The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-01-18

tal or the Cnen powerful Polish
kingdom. King Charles Gustave Of
Sweden captured it in 1865 and
held it for a year, when the Poles
recaptured it. The city was severe
ly damaged when King Charles
XII of Sweden took it in 1902 but
it became free again when peace
was declared the following year.
The Russians took possession OF
1T in 1854. Then in 1773 came the
first partitioning of Poland and it
went to Russia. The Russians took
it again in 1894 after a bloody
assault. The next year there was
another partitioning of Poland and
it went back to Prussia.
Troops of Napoleon occupied it
in 1906. The Austrians seized it in
1909, but gave it up after a few
months and it once more became
independent. The Russians cap
tured it in 1913 and in 1880 there
was a bloody instruction. After
much bloodshed the Russians re-
captured it the next year and held
it through numerous bloody upris-
ings until 1915 when the Germans
captured it during the First World
war
Four separate offensives were
undertaken by Germany in 1915 TO
reduce Russia's Polish salient, of
which Warsaw was the center
from the north. west and south
before the gray-clad troops Of the
Kaiser finally marched in on Au-
gust 6, 1915.
When the German armies began
to disintegrate in 1918, the Poles
set up their own government and
for the third time in five cen
turtles Warsaw became the capital
of an Independent Poland.
For nearly 81 years then, until
Hitlers hordes began to overrun
Europe, Warsaw was the capital
of the Polish republic which arose
from the ashes of the World war.
When the present war broke,
vicious German air raids on the
suburbs of the city were reported
the first day.
On September u the German
high command announced the city
had "capitulated Internationally"
But its fall did not end the pop
ulations' resistance to the Nazis.
Five years afte-wards-years of
prosecutions and cruz ty I'M
equalled in the history of Europe
during which the Gestapo carried
out mass murders, mass deporta-
tons and mass arrests-German
soldiers were not allowed to walk
the streets of the city alone.
Unlike the people Of the other
occupied countries. the Poles got
no clothing coupons. They had to
20 on wearing their pre-War
clothes. The cost of living rose 80
times, yet the Germans held wages
at pre-war levels.
Polish land and Polish business
es were confiscated and given to
Germans. Polish men were driven
into forced labor in Germany. Pol
ish women were deported to the
Reich and children over IA years
of age were packed into trucks
and sent to Germany. Jews were
slaughtered by the thousands ana
those left alive were herded be-
hind an eight-foot wall in a ghetto:
Thousands of civilians died OF
hunger and disease.
But the spirit of the Polish reo-
pie remained firm. In spite OF the
German terror, Warsaw was the
center of the Polish resistance
movement. Secret newspapers and
radio stations directed the popu-
lace in stern, silent resistance TO
the Germans.
In futile efforts TO intirnidate the
people, the Gestapo rounded up
hostages and executed them in the
streets but German soldiers ana
Gestapo agents continued to De
killed, factories were sabotaged
ana German .COIllIIiIIlASotAoA
pered as the Poles fought back
and waited for the day OF liberia
| ton.
On July 81, 1914, the Red Army
opened up an offensive on Praga,
industrial suburb of Warsaw on the
east bank of the Vistula. The at
tack touched off the underground
uprising in Warsaw itself.
The Germans threw in hordes OF
men and equipment determined TO
keep Warsaw, the center OF tnelr
eastern front, from falling to the
Soviets.
During the 63-day siege Allied
and Russian airmen flew 1000 ana
ammunition to the embattled Pol
ish underground with heavy COSTS
in men and machines.
The exiled London Polish gov.
eminent and the Soviet-sponsored
Lublin regime, exchanged bitter
charges as a result Of the upris-
ing.
The Lublin Poles denounced Gen.