Marking the 65th Anniversary of
the Warsaw Uprising – “The Rising”
New York, N.Y… Religious ceremonies will open the Polish American community’s commemoration of the 65th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising which took place from August 1st to October 3rd, 1944.
In the metropolitan New York area, it will be a 12:00 noon mass at St. Stanislaus Bishop & Martyr Church, 107 East 7th Street on Sunday, August 2nd.
A reception will follow in the lower auditorium.
Located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, St. Stanislaus was the
first church established by Polish immigrants in the city.
The Warsaw Uprising was one of the most brutal and bloody events Poland suffered during the entire time it was under German occupation in World War II, according to Michael (Mietek) Madejski, president of the New York Chapter of Armia Krajowa (The Polish Home Army) which fought the Germans during that two-month battle.
Mr. Madejski is also a member of the Holocaust Documentation
Committee of the Polish American Congress.
Polish resistance fighters launched the action on August 1st as German forces were retreating from the Russian front and passing through Poland on their way back to Germany.
The Poles’ objective was to recapture their Country’s Capitol City and establish it as a symbol of a free and independent post-war Poland for which they sacrificed so much.
But the two-month confrontation – fought on the city’s streets, from within its buildings and down in its sewers – ended tragically for the people of Warsaw with 200,000 killed by the time it was all over.
Adolf Hitler was so enraged by the Uprising that he ordered Warsaw bombed and burned to the ground.
“It could have turned out to be a momentous victory for the heroes of Warsaw had it not been for the treachery and deceit of the Soviet Army after it arrived at the city’s outskirts in pursuit of the fleeing Germans,” said Madejski.
As they camped outside, the Russians urged the Polish underground resistance to rise up against the Germans while the Reds were to launch a concurrent attack.
But as the Poles began their action, the Communist Army – their so-called allies – did nothing. The Soviets would not even allow U.S. and British planes flying in
supplies to use the airfields they controlled.
It was a calculated ploy to hold back and give the Germans enough time to crush the Polish people with their overwhelming military strength. It paved the way for the Communists to eventually take over Poland and subjugate it until the return
of democracy in the elections of 1989, according to Madejski.
The Warsaw Uprising of August, 1944 is often confused with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April, 1943 which was confined to the Jewish district of the city and on a much smaller scale.
_____________________________________________________________
Polish American Congress
HOLOCAUST DOCUMENTATION COMMITTEE
177 Kent St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11222 – (718) 349-9689