Traveling with Kids & Pets
History is known to represent the past, which has victories, defeats, happiness and pain. There is vast knowledge available about the past, yet most of it is silenced, erased and unheard. Poland’s history has always been one filled with courage, resilience, hope and scars. It has one of the most tragic pasts as it was torn repeatedly due to occupational and foreign rule, leaving unimaginable loss and torment. Before WW1, Poland was not an independent state and was occupied by Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary. It was historically a land rich in culture, resources and liveliness despite its horrific past. After WW1 the allies US, France and England insisted to form the nation again, naming it The Second Polish Republic. The country lacked population and industrial power, unlike neighbors. They were forced to count on France and Britain for military assistance at the time, creating a fragile freedom. Tensions soon emerged with Soviet Union [communists] and Poland as they acted as barrier for communists to spread their revolutionary ideas across Europe. There were many conflicts that occurred between 1919 to 1939 including conflict for redrawing borders of Poland and Ukraine, Battle of Warsaw, anti – Jewish ideology causing cultural assimilation and Polonization.
The invasion of Poland by Germans was on September 1,1939. Later, justified by the Gleiwitz incident, which took place on August 31, 1939. This fabricated raid lead by German forces was a calculated act of deception made to discredit Poland. It exposed a cold reality that the lives of their own men were reduced to mere numbers, were only considered as pawns to sacrifice for a larger, ruthless cause. There was a dozen more operations to justify their invasion as was planned a long way before. A nonaggression pact was signed between Germany and Poland which was withdrawn on April 28, 1939, and nearing the same timeline the pact between France, England and Soviet Union was broken too. This gave Germany an opportunity to leap forward and make Soviet Union a part of its conspiracy. This whole situation could be considered as a coincidence but also can be believed to be a strategy. Soon Germany had a pact formed with them called ‘Moltov-Ribbertop’ hastily so that it could wage war against Poland, which also had a part where the soviets were forced to not provide any kind of aid to France and England during the war with Poland. It could be evaluated that this huge effort was made only to conquer west Poland as it was a resource rich region and driven by dictorial belief that it belonged to them. On september17, 1939, Soviets invaded Poland, which felt as a double betrayal to them.
The nazi invasion was a mere beginning of the war, despite civilians had started to face unimaginable loss. Children were hidden in cellars women scared for the life of their husband and father trying to protect their families. There were a mass destruction and ultimate motive was to clear Poland. The schools and hospitals were destroyed, villages were razed, many lost lives in crossfires. There were orders given to soldiers to execute each person that was seen whether it was a child, a woman or a man. There were mass executions taking place on the streets, ones which felt familiar were now arenas of terror. Even the land was haunted by the scream and horrid scenes which it had witnessed. People who were caught by military were forced to see the execution of their families before being executed themselves. Before long Soviet invasion started for the east, people were confused but saw it as a ray of hope coming their way. It was hard for them to predict whether they were allies or came to capture. The hope shattered all too quickly, and the atmosphere was filled with shock and despair. The Soviet forces were not any different, civilians struggled to save their lives, families, dignity and hope. This led to a feeling of terror and suffocation as their only hope to flee to the neighboring nation was also now gone.
The only true defense people wanted to rely rather than their families was the Polish defense. They clearly could not defend against Germany alone but now were forced to defend against two powerful nations. The Germans had 1.5 million men for the attack along with 2,750 tanks, 2,315 aircraft, and 9,000 guns whereas the polish equipment was far less. They too had 1.5 million soldiers, but many were not able to mobilize. Solider had outdated equipment with just 4,300 guns, 210 tanks, 670 tankettes, and 800 aircraft. The theory for attacks was not strong as the Germans captured about 600,000 prisoners and the Soviets about 200,000 and maybe 100,000 escaped abroad. The Poles had probably mobilised about a million men who within a period of a week or two had been completely shattered. The polish army was relying on French troops and waiting for their relief, but it was to take 15 days to reach and until then they were captured almost completely. On the east side soviets too had captured by September 19 they were encircled and about 20,000 soldiers were killed. There was a bright side, the defence teams acted fiercely and there were few successes of polish army. Pultsk was one of the battle fields where a large number of german tanks were captured, at the battle of Morka about 50 tanks were captured and 800 casualties took place. This September campaign included mass bombing, which destroyed more than 150 villages in the starting days. Germany was prepared with all kinds of strategies costing numerous innocent lives only for some political benefits. The little town of Wieluń was flattened on the first of September, about 70 to 90% population was killed and the survivors were traumatized for life. This affected people as it was horrible to see such gruesome acts. People were witnessing dead, torn bodies of family members, friends, and neighbours, hearing screams and blasts knowing that they would soon be killed. Mainly the survivors were the people who flee without witnessing major destruction. Many got trapped, or hid themselves and their families, died due to suffocating or getting hit, the fear they were facing was unimaginable and grief that no matter could never be compensated.
