Preparing for Poland

I’m just days away from departing for Poland, the land of my ancestors. I first traveled there in 1991 and have made a half dozen trips since. The main reason i’m going is for vacation, after a long year I can use one. Being who I am though, relaxing and being lazy for days and weeks isn’t my style, maybe just a day or two ;). I anticipate a lot of site seeing, visits to museums, time spent with friends and family and of course time for research. Last year I spent nearly 6 weeks in Poland, the bulk of my time as a volunteer at the Warsaw Uprising Museum. This fascinating place tells the tragic but courageous tale of the Warsaw Uprising, the last stand of the Polish Home Army against the Nazis. While the Polish underground soldiers had operated clandestinely for the duration of the war, in the summer of 1944 the Nazis were in full retreat. The decision was made to initiate an uprising to seize the Polish capital, Warsaw, before the Soviet Red Army marched in to take control. Despite the valiant efforts of the men, women and even children of the city, the effort was doomed from the beginning.

The western allies were never able to drop enough supplies and the Soviets, also supposed “allies”, prevented British and American planes from landing east of the city after their dangerous flights from Italy. The Soviets reached the eastern bank of the Vistula river, the Praga district of Warsaw, within several weeks of the uprising’s beginning. They never made a meaningful effort to help though. Stalin preferred to see the Nazis destroy the valiant resistance and murder over 200,000 civilians. This way the Red Army was able to “liberate” the empty ruins of Warsaw in January of 1945. Though the fate of the Warsaw Uprising was devastating, it is an event that must be remembered as part of Polish and world history. I have become interested in World War II because it represented the most epic struggle on earth, to date. The consequences of that war have shaped the world we live in they affect us to this day. The lessons to be learned from that conflict are still revealing themselves. Should I become the historian that I aspire to be, I hope that I can help teach those lessons to our generation and those to come. More importantly I want to (and indeed feel obligated to) pay tribute to those who sacrificed everything they had to do defend their families, homeland and honor. I’ll update you on my trip as time goes on. Cheers!