=87367586.wmv&play=1


W rogatywce i tygrysiej skórze - film dokumentalny - TV Polonia ...Losy gruzińskich oficerów, którzy w czasie II wojny światowej znaleźli się w AK. W Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego ma powstać ich pomnik.

Originally Published in Georgia Today Newspaper


Last week, Georgia Today learned about a unique work that Jerzy Lubach, a renowned Polish documentary director, friend of Georgia and expert of the Caucasus had taken over. This is a documentary about Georgian officers who fought in the Polish army against the fascist and communist invaders. In the interview, Lubach disclosed a touching story of a Georgian noble diaspora having left a glorious trace in Polish history. Jerzy Lubach, along with his Georgian colleagues, discovered many interesting facts in the recently opened archives of Poland, Georgia and Russia. Since it sounds so interesting, we decided to narrate a bit about the basic story that laid the ground to the idea for the film. First of all, how did Georgian officers find themselves in Poland? Jerzy Lubach willingly answered this and other questions.
Jerzy Lubach

When Georgia gained independence from the Russian Empire, Georgia and Poland launched extensive diplomatic, political and military exchanges। The Polish state envoy, Waclaw Ostrowski, was dispatched to Georgia to set up a Polish diplomatic mission in the fledgling democratic republic. Poland firmly adhered to the policy of establishing close diplomatic relations with the states of the South Caucasus, which had escaped the shadow of Russian rule. Marshal and leader of Poland, Jozef Pilsudski, attached great importance to that strategy. Soon Georgia became a pivotal state as the way to Azerbaijan was cut off because of Bolshevic upheaval there. However, all the plans of fast development of Polish-Georgian relations collapsed with intrusion of the Soviet Red Army in independent Georgia on February 1921. After two weeks of merciless fighting, the tiny Georgian corps was crushed and the Soviet flag was raised in Tbilisi. The state was annexed, and the remainder of the leading Georgian military personnel as well as the temporary government fled to Europe via Batumi and Constantinople. Poland did not recognize the annexation of Georgia and kept close relations with the Georgian political and military authorities in exile. Moreover, in autumn 1921 Marshal Pilsudski’s military attaché in Constantinople, Colonel Babicki, addressed an offer to the chief of the Georgian military headquarters, General Alexander Zakariadze, that Poland was willing to accept Georgian officers in the Polish army. Georgian officers – six generals among them – came to Poland and it was to become their second motherland. According to historical data, they quickly grasped the specifics of the Polish military, perfected their Polish and established close relations with their Polish colleagues. “Although Germany announced free passage from Poland for any foreigners, none of the Georgian officer left the country in September 1939, when the fascist army invaded Polish lands. They heroically battled against the fascist occupants as well as Stalin’s Soviet army,” stressed Jerzy Lubach. Some Georgian officers held high military positions in the Polish army. Colonel Valerian Tevzadze led the northern defense of Warsaw. He later was awarded with the Silver Cross for Military Valor. After the Red Army took over Poland, Valerian Tevzadze joined the Polish underground against the communists until his death 1987. “Many Poles knew about Tevzadze who was just a ‘tidbit’ for both Soviet and Polish KGB, but no one gave him in,” underlined the film director in his talk with Georgia Today. As we learned, the current defense minister of Georgia, David Tevzadze, is a close descendent of Valerian Tevzadze. The minister pledged support to the film crew. “There are many other figures from the ranks of Georgian officers who gained fame in the battle for Poland,” Jerzy Lubach narrated. Major Artemi Aronishidze led the 360th infantry battalion in the defense of Warsaw. “He did not retreat until the surrender of the capital to the fascists.” Aronishidze was soon captured by the Germans, and later handed over to the Soviet KGB. Overall amnesty saved him from capital punishment. The major, who was also awarded the Silver Cross, died at 58, in 1950. Giorgi Tumanishvili was born in Poland, to a family of a Georgian officer in exile. In his youth he joined the Polish army in 1939 and had time for taking part in a number of Polish military campaigns against the fascists. Having gained the rank of captain, he was twice awarded with the Silver Cross for Military Valor. Dimitri Shalikashvili gained the rank of major in Poland. After the fall of Warsaw he escaped to America where his sons managed to reach the highest military positions. John Malkhaz Shalikashvili, the eldest son, was the chief of the united military headquarters of the U.S. for years in the early 90s. The younger brother is now taking active part in the Train and Equip Program conducted by the U.S. government in Georgia. “But, such success stories are very rare. A number of Georgian officers fighting in the Polish army died in Gestapo dungeons or Soviet camps,” the film director sighed. Thus, it is obvious that Jerzy Lubach has got a lot to say about the history of the military fraternity between the two nations. Tamara Dularidze, a lecturer at a Moscow cinematography institute and friend of the Polish director is working along with him. Dularidze and Lubach have a good experience in working together on Georgian-Polish history. The film “Seeking the White Angel”, about Grigol Peradze, a Georgian priest and scientist working in Poland, having been killed by the fascists for treating Polish Jews, deserved a high honor. The documentary about Georgian officers in Poland is to be shot in Georgia, Poland, Great Britain and Russia. The Georgian film studio Grifon Film Productions, under Irakli Metreveli, expressed its willingness to work in partnership with Jerzy Lubach on the film. “I hope to invite John Malkhaz Shalikashvili to work in Warsaw as well,” Jerzy Lubach told Georgia Today. The director is going to re-scrutinize the archive of the first Georgian republic of 1918-1921, which should provide a great deal of material for the film.
Georgian emigration in Poland
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The documented ties between Georgia and Poland reach back to the XV century, when the Georgian (Kartlian) King Konstantin sent a diplomatic mission to the Polish King Alexander Jagellon. Later, Polish King Jan III Sobiesky tried to establish contacts with Georgia. Many Georgians participated in military campaigns led by Poland in XVII century. Bohdan Grudziecki, a Georgian, was the greatest authority on all things Persian working in the Polish king's diplomatic service, made frequent diplomatic trips to Persia, on which he obtained, among other things, guarantees upholding earlier privileges for missionaries. Already during the rule of King Jan Kazimierz was he sent on missions to Isfahan, and King Jan III Sobieski availed himself of Gurdziecki's talents in like manner (in 1668, 1671, 1676-1678, in 1682-1684, and in 1687). Gurdziecki remained at the court of the shah for several years in the capacity of special resident and representative of the Polish king; it was him who delivered to the shah Suleiman news about the victory of the Christian forces at Vienna (1683).
Several Georgian politicians, intellectuals and military officers left Georgia for Poland after the Soviet armies invaded the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG) in February 1921, taking over the government and establishing the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in the same March. Although not very numerous and consisting of a few hundred members, the Georgian community of Poland was very active politically and culturally. The best remembered are, however, the Georgian military personnel who served in the Polish ranks from the early 1920s until the end of the World War II.

