65 Years ago The Russians hoped The Germans would kill Him

The Polish American Congress and the rest of New York’s Polish American community commemorated this tragic and bloody moment in Poland’s history with a memorial mass at St. Stanislaus Bishop & Martyr Church in New York City’s East Village.
 
Concurrent with the solemn observance, the Congress continued its 2009 Voter Registration Drive outside the church.
 
As he fills out the official voter registration form that will allow him to vote in this year’s race for Mayor of New York, Mr. Bloniarz is shown wearing the same kind of arm band he wore in 1944 while a teenage courier for Poland’s civilian Home Army (Armia Krajowa).
 
Helping him and other Polish Americans to complete their forms are: (from left to right) Frank Milewski, president of the Downstate N.Y. Division of the Polish American Congress; an unnamed parishioner of St. Stanislaus; Chris Rybkiewicz, chairman of the PAC’s Voter Registration Committee; Marion Brzozowski; Richard Brzozowski, president of the PAC’s Long Island Chapter and Mr. Bloniarz.
 
With the Allies landing in Normandy just two months earlier and beginning to push the Germans eastward, Warsaw’s civilian soldiers like Bloniarz saw a chance to strike a mortal blow against the enemy right in their own capitol city of Warsaw.
 
It appeared to be an opportune moment, especially with the Russians driving back the retreating Germans and arriving at the outskirts of Warsaw.
 
Even though the Poles could never fully trust the Russians, the Americans and the British expressed their personal confidence in Stalin’s value as an ally.
 
But, contrary to American and British expectations, the Russian Army parked itself outside the city limits and did nothing to help the Poles. They even impeded American and British attempts to aid the freedom fighters and civilians of Warsaw.
 
“They just sat there outside Warsaw and wanted to watch the Germans kill us,” said Bloniarz.
 
Bloniarz and the Armia Krajowa were the kind of Poles the Russians always hated most.  After the war ended and the Russians replaced the Germans as the new occupiers of Poland, they hunted down the remaining AK leaders and either murdered them or put them away in prison.
 
The Warsaw Uprising of August, 1944, also known as “The Rising,” is often confused with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April, 1943 which was on a much lower scale and confined to the Jewish district of Warsaw.
 
Contact:  Frank Milewski
(718) 263-2700 – Ext. 105
pacdny@verizon.net