EFL
Lucjan Wisniewski is an unsung hero of one of the last great World War II battles lost by the Allies -- the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. He fought to liberate his country from Nazi rule, but unlike his Western peers, he was prosecuted for doing so afterwards. To this day he keeps one of his battalion's most treasured possessions -- its ragged, blood-stained banner -- rolled up at home. He will finally hand the banner to a museum on Sunday exactly 60 years after Poles took up arms in an attempt to drive the Nazis from Warsaw and save themselves from another totalitarian regime, Stalinist communism.
World leaders, including German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Secretary of State Collin Powell, will also pay tribute to the doomed uprising, long played down by historians and neglected by politicians in Poland and abroad. "After six decades of waiting and agony, our banner will find its rightful place," said Wisniewski, referring to the Warsaw Uprising Museum to be opened on the Aug. 1 anniversary.
Poland's Western allies placed little pressure on Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to aid the uprising, which many Poles felt was a meager reward for their war efforts in engagements like the Battle of Britain and the fight for Italy's Monte Cassino. Outgunned, outnumbered and ignored by Soviet forces, who stopped their advance on the outskirts of Warsaw, the uprising collapsed after 63 days, leaving the city in ruins and more than 160,000 dead. The remnants of the underground Home Army who survived the uprising were interrogated, detained and sometimes executed by Moscow-trained communists determined to impose their rule. "A museum commemorating the uprising was unthinkable for years, and this may be the last anniversary many veterans will attend," said Marcin Roszkowski, one of the museum's organizers.
I didn't realize that the anniversery of that kind of betrayal and brutal slaying of a brave group of people could be celebrated. When are the Ketyn Woods massacres celebrated, maybe I can plan a vacation around the gala affair?
| We don't need to celebrate, we need to remember. |
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