[edit] Georgian Prometheism
Active diplomatic contacts developed between the short-lived DRG and Poland was part of Józef Piłsudski’s well-known political concept known as Prometheism. Its aim was to greatly reduce the power of Tsarist Russia and subsequently, the Soviet Union, by supporting nationalist independence movements of the major non-Russian peoples that lived within the borders of Russia or the Soviet Union.

Polish and Georgian officers serving in the Polish Army, 1925
The Georgian Promethean groups were one of the most active within the movement. This was not overlooked by the Bolsheviks, who in 1930 organized the assassination of Noe Ramishvili, a prominent Georgian political leader and a major promoter of Prometheism.
The 1932 Polish-Soviet mutual nonaggression pact precipitated the downfall of the Promethean movement though the Georgians continued their activities in various cultural and social organizations. The most important was the Committee of Georgia founded as early as 1921 by several Georgian intellectuals led by Sergo Qurulashvili. They had close contacts with the centers of Georgian political emigration across Europe, primarily in Paris. The Committee organized various meetings and social activities and provided material support for the Georgian émigrés. It also published its own publications, ProGeorgia (1922), and Propartia (1923). From 1923 to 1924, Qurulashvili also directed the journal Schlos Wschodu pertaining to the Georgian problems. The Georgians organized also the Union of Georgian Students and the Polish-Georgian Society led by Prince Pavle Tumanishvili. The activities of these organizations were limited, however, due to financial difficulties.

[edit] Georgians in the Polish military service

Major Giorgi Mamaladze, later murdered in the 1940 Katyn massacre
Immediately after the fall of the DRG, Noe Zhordania, the head of the Georgian government-in-exile, addressed the friendly nations, particularly France, Greece and Poland, to help in maintaining the professional military cadres. The government of Poland promptly responded, and from 1922 to 1924, hundreds of Georgian Junkers and officers, recommended by Zhordania’s government, were accepted in the Polish military schools. Several professional officers of the former DRG attended military training courses at the Polish army centers. Although not obligated to do so, virtually all of them were subsequently enrolled in the Polish army as contract officers. In the subsequent decade, the total number of Georgian military servicemen reached 1,000.
At the outbreak of the World War II, most of the Georgian officers took part in the 1939 Defensive War, and several of them commanded their own regiments composed of Polish soldiers. The most notable officers were:
Zakaria Bakradze, generał dywizji, deputy commander of Polish 15th Infantry Division.
Aleksandre Chkheidze, generał brygady, deputy commander of Polish 16th Infantry Division.
Ivane Kazbegi, generał brygady.
Aleksandre Koniashvili, generał brygady.
Kirile Kutateladze, generał brygady.
Aleksandre Zakariadze, generał brygady.
Viktor Lomidze, the commander of ORP Gryf.
Giorgi Tumanishvili, captain of the navy, who was awarded Virtuti Militari.
Valerian Tevzadze, podpułkownik, the commander of the northern sector of the Polish defences during the siege of Warsaw.
Mikheil Kvaliashvili, major, the commander of a cavalry battalion within the 15th Uhlans Regiment.
Several Georgian officers were captured by the Soviet forces during the 1939 campaign. General Chkheidze, Major Mamaladze, Captain Skhirtladze and Captain Rusiashvili were killed during the infamous Katyn Massacre, from 1940 to 1941. Many others spent several years in the gulag camps.

