Warsaw, 60 years ago today
As the world marks the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising against the Nazis that left 200,000 Poles dead and the city in ruins, we turn to page 725 of Ian Kershaw's magisterial "Hitler: 1936-1945, Nemesis" and quote:
"As soon as he heard of the rising, Himmler had hastened to see Hitler. Himmler spoke shortly afterwards of how he had put the news of the rising to Hitler: 'I said, Mein F? the time is disagreeable. Seen historically [however] it is a blessing that the Poles are doing it. We'll get through the five, six weeks. But by then, Warsaw, the capital, the head, the intelligence of this former 16-17 million Polish people will be extinguished — this people that has blocked the east for us for 700 years and has always stood in our way ever since the first battle of Tannenberg. Then the Polish problem will historically no longer be a big problem for our children and for all who come after us, nor indeed us.' "Himmler now ordered the total destruction of Warsaw, putting in SS-Obergruppenf?rich von dem Back-Zelewski, formerly involved in massacres of Jews in Russia and subsequently in charge of combating partisans on the eastern front, to suppress the rising with all the ruthlessness he needed. Over the next weeks, Back directed a ferocious onslaught on the Polish insurgents, using as his spearhead the notoriously brutal Kaminski and Dirlewanger Brigades — SS units of around 6,000 men comprised in the former case of Russian ex-prisoners-of-war, many of them rabidly anti-Polish, in the latter of criminals and desperadoes drawn from the concentration camps. Wild orgies of atrocities predictably followed as men, women and children were slaughtered in their thousands while Warsaw burned. By the time General Bor surrendered on 2 October, the savage repression had left Polish civilian victims numbering around 200,000. German losses amounted to some 26,000 men killed, wounded or missing. On 11 October, Hans Frank received notification that all raw materials, textiles and furniture left in Warsaw were to be removed before the smouldering remains of the city were razed to the ground."
Spare a moment now to contemplate the suffering and sacrifice that began 60 years ago today in Warsaw at 5 pm local time. Then, give thanks that fascism was defeated.
