Warszawa - Feniks z popiołów
Warsaw - Phoenix from ashes
Warsaw in ruins
Contemplating the annihilation of Warsaw by the Germans during the World War II I've looked back into history and nothing other could come to my mind than the 149-148 B.C. levelling of Carthage by the Romans. Still, the barbarism of Germans in Warsaw had surpassed anything that a civilized person could think about. It all started with September 1939 and it had its climax during Warsaw Uprising, which started on August 1, 1944, and lasted 63 days. But, when the uprising was over, the people that pride themselves with Beethoven and Bach, dedicated another 100 days to destroy every detail of an old Christian culture: blowing and burning one-by-one - beautiful churches, palaces, monuments, artifacts, archives and libraries. The Christ with the cross from the Church, where the Chopin's heart was buried, was also buried under rubble with 200 000 inhabitants of the city. In the aftermath of destruction, 26 319 wagons of Warsaw's national treasures had left for Germany.
The descendants of those who shamelessly participated in three partitions of Poland, had come back to perform their acts of hatred and unmatched barbarism. Warsaw (pol. Warszawa) had been turned into piles of rabble and ruins. On Heinrich Himmler's order, who had said that a stone upon stone should not remain in this city, the annihilation of the Polish capital had been carried out to its completion, one might say, with German precision. The perpetrators knew well that "the nation lives only for as long as lives its culture". This remains great stain on the honour of the German nation that the world should know about, and the Germans should contemplate. We all hope and believe that the 21 century shall see no another war, because we all know what that means. We hope that young Germans think like us. Let's become Christians again and behave like ones.
Home Army soldiers
On the first day of Warsaw Uprising 1944 we remember all those who died in action because they could not endure anymore German oppression and dehumanizing tactics. Poland appeals to all nations that believe in fair play to support our honest efforts to be a sovereign and independent state after 6 years of nazism and 45 years of communism. Polish patriotism has nothing in common with fascism or nazism, as some Poland's foes proclaim. Let's keep in mind, unlike the ancient Carthage, Warsaw had not become an ager publicus , a farmland or a meadow for goats. It had risen from ashes, it remains Polish capital, and with every day it is becoming more and more beautiful metropolis. It was Polish nation's moral obligation to keep capital city where it was before the WWII. This goal had been accomplished.
What remains is the reparation that Germany should pay for its evil deeds in Warsaw. Poland's former president Lech Kaczynski estimated that just for the damage done to the capital city, Germany should pay around 45.3 billion dollars. The democratic and prosperous, as the German Federal Republic is today, has not only great obligation, but also great chance to heal wounds of the past. Poland was the first victim of German regime and deserves compensation and satisfaction. This could be the first step towards friendlier relationship between the two nations as empty gestures between Angela Merkel and Donald Tusk don't mean much to the people.
Warsaw today
Zygmunt Jasłowski
01.08.2013r.
RODAKpress