St. Grigol Peradze
During the occupation of Poland, the Germans reorganized the Warsaw-based Committee of Georgia and placed it under their tight control. The occupation administration encouraged the Georgian soldiers in the Polish service to join the Georgian Legion of the Wehrmacht. Some of them responded to the Nazi request, but subsequently joined the Polish resistance movement. The notable Georgian Orthodox priest and Professor Grigol Peradze of Warsaw University ended his life in the Auschwitz concentration camp (1942), when he deliberately entered a gas-chamber instead of a Jewish prisoner who had a large family.
John Malchase David Shalikashvili, general of the United States Army who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1993 to 1997, was born in Warsaw, Poland where his father also served in the army.
After the war, most Georgians either left for Western Europe or were deported to the Soviet camps though some of them (e.g., General V. Tevzadze) remained in the Polish anti-Communist underground for several decades.

Patrick J. Buchanan The Betrayal of Poland 1939-1945

Patrick J. Buchanan The Betrayal of Poland 1939-1945


With Poland’s membership in NATO at issue, a question has arisen as to whether America owes a debt to the Polish people for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s having “betrayed” the Polish nation to Joseph Stalin at Yalta.

Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat has lately raised the issue of a moral debt to Poland for the 1945 summit where FDR accepted Stalin’s assurances of free elections. Eizenstat was taken to task by columnist Lars-Erik Nelson for repeating a “50-year-old right-wing slander.” Robert Novak defended the “betrayed” thesis.

Nelson’s point: By 1945 Stalin had 12 million troops in Eastern Europe, and Dwight Eisenhower only 4 million in the West. Conservatives who condemn FDR for Poland’s fate, says Nelson, are joining the “Blame America First” crowd. We couldn’t save Poland!

But, in truth, Yalta was only the final betrayal of Poland, and not only FDR but Winston Churchill bears moral responsibility for a half-century of communist enslavement of the Polish people.

The first betrayal came with the British guarantee to Poland, after Neville Chamberlain was exposed as a dupe when Adolf Hitler tore up his Munich pact and marched into Prague. As Hitler pressed Poland for the return of Danzig, stripped from Germany after World War I, and demanded rail and road transit to the city across a “Polish Corridor” also taken from Germany, Warsaw, encouraged by British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax, refused even to negotiate. The Poles were assured that if war came, Britain would be at their side.

But when Hitler invaded Poland from the west and Stalin invaded from the east, Britain declared war on Germany alone. Then, the British sat behind the Maginot Line while Poland was crucified. The British had goaded the Poles into standing up to Hitler though they had no plans to save or rescue Poland. Six million Poles would die as a result of having trusted in a British alliance.

The second betrayal occurred at Teheran in 1943, when FDR moved into the Soviet embassy compound and assured Stalin he would not object to his keeping the half of Poland and the Baltic states Hitler had ceded to Stalin in their infamous pact. As Robert Nisbet wrote in “Roosevelt and Stalin: The Failed Courtship,” FDR asked only that word of his concession not leak out before the 1944 elections, so Polish Americans would not react in rage. FDR told one visitor to Hyde Park he was “sick and tired” of East Europeans and their constant clamoring about boundaries and sovereignties.

The third betrayal occurred in the summer of ‘44. The Polish Home Army in German-occupied Warsaw, heeding appeals from Radio Moscow, rose up against the Nazis. As the Home Army was loyal to the free Polish government in London, which was demanding an investigation of Stalin’s murder of Polish officers at Katyn, Stalin halted his own Red Army outside Warsaw to give the Nazis a free hand in crushing the Polish uprising.

British and Americans sought to aid the Poles with air drops of food and munitions. But Stalin refused to let the allies use air fields behind his lines to refuel for the return flight to England. Churchill drafted a strong letter to Stalin, asking that the allies be allowed to use the air fields assigned them, but to appease Stalin, FDR cravenly refused to sign the letter. The Home Army was butchered.

By February 1945, Poland had been overrun by a Red Army that could not be dislodged short of a new war. Yalta, writes Nisbet, “is not the source of the Soviet possessions in Eastern Europe … Teheran is. But Yalta performed a service that was almost as important to Stalin. … This was the invaluable service of giving moral legitimation to what Stalin had acquired by sheer force.”

Britain had gone to war and lost 400,000 men and an empire for Poland’s independence. Yet, as Poland receded into the darkness, not once did Churchill vent upon Stalin the oratory he used so often on Hitler. The rape of Poland by Hitler and Stalin was the moral cause that precipitated the war. Yet, Churchill and FDR, to appease Stalin, meekly acquiesced in the betrayal of that moral cause.

“Of one thing I am sure,” FDR said at Yalta, “Stalin is not an imperialist.” How explain his naivete about Stalin, to whom he gave everything, including a third of the Italian fleet and recognition of his puppet government in Poland? “Puerility,” writes George F. Kennan. FDR once told his friend, ambassador William Bullitt: “I think if I give him (Stalin) everything I possibly can, and ask nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won’t try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of peace and democracy.”

