Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw

I lost six family members during Warsaw Uprising in 1944. One of them was my grandfather. My Mom was only 7 when he was brought home dead from the streets of Wola district. The horror of this event is still vivid in my Mom's memory, now 67. The Warsaw Uprising was forgotten not because was unimportant or of small value but because it needed to be forgotten by those that were ashamed of not coming to the rescue. The helplessness of the Western allies was as painful as the betrayal of the Soviet Army. The 60-year "silence" was finally broken with Norman Davies book. 'Rising'44' is probably the best if not only book that describes the forgotten holocaust of Polish martyrs. Thanks to Norman Davies' book let's hope that no one will ever confuse 1943 Ghetto Uprising with 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

There are a number of reasons why I rated this newest book by Norman Davies with all 5 stars. Not necessarily in this order: 1. "Rising '44" is an excellent read, thrilling, captivating, entertaining at times, surprising and emotionally engaging. It's the style, typical of Norman Davies that keeps the reader in suspense at all times, in need to hear and learn more and more. 2. The subject of this book, the rising against the Nazis in Warsaw in late summer 1944 is a relatively little known, or forgotten (outside of Poland), yet one of the most tragic, episode in the entire history of World War II. Just like the whole world must know about the extermination of the Jews, a part of which was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, the entire world, too, should know about another part of Holocaust, the immense suffering, and injustice, inflicted on Polish people. 3. Norman Davies did an extensive research, both in the West (Great Britain, USA) and in the East (Russia), not to mention Poland itself, to reach previously unknown documents that might shed some new light on the whole context of the event. Several theories or, rather, suspicions were well established for years but... no conclusive proof. By his own admission Davies did not quite succeed in his effort; neither in Great Britain nor in Russia were all archives made available even this many years after the end of the War. Still, the broad political perspective surrounding the uprising, all those dealings behind the closed doors, that he was able to portray, are extremely enlightening. 4. And morally disturbing. Poland was the first country to oppose Hitler. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany to defend Poland and its sovereignty. Or, so they claimed. If the terrible defeat Poland suffered in 1939 were not enough, not only from the hands of the Germans, at the end of the day Poland was traded for Stalin's continued participation in the war. The moral standards invoked in September 1939 vanished by 1944, another quarter million people lost their lives, and Poland did not regain its independence... while the rest of the world celebrated victory over Nazism. The story of Warsaw Rising 1944, as told by Norman Davies, is a persuasive one and unsettling. The perception of the whole "big politics" picture, long-standing stereotypes about high moral ground subscribed to by the Allies' leaders, most notably Roosevelt himself, during the war will be very likely altered. And more truth about the real nature of the Stalin's regime will be acknowledged. There is one drawback with this book, already pointed out by others. Indeed, I find Davies' use of his own phonetic versions of names rather than actual Polish an odd one, silly and confusing. The reader from Toronto was quite right pointing out as baffling for Davies to believe "that his English-speaking readers, all of whom have an interest in Poland and Polish history (otherwise they would not be reading Rising '44), are incapabl

Britain went to war in 1939 in order to defend Poland and we, the Western Allies, ended up betraying the Poles first to Nazi rule and then for the next 44 years to that of the USSR. How that terrible tragedy and betrayal happened is brilliantly portrayed in this superb, easy to read and wonderfully well researched book. Christopher Catherwood, author of CHURCHILL'S FOLLY: HOW WINSTON CHURCHILL CREATED MODERN IRAQ (Carroll and Graf 2004)

The author of this work is very correct: most people think that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 was the one and only in that city. Of course, the rising in 1944 was of much more consequence to the history of Eastern Europe, even if both were tragedies. This extremely well-written book outlines the history both before, during and after the '44 rising, and the great detail shows that there was a deliberate ignoring of the plight of the Polish patriots by their Western allies, with a stalling on the part of the Soviets until the rising was crushed by the Nazis. There were many political reasons for why both East and West acted as they did in relation to Poland, but knowing that does not excuse what was done to a brave little country that had the guts to stand up to the Germans, when all about them were caving in to pressure. The Western betrayal is the same as we read in the other recent book about Polish fighters in the war "A Question of Honor", and the harsh glow of history shines on what was not done, and what might have been done. There are vignettes inserted into the book which go into more intimate detail of the many aspects of the rising, from the point of view of participants on all sides. My one quibble was that the author used nicknames and such, rather than the real Polish names of the participants. I can understand why he did that, because Polish names are not the easiest to read or pronounce, but having grown up and gone to school with my fellow second and third generation Polish friends, I can surely pronounce them, and would have liked to see them set out in full. That, of course, does not detract from the impact of this work, and the genuine admiration the author shows for Poland and its people. I am proud to be of 100% Polish descent, and books such as this only reinforce that pride!