The invasion shortly ended and both the eastern and western half were captured and dived as parts of Germany and Russia. Many children were orphan, many families got separated during this partition and the grief consumed all. Women and children were forced into shelter homes, fear was a its peak and male used to hide their families so a to protect the lives and dignities. People had no jobs and were kept almost like captives. Labour was the main source of livelihood and women were not allowed. This was horrendous as the people who were living normal lives were now forced in doing labour and were constantly tortured. There were torture chambers made by the Germans for interrogating polish policemen, official or simply whoever they suspected. Nazis forced people for labour and deprived them form sleep, denied food and water and often made many work ‘till death’. There were terror attacks on innocents, in which polish civilians were kept hostages and then executed 50-100 people at a time for 1 German death. Gas chambers were built for murdering Jewish as the despised them. The polish prisoners, and leadership class were massacred brutally. The Soviets arrested around 100,000 Polish citizens within the first two years of occupation, targeting anyone associated with the war with Polish state, including civil servants, priests, and teachers. They had a deportation policy in which they deported hundreds of thousands of polish people to the gulag labour camps and prison settlements in remote areas of Siberia and Central Asia. Most of them starved to death, disease or extreme conditions of imprisonment. They were culturally destroying polish people by sovietization in which people were forced to stop practicing traditions of their own an learn about soviets. Many were tortured during this too.
In 1940 soviet lead a mass execution known as ‘katyn massacre’ in which 22000 polish officials, police men, generals, etc. were tortured and then executed. For years the soviets denied the responsibility of the murders and later in 2010 accepted it. This took place in the katyn forest, and the bodies were stacked and buried. The soviet atrocities were at their peak, the looting of civilians and rape of polish women was done in on a mass scale. It almost felt as a pandemic and the mental scaring was as bad as physical, the situation was out of hand, and the only way of survival was to be silent as anyone was executed without any strong reasoning. Many got mentally disturbed completely and all left behind was generational trauma.
On the contrary the red cross organisation took may steps, as they found the dead bodies in the forest and numerous other bodies which were buried in the same way. The bodies were recovered but dead couldn’t come back to life, and the traumatized people could leave behind the huge loss and pain they have gone through. Same execution happened in Germany by nazis which was called ‘wola massacre’ which took place between 5-12 august 1944. In this case 40000-50000 poles were slaughtered, orders were given to execute anything moving. Many were killed in hospitals, streets and anywhere the soldiers could possibly go. It is said that people were kept hostages and many were tortured and assaulted. It is one of the cruellest executions of the history as no human being was forgiven. The schools and institutes were destroyed, and all poles were supressed to deprive them from education and their own culture.
Inspite the endless terror, there were sparks of hope. The polish people, even after huge loss and sufferings had resilience and didn’t let darkness consume them completely. Secret schools were built to provide knowledge and teach about their culture, it also helped to form a secret network between their community, the flames they inherited form their ancestors just couldn’t die yet. The uprising in Warsaw 1944 was the ultimate vindication of their courage, and the attempt was heroic and they again started to gain their identity and dignity which they previously lost. The awareness that they could be executed after their attempt was never gone, yet the hope to give their future generations a free land never died. Though this war-scarred polish mentally, physically and gave generational trauma some referred to it as only ‘phoney war’ which is heartbreaking. Polish endured history’s brutality and stand free this day. the lost world once again got independence back which was not easy but made possible. A lost world, whose screams echo till today but is silenced, so no one is held accountable.
By: Siya Punj
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