And thus was Poland betrayed.

Grajewo, Poland

Grajewo, Poland

Dr. Longin Pastusiak Speaks at USC Polish American History

Dr. Longin Pastusiak Speaks at USC Polish American History
The title of his speech was “Is Poland America’s ‘Trojan Horse’ in the EU?” The whole idea of his speech was to shed some light on the current missile defense base that the United States has proposed to install in Poland. Poland has seemed somewhat reluctant in recent months to go along with this plan. Therefore, to try to get things moving again, talks between the two countries started yesterday and according to the International Herald, things preceded smoothly. However, in his speech, Dr. Pastusiak pointed out several reasons why the US might run into problems with Poland cooperating completely.



Before Dr. Pastusiak listed some of the reasons tensions are forming between our two countries, he gave a lbried history of Polish/US relations and why Poles seem to have such a strong liking for the United States. He contributed several things to why we are on such good terms. One of the reasons is that Poles have had such a long history with our country, going back to having colonists at Jamestown. Poles were also present during our Revolutionary War and played and important part training some of our forces.



He even stated that in more recent times, the United States has always helped Poland. At the end of WWI, Woodrow Wilson established an independent nation of Poland with his Fourteen Points. American aid programs were also there helping the Poles reconstruct their country after the war. Another reason for our good relationship can be contributed to the fact that we have never had a war with Poland. This might not seem like a lot but when you consider that the rest of Europe has some deep seeded animosity because of past wars, our peaceful relationship helps a lot.



After stating all these reason why Poles like Americans, he stated some issues that are presently straining our relationship. One problem is that despite the good relationship in politics between our two countries, the economical relationship isn’t there. According to Dr. Pastusiak, Poland is currently our 11th largest trading partner. Another issue that is straining our relationship is the unfullfillment of our promise to help Poland’s army modernize. Dr. Pastusiak pointed out that our current promised aid is only $20 million. This is minuscule compared to the billions that we have given to Israel and Egypt.



Finally, the missile defense base that the US wants to install in Poland is straining our relationship. Poland had an assessment taken and the risk currently outweigh the benefits for installing a defense base. Combine this with the fact that 52% of Poles don’t want the base there and you get some tension forming between our two countries. This is why the talks mentioned above are taking place; the US is trying to negotiate some way to make sure the benefits outweigh the risks to the country. According to Dr. Pastusiak, some of the issues on the table are things like installing patriot missile systems to defend this base along with demanding the necessary funding to successfully modernize the Polish Army


Dr. Longin Pastusiak Speaks at USC (Part 2)

waiting for the Part 3
Dr. Longin Pastusiak Speaks at USC (Part 4)

Real hero of Poland - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz

Real hero of Poland - Witold Pilecki - A Volunteer for Auschwitz










Witold Pilecki (May 13, 1901 – May 25, 1948; pronounced [ˈvitɔld piˈletski]; codenames Roman Jezierski, Tomasz Serafiński, Druh, Witold) was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, the founder of the Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska) Polish resistance group and a member of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa).
During World War II, he became the only known person to volunteer to be imprisoned at Auschwitz concentration camp. While there, he organized the resistance movement in the camp, and as early as 1940, informed the Western Allies of Nazi Germany's Auschwitz atrocities. He escaped in 1943 and took part in the Warsaw Uprising (August–October 1944). Pilecki was executed in 1948 by the communists.
Contents[hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Pilecki's early life
1.2 World War II breaks out
1.3 The Auschwitz campaign: 945 days
1.4 Back outside Auschwitz: the Warsaw Uprising.
1.5 Soviet take over of Poland
2 Summary of Pilecki's Polish Army career
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
//

[edit] Biography

[edit] Pilecki's early life
Witold Pilecki was born May 13, 1901, in Olonets on the shores of Lake Ladoga in Karelia, Russia, where his family had been forcibly resettled by Tsarist Russian authorities after the suppression of Poland's January Uprising of 1863–1864. His grandfather, Józef Pilecki, had spent seven years in exile in Siberia for his part in the uprising. In 1910, Pilecki moved with his family to Wilno (now Vilnius, Lithuania), where he completed Commercial School and joined the secret ZHP Scouts organization. In 1916, he moved to Orel, Russia, where he founded a local ZHP group.[1]
During World War I, in 1918, Pilecki joined Polish self-defense units in the Wilno area, and, under General Władysław Wejtka, helped collect weapons and disarm retreating, demoralized German troops in what became the prelude to the Vilna offensive. He subsequently took part in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1920. Serving under Major Jerzy Dąbrowski, he commanded a ZHP Scout section. When his sector of the front was overrun by the Bolsheviks, his unit for a time conducted partisan warfare behind enemy lines. Pilecki later joined the regular Polish Army and fought in the Polish retreat from Kiev as part of a cavalry unit defending Grodno (in present-day Belarus). On August 5, 1920, he joined the 211th Uhlan Regiment and fought in the crucial Battle of Warsaw and at Rudniki Forest (Puszcza Rudnicka) and took part in the liberation of Wilno. He was twice awarded the Krzyż Walecznych (Cross of Valor) for gallantry.[1]
After the Polish-Soviet War ended in 1921 with the Peace of Riga, Pilecki passed his high-school graduation exams (matura) in Wilno and in 1926, was demobilized with the rank of cavalry ensign. In the interbellum, he worked on his family's farm in the village of Sukurcze.[1] On April 7, 1931, he married Maria Pilecka (1906 – February 6, 2002), née Ostrowska. They had two children, born in Wilno: Andrzej (January 16, 1932) and Zofia (March 14, 1933).

