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Andrew Rawson - Polands Struggle: Before, During and After the Second World War

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Book:
Polands Struggle: Before, During and After the Second World War
Author:
Andrew Rawson
Publisher:
Pen and Sword
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Books / Non-fiction
Year:
2019
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A historians account of the experience of Polands people and its military before, during, and after World War IIfrom 1918 to 1991.
Poland was re-created as an independent nation at the end of the First World War, but it soon faced problems as Nazi Germany set about expanding its control of Europe. The Wehrmachts attack on 1 September 1939 was followed by a Soviet Red Army invasion two weeks later.
The people of Poland were then subjected to a terrifying campaign of murder, imprisonment and enslavement which only increased as the war dragged on. Polish Catholics faced violence and deportation as they adapted to the draconian laws implemented by the German authorities. Meanwhile, the Polish Jews were forced into ghettos while the plans for the Final Solution were implemented. They then faced annihilation in the Holocaust, code named Operation Reinhard.
Despite the dangers, many Poles joined the underground war against their oppressors, while those who escaped sought to fight for their nations freedom from abroad. They sent intelligence to the west, attacked German installations, carried out assassinations and rose up to confront their enemy, all against impossible odds. The advance of the Red Army brought new problems, as the Soviets dreaded NKVD introduced its own form of terror, hunting down anyone who fought for an independent nation.
The story concludes with Polands experience behind the Iron Curtain, ending with the return of democracy by 1991.

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Polands Struggle

Before, During and After the Second World War

Andrew Rawson

First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Pen &

Sword Military

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

ISBN 978 1 52674 392 3

eISBN 978 1 52674 393 0

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52674 394 7

The right of Andrew Rawson to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Pen & Sword Books Limited incorporates the imprints of Atlas, Archaeology, Aviation, Discovery, Family History, Fiction, History, Maritime, Military, Military Classics, Politics, Select, Transport, True Crime, Air World, Frontline Publishing, Leo Cooper, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing, The Praetorian Press, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe Transport, Wharncliffe True Crime and White Owl.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact

PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED

47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England

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Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

PEN AND SWORD BOOKS

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Website: www.penandswordbooks.com

Contents

Introduction

I f you search for books on Nazi Germany, you will be inundated with titles covering the pre-war rise of the National Socialists. There are also hundreds of titles covering their military campaigns and genocidal activities across Europe. The same goes for the Holocaust, with many titles on the ghettos, deportations and extermination camps involved in the destruction of Europes Jews. However, there are very few titles on the Polish experience in the twentieth century.

The centenary of the re-creation of the Polish State was celebrated on 11 November 2018, a date more commonly associated with the end of the First World War. It is also the date chosen to remember those who died in both world wars around the world. But it means something else in Poland: it is the nations birthday. The same goes for 1 August, the date the Warsaw Uprising began in 1944. The streets of the city come to a standstill as the sirens sound. Then red flares are lit as the crowds stand in silence to remember those who fought and died challenging the Nazis and the Soviets, in an attempt to regain the nations independence. Their families did get their freedom, but only after forty-five years of communist rule, which involved political terror, hard labour and food shortages.

I became interested in the history of twentieth century Poland as a result of two separate experiences. In 2013, I visited Krakw on a research trip for two guide books. The first covered the story of the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp, which is 100 kilometres south-west of the city. However, it was the second one which opened my eyes to the suffering endured by the Polish people during the Second World War. It covered Krakws story, and while I initially thought it would primarily be about the events surrounding Oskar Schindler and the Schindlers List story, it was clear there was far more to it than that.

I was well aware of the Jewish Holocaust which had been largely conducted on Polish soil by the Nazis, but my research introduced me to many stories I knew only a little about: the invasion of Poland and the extermination of the Polish intelligentsia; then there was the suppression of the rest of the Catholic Poles, including slave labour, interrogations and executions; there were heroic tales of the underground forces, involving such groups as the Armed Victory Struggle, the Home Army and the Grey Ranks; the story culminated with the Red Army advances in early 1945, resulting in communist oppression which lasted for many years.

Over time, I have met several Poles who have expressed an interest in my books about military history. Most had an interesting family story to tell about World War II, as well as their own experiences of communism. They also asked me what I knew about Polands history during the Second World War and I had to admit I knew little more than the basics we find on the television or in news articles. So I began digging, and found, as I said at the beginning, that books are few and far between except for one subject: the Jewish Holocaust.

The result of my research is this book. It is not a comprehensive history of twentieth-century Poland, but it goes far beyond the usual narratives currently available. It starts with the re-creation of a nation after over 100 years under the yoke of three large empires. It then moves through the difficult stabilisation of a nation under threat from all sides, particularly after the Nazis seized power in Germany. The military campaign of 1939 is followed by the suppression of the nation and its people by the Nazis and the Soviets before they go to war. There are stories of mass executions, brave uprisings and fighting back from overseas, because one thing was certain, the Poles were never going to give up until their country was free. The story ends with a summary of forty-five years of communism which ultimately breaks down to make way for a free and democratic nation.

Learning about Polands experiences has greatly increased my knowledge of Eastern Europe in the past and it has given me an interesting insight into how that part of the world feels about its history today. I hope this book does the same for you.

Andrew Rawson, November 2018

The new nation of Poland after the battles with its neighbours following the - photo 2

The new nation of Poland after the battles with its neighbours following the First World War.

Chapter 1

Poland is Not Yet Lost

Establishing an independent state, 1918 to 1933

The First World War

T he German and Austro-Hungarian Empires asked the ethnic Poles to fight the Muscovite Yoke when war broke out in August 1914. Meanwhile, Tsarist Russia owned three-quarters of ethnic Poland and half a million Poles answered Grand Duke Nicholass appeal to join the Russian army, after he promised to give them their independence. What they did not know was that the tsar secretly planned to take control of the area as soon as his armies had defeated the Germans and Austro-Hungarians.

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