At 5pm on Thursday, the Polish capital, Warsaw, will freeze its activities for the W-Hour, as the haunting sound of sirens echo across the city, commemorating the inception of the boldest act of defiance against the Nazi regime.
On the first day of August 1944, an underground force, known as the Home Army, consisting of 50,000 soldiers, initiated an unforeseen assault, fuelling civil aspirations that the half-decade Nazi tyranny might be close to an end. However, the uprising was brutally suppressed after 63 strenuous days of urban combat, causing approximately 50,000 casualties. As a harsh response, the Nazis expelled the remaining 500,000 inhabitants of Warsaw and annihilated 80% of the city during their withdrawal. The total civilian toll during the German mass killings and bombardments culminated to about 180,000. By May 1945, Warsaw, previously bustling with around 1.3 million people, was a demolished settlement housing less than a thousand.
Warsaw’s 1944 rebellion, just like its predecessor, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, holds a dignified position in Poland’s cultural heritage and its anniversary usually indicates the status of Poland’s ties with Germany.
In 1994, Ex-president Lech Walesa instigated a new wave of amicability between the two nations by inviting his German equivalent, Roman Herzog, to address the crowd at the 50th-anniversary commemoration. Conversely, the recent decade witnessed a strained period in the bilateral relations, owing to the continuous backlash from Warsaw’s national conservative party, until it was ousted last fall. The visit of Germany’s current president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is now keenly being watched by the Poles.
Following his interaction with the remaining resistance survivors on Wednesday afternoon, Steinmeier publicly recognized the unspeakable misery inflicted by Germany on its neighbouring nation, pledging never to erase this horrific chapter from memory. During his address at the Warsaw Uprising monument, he acknowledged the lasting pain and sorrow of the Polish families.
However, many Poles are expecting more than just sympathetic words from Steinmeier; they are looking forward to concrete initiatives, such as the launch of new historical endeavours and additional reparation for the surviving wartime victims.
Despite the assurances from German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, last month in Warsaw, that the Germans recognised their guilt and accountability for the lives lost during the occupation, a survey from January, conducted by the Polish Institute of International Affairs, suggests otherwise.
The survey of 2,073 German individuals surfaced startling results – a paltry fifth were able to correctly estimate over five million as the number of Polish casualties in the war. The most frequent estimation was a mere million.
The study further revealed that about a third of the German respondents remained uncertain about the nation that ignited the Second World War – Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland on the first day of September, 1939 – or incorrectly believed other nations were instrumental in initiating the war.
Three quarters of the Germans surveyed indicated familiarity with requests for compensation by the preceding Polish government. However, a scant 8% of the surveyed German population considered these demands valid.
This standpoint mirrors the 2022 diplomatic note penned by Zbignew Rau, Poland’s erstwhile foreign minister, who called for €1.3 trillion in war reparations. Berlin refuted these demands, asserting that such legal appeals were previously settled. First in 1953, when war reparations were waived by Poland’s post-war socialist government. And then in 1990 as a part of the Two-plus-Four Treaty, facilitating German unification.
Yet, Poland’s former Law and Justice (PiS) government disagreed, alleging that past discussions lacked representation from Warsaw because of post-war Soviet Union influence.
Recently, Prime Minister Donald Tusk acknowledged that the call for reparations had been taken into account legally in different resolutions and state treaties, signaling a shift in the new Polish administration. Still, off-stage, Polish representatives continue to seek enhanced German commitment to sustaining the war’s historical narrative.
Germany has consented to construct a monument in Berlin honouring the Polish victims during the Nazi reign, and establish a joint Polish-German remembrance centre. However, specifics relating to these commitments and more monetary aid for war survivors, many of whom languish in destitution, are scarce.
During his upcoming meeting with his German counterpart, President Andrzej Duda, the remaining representative from Poland’s past national conservative administration, will likely press for more information. Moreover, in the presence of his German guest, he is expected to challenge Tusk’s decision to renounce the demand for reparations.
Duda, on a Wednesday, expressed that the Warsaw Uprising was an unprecedented event in history, and a cornerstone in Poland’s journey to liberty and self-determination. In a country like Poland, where maintaining the historical narrative is often charged with emotion and frequently subject to political bias, survivors of the uprising cautioned their leaders not to exploit what could possibly be their final significant commemoration for personal gains.
Andrzej Frydryszak, now aged 96, who was a part of the Home Army at the tender age of 16, emphasized the need for vigilance. “The significance of the Warsaw Uprising lies in its demonstration of gallantry, but we need to tread carefully,” he said. “We ought not to exaggerate, nor should we transform this into a display of nationalistic fervour… rather, the youth should be educated about the potential that a liberated Europe holds.”