[edit] World War II breaks out
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, on August 26, 1939, Pilecki was mobilized and joined the 19th Polish Infantry Division of Army Prusy as a cavalry-platoon commander. His unit took part in heavy fighting in the Invasion of Poland against the advancing Germans and was partially destroyed. Pilecki's platoon withdrew southeast toward Lwów (now L'viv, in Ukraine) and the Romanian bridgehead and was incorporated into the recently formed 41st Infantry Division. During the September Campaign, Pilecki and his men destroyed seven German tanks and shot down two aircraft. On September 17, after the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland pursuant to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Pilecki's division was disbanded and he returned to Warsaw with his commander, Major Jan Włodarkiewicz.[1]
On November 9, 1939, the two men founded the Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska, TAP), one of the first underground organizations in Poland. Pilecki became its organizational commander and expanded TAP to cover not only Warsaw but Siedlce, Radom, Lublin and other major cities of central Poland. By 1940, TAP had approximately 8,000 men (more than half of them armed), some 20 machine guns and several anti-tank rifles. Later, the organization was incorporated into the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and became the core of the Wachlarz unit.[1]

[edit] The Auschwitz campaign: 945 days

Street roundup in northern Warsaw's Żoliborz district, 1941
In 1940, Pilecki presented to his superiors a plan to enter Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp at Oświęcim (the Polish name of the locality), gather intelligence on the camp from the inside, and organize inmate resistance. Until then, little had been known about the Germans' running of the camp, and it was thought to be an internment camp or large prison rather than a death camp. His superiors approved the plan and provided him a false identity card in the name of "Tomasz Serafiński." On September 19, 1940, he deliberately went out during a Warsaw street roundup (łapanka), and was caught by the Germans along with some 2,000 innocent civilians (among them, Władysław Bartoszewski). After two days of torture in Wehrmacht barracks, the survivors were sent to Auschwitz. Pilecki was tattooed on his forearm with the number 4859.[1]

Auschwitz concentration camp photos of Pilecki.
At Auschwitz, while working in various kommandos and surviving pneumonia, Pilecki organized an underground Union of Military Organizations (Związek Organizacji Wojskowych, ZOW). ZOW's tasks were to improve inmate morale, provide news from outside, distribute extra food and clothing to members, set up intelligence networks, and train detachments to take over the camp in the event of a relief attack by the Home Army, arms airdrops, or an airborne landing by the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, based in Britain.[1]
By 1941, ZOW had grown substantially. Members included the famous Polish sculptor Xawery Dunikowski and ski champion Bronisław Czech, and worked in the camp's SS administration office (Mrs. Rachwalowa, Capt. Rodziewicz, Mr. Olszowka, Mr. Jakubski, Mr. Miciukiewicz), the storage magazines (Mr. Czardybun) and the Sonderkommando, which burned human corpses (Mr. Szloma Dragon and Mr. Henryk Mendelbaum). The organization had its own underground court and supply lines to the outside. Thanks to civilians living nearby, the organization regularly received medical supplies.[1]
ZOW provided the Polish underground with priceless information on the camp. Many smaller underground organizations at Auschwitz eventually merged with ZOW. In the autumn of 1941, Colonel Jan Karcz was transferred to the newly-created Birkenau death camp, where he proceeded to organize ZOW structures. By spring of 1942, the organization had over 1,000 members, including women and people of other nationalities, at most of the sub-camps. The inmates constructed a radio receiver and hid it in the camp hospital.[1]
From October 1940, ZOW sent reports to Warsaw, and beginning March 1941, Pilecki's reports were being forwarded via the Polish resistance to the British government in London. These reports were a principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies. Pilecki hoped that either the Allies would drop arms or troops into the camp, or the Home Army would organize an assault on it from outside. By 1943, however, he realized that no such plans existed. Meanwhile the Gestapo redoubled its efforts to ferret out ZOW members, succeeding in killing many of them. Pilecki decided to break out of the camp, with the hope of personally convincing Home Army leaders that a rescue attempt was a valid option. When he was assigned to a night shift at a camp bakery outside the fence, he and two comrades overpowered a guard, cut the phone line and escaped on the night of April 26–April 27, 1943, taking along documents stolen from the Germans. In the event of capture, they were prepared to swallow cyanide. After several days, with the help of local civilians, they contacted Home Army units. Pilecki submitted another detailed report on conditions at Auschwitz.[1]

[edit] Back outside Auschwitz: the Warsaw Uprising.
On August 25, 1943, Pilecki reached Warsaw and joined the Home Army's intelligence department. The Home Army, after losing several operatives in reconnoitering the vicinity of the camp, including the Cichociemny commando Stefan Jasieński, decided that it lacked sufficient strength to capture the camp without Allied help. Pilecki's detailed report (Raport Witolda—"Witold's Report") was sent to London. The British authorities refused the Home Army air support for an operation to help the inmates escape. An air raid was considered too risky, and Home Army reports on Nazi atrocities at Auschwitz were deemed to be gross exaggerations (Pilecki wrote: "During the first 3 years, at Auschwitz there perished 2 million people; in the next 2 years—3 million"). The Home Army in turn decided that it didn't have enough force to storm the camp by itself.[1]
Pilecki was soon promoted to cavalry captain (rotmistrz) and joined a secret anti-communist organization, NIE ("NO or NIEpodleglosc - independence"), formed as a secret organization within the Home Army with the goal of preparing resistance against a possible Soviet occupation.[1]
When the Warsaw Uprising broke out on August 1, 1944, Pilecki volunteered for the Kedyw's Chrobry II group. At first, he fought in the northern city center without revealing his actual rank, as a simple private. Later, he disclosed his true identity and accepted command of the 2nd Company, fighting in the Towarowa and Pańska Streets area. His forces held a fortified area called the "Great Bastion of Warsaw". It was one of the most outlying partisan redoubts and caused considerable difficulties for German supply lines. The bastion held for two weeks in the face of constant attacks by German infantry and armor. On the capitulation of the uprising, Pilecki hid some weapons in a private apartment and went into captivity. He spent the rest of the war in German prisoner-of-war camps at Łambinowice and Murnau.[1]

[edit] Soviet take over of Poland
After July 11, 1945, Pilecki joined the 2nd Polish Corps. He received orders to clandestinely transport a large sum of money to Soviet-occupied Poland, but the operation was called off. In September 1945, he was ordered by General Władysław Anders to return to Poland and gather intelligence to be sent to the Polish Government in Exile.[1]
He went back and proceeded to organize his intelligence network, while also writing a monograph on Auschwitz. In the spring of 1946, however, the Polish Government in Exile decided that the postwar political situation afforded no hope of Poland's liberation and ordered all partisans still in the forests either to return to their normal civilian lives or to escape to the West. Pilecki declined to leave, but proceeded to dismantle the partisan forces in eastern Poland. In April 1947, he began collecting evidence on Soviet atrocities and on the prosecution of Poles (mostly members of the Home Army and the 2nd Polish Corps) and their executions or imprisonment in Soviet gulags.[1]

Photos of Pilecki from Warsaw's Mokotow prison (1947).
On May 8, 1947, he was arrested by the Polish security service (Urząd Bezpieczeństwa). Prior to trial, he was repeatedly tortured but revealed no sensitive information and sought to protect other prisoners. On March 3, 1948, a staged trial took place. Testimony against him was presented by a future Polish prime minister, Józef Cyrankiewicz, himself an Auschwitz survivor. Pilecki was accused of illegal crossing of the borders, use of forged documents, not enlisting with the military, carrying illegal arms, espionage for general Władysław Anders (head of the military of the Polish Government in Exile) and preparing an assassination on several officials from the Ministry of Public Security of Poland. Pilecki denied the assassination charges, as well as espionage (although he admitted to passing information to the II Polish Corps of whom he considered himself an officer and thus claimed that he was not breaking any laws); he pleaded guilty to the other charges. On May 15, with three of his comrades, he was sentenced to death. Ten days later, on May 25, 1948, he was executed at Warsaw's Mokotow Prison on ulica Rakowiecka (Rakowiecka Street).[1]
Pilecki's conviction was part of a prosecution of Home Army members and others connected with the Polish Government in Exile in London. In 2003, the prosecutor and several others involved in the trial were charged with complicity in Pilecki's murder. Cyrankiewicz escaped similar proceedings, having died.[1]
After Poland regained its independence, Witold Pilecki and all others sentenced in the staged trial were rehabilitated on October 1, 1990. In 1995, he received posthumously the Order of Polonia Restituta.
His place of burial has never been found. He is thought to have been buried in a rubbish dump near Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery.
Until 1989, information on his exploits and fate was suppressed by the Polish communist regime.[1]

[edit] Summary of Pilecki's Polish Army career
Ensign (podporucznik) from 1925
First Lieutenant (porucznik) from November 11, 1941 (promoted while at Auschwitz)
Captain (cavalry rotmistrz) from November 11, 1943.

[edit] See also

Scouting Portal
This article is partof the series:Polish Secret State
History of Poland
Jan Karski
List of noteworthy individuals in the Warsaw Uprising
Polish contribution to World War II
Rudolf Vrba
Western betrayal
Związek Harcerstwa Polskiego (Polish Scouting and Guiding Association, ZHP)

Singer stated on April 19, 1996 that if Poland does not satisfy Jewish claims, it will be "publicly attacked and humiliated".

Singer stated on April 19, 1996 that if Poland does not satisfy Jewish claims, it will be "publicly attacked and humiliated".

The Conference didn't pay the survivors: They said there weren't any victims anymore -- now they claim all these needy Holocaust victims have languished in poverty all these years. . .

Restitutionist meeting
1. ON February 27, 2007, twenty leaders of Jewish restitution groups will convene in Warsaw, to advance their US$ 65 billion claim against Poland. Israel Singer, the general secretary of the World Jewish Congress, will be there. Jerzy Robert Nowak, a Polish professor of history, writes today in one of the independent papers that Singer's participation is an "extraordinary scandal" absent from most of the media.[i] Singer stated on April 19, 1996 that if Poland does not satisfy Jewish claims, it will be "publicly attacked and humiliated". A Polish publicist, Stanislaw Michalkiewicz has called Singer's declaration a "declaration of war against Poland".
Even a Jewish publicist in Poland, Antoni Marianowicz, has objected to Singer's demands in the April 23, 1996 entry in his book:
"This is simply preposterous; we in Poland have to reckon with the law and wait for suitable laws, and they demand everything right away. Often they are those who lived comfortably in the US, while their families were perishing here in the Holocaust. It's hard to imagine a more effective incitement of anti-Semitism."[ii]
In a recent interview in a Polish main paper, Singer said: "Nobody who lost their house wants to get just a piece of roof, a couple of windows and doors, but the whole house!".[iii]
The Poles are justifiably furious, for example, Nowak:
"As if the Nazi occupier has not methodically destroyed Poland -- Jews have received from Germany more than US$100 billion in compensations -- the Poles themsellves were awarded only meagre handfulls of Deutschmarks for slave labourers".
Nowak pointed out that in the first years after WW2, Jews could recover posessions in Poland fast, owing to sympathy of predominantly Jewish authorities, but the Jews usually sold the properties and left Poland. A few hundred thousand Jews mainly from the USSR immediately received apartments free of charge at the same time.
The US government has intervened on behalf of world Jewry's restitutions. Stuart Eizenstat, left, former special representative of US president and secretary of state for Holocaust-era issues, outlines how the US Jewish community achieved it:
"The Jewish community, considering its small size - only two to three percent of the population depending on who one defines as a Jew - has a remarkable impact on issues relevant to it in the American political system. Various interest groups influence the latter by accessing the Congress, the executive branch, and state and local governments on subjects important to their constituency."
The 1967 Six-Day War marked the coming of age of the Jewish community. Since then, "the entire organized Jewish community has been Zionistic."[iv]
Eizenstat's involvement in the restitution process in Eastern Europe started in 1995 when he was the US ambassador in Europe, and became US special envoy for that purpose: "At that time, Edgar Bronfman, Israel Singer, the WJC and the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) had already been trying to obtain Eastern European property restitution -- they had the critically important wisdom and knowledge to use the media and political system -- The WJC and the WJRO knew that only American intervention in the former communist countries could lead to achievements. Bronfman had already obtained Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's support." Later prime ministers Netanyahu (right) and Barak didn't give as much support to Eizenstat, presumably out of concern for
"bi-lateral relationship with the new post-communist countries. Perhaps in their hearts they also wanted their Jewish communities to come to Israel rather than spend their lives in Eastern Europe."[v]
Singer indicated in 2003 that shows the restitutionism is also retributionism: "Yitzhak Shamir, who has a great distaste for Poland, told me he would support the WJC claims against eastern European countries."[vi] Singer recognized the strategic issues for the restitutionists to tackle:
"The eastern European property restitution issue from which the restitution process of the 1990s started has remained a big failure -- First, these are poor countries. Second, they are used to being victims. Third, restitution would require them to admit all the other wrongs they inflicted on the Jews during and after the Holocaust. Their governments try to deal with the local Jewish communities which - except for Hungary - are extremely small and powerless and thus easier partners than the international Jewish organizations."
So far the restitutionists disregarded the poverty of the target nation, Poland. Clinging to "victimhood" by Poles was solved with lies by "history professor" Gross on the Jedwabne crime and the Kielce "pogrom". Pliable "Polish" statesmen admitted Polish guilt for both crimes committed by others, including Communist Jews in the case of Kielce.
In the beginning, writes Eizenstat, restitution efforts focused on "communal assets such as synagogues and other buildings". The process in Poland "will eventually lead to the return of thousands of pieces of communal property" but has been slowed by "a lengthy dispute we helped mediate - between the small Polish Jewish community and the WJRO -- which questioned the local community's capacity to manage the restituted property. The international and local Jewish community will share control."
Marianowicz above indicated the local Jews' outrage with the claim. According to Eizenstat, WJRO also demanded at least some control over the restituted properties. While this should be an internal Jewish matter, WJRO's move means control over a sizeable part of Polish real estate by one institution that has proven extremely hostile to Poles, like the rest of the Jewish restitution movement. Also, the Jewish restitution organizations have been accused of keeping the awards for themselves, rather than distributing them to the needy and eligible Jews.
Some ineligible Jews "had falsified their papers". Germany paid about USD 50 billion, and until 1965 also gave to the Conference a billion dollars in present value, but the victims received only 15 percent:
"The large chunk of the rest of it, according to Ronald Zweig, an expert on the subject, went to Jewish communities in the Arab world, such as Iraq, and institutions such as Yad Vashem in Israel."
The Conference didn't pay the survivors: "They said there weren't any victims anymore -- now they claim all these needy Holocaust victims have languished in poverty all these years, because the Germans gave them no money." Some unjustly treated Shoah survivors said they "trust the German government more than they do the Jewish organizations".[vii]
Israeli banks deny payments from accounts of Shoah victims, too. In January 2005, a Knesset committee slammed Israeli banks for "severe negligence" in handling some 9,000 accounts totaling NIS 1 billion and locating the heirs. In the first years of WW2, the banks managed to ride out mass withdrawals thanks to the funds deposited by thousands of European Jews. Some of the banks misappropriated the funds and destroyed documents. A bill proposed that a government corporation would handle the restitution of bank accounts, real estate, stocks and other assets. Money without heirs would go to humanitarian causes.[viii]
Nowak's worst predictions come true. In 1999, he warned about an "anti-Polish alliance" of polonophobic Jewish, German and Russian groups: "The most threatening to us may prove an alliance of very influential Jewish and German factions."[ix]
Nowak wrote today, alluding to German restitution claims filed around Christmas 2006 against Poland:
"We see a clear synchronization of Jewish and German claims. Both are based on a common lie that seeks to paint WW2 Poles as executioners, instead of the factual victims we have been. Some influential Ukrainian groups suddenly added their indemnity claims for Operation Wisla, which was predictable when some time ago miscellaneous Polish "apologizers" showed up."
In Operation Wisla (1.5.1947 - 16.8.1947) that aimed at fragmentation of a minority religion, the new Communist government of Poland transported some 140,000 pre-war Polish citizens of Orthodox Christian faith, from the eastern part of the new state to former Eastern Germany.[x]
They were mainly Ukrainians and followed millions of Poles re-settled from former Eastern Poland, which the victorius Allies gave to Stalin "in exchange" for the Eastern German lands. It is unclear why Ukraine would advance claims on behalf of Ukrainians in Poland.
Copyright Piotr Bein 2007
[i] Jerzy Robert Nowak, Nasz Dziennik, 17-18.2.2007, Nr 41 (2754)
[ii] Antoni Marianowicz, Polska, (Zydzi i cykli) sci, Warszawa, 1999, p 86.
[iii] An interview with Israel Singer (in Polish), Rzeczpospolita, 3-4.2.2007.
[iv] Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Restitution Issues and the Activism of American Jews: An Interview with Stuart Eizenstat, Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism, No. 18, 1.3.2004
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Restitution: The Second Round: An Interview with Israel Singer, Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism, No. 14, 2.11.2003
[vii] Viktor Frölke, Salon Magazine, 30.8.2000
[viii] Amiram Barkat, Haaretz, 19.1.2005; Yair Sheleg, Haaretz, 23.1.2005.
[ix] Interview with Nowak, Nasz Dziennik, 21-22.8.1999.
[x] Anna Radziukiewicz, Orthodox Christianity in Poland, Wydawnictwo Arka: Bialystok, 2001, p 70.

Warszawskie dzieci, Rota.Powstanie Warszawskie

Jews were invated to Poland in the Middle Ages, when they were persecuted in the most of Western Europe, they even got special rights, which other people didn't have, sure that wasn't pure love, but Poland was losing many people in countless wars, so simply needed more people, but anyway facts matter. Without that Jews If survived would be something like native Americans today.

It got worse in 19th century, when Poland lost independence and Poles realized that minorities, especially Jews didn't really care abou that. That's when the whole Polish nationalism was born, before people in Poland were first of all divided into nobelmen and peasants, not into nationalities. Jews not only weren't patriotic, usually they didn't even bother to learn the language and assimilate.

During WW2 not so many people were helping Jews, but very few collaborated (Poland was the only country without collaboration government or any other serious collaboration forces) and most were just trying to survive, 3 million Polish "goys" (non Jews) were killed and they couldn't help themselves, so how they could help someone else ?

If you ask If there was anti-semitism in Poland, the answer can't be other than yes, but Poland and Poles generally did more good than bad for Jews and anti-Semitism in 19th and early 20th century was maybe not justified but let's say not surprising in that situation.

Unfortunately many Jews (especially American) today is spreading anti-Polish propaganda, which especially in case of WW2 and a country, which lost the most and a nation, which suffered less than only Jews and Gypsies is shocking and simply disgusting.

Let's take a look at this from your first post:
"Post war only 4 of the 700 survived. He returns to his home after the war to find it occupied by 3 families who denied him access and berated him for wanting it back."

For a western reader, who has little idea about situation in Poland during and after WW2 that's of course "Polish antisemitism", the author knows that, so of course he "forgot" to add that about 50% of buildings in Poland were destroyed or seriously damaged (in Warsaw over 90%), so people were moving to whatever was still standing. What these 3 families should have done ? Got frozen looking at the empty house, whose owners were probably dead ? Or take their children and leave to the forest, when mr. owner came back and wanted to have a large house only for himself ?