Warsaw

Warsaw Uprising Museum

Canister Contents

The next day we moved on to Warsaw specifically to see the Warsaw uprising museum. Our hotel the Villa Amfora was perfectly situated to allow us off the Autobahn and into town in no time flat, plus a 1 ½ block walk to the Warsaw train. Two stops later and you are at the Museum for the Warsaw uprising !

WWII Supply Plane Dropped canisters

Parachute Drop Zones

This museum highlights the uprising of the Polish people during WWII, the betrayals from the Allies and the Russians, the Occupation by the Russians until 1989 and now how Poland has developed a military capable of defending itself.

I was unaware that the French foreign minister (Georges Bonnet) at the outset of WWII talked the Allies out of taking any action against Germany when they invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. He was later proven to be a Nazi sympathizer. Later between 1942 & '44 Pierre Laval was the French Foreign Minister of the Vichy regime in France who collaborated with the Germans who occupied France. An excellent series called "A French Village", with English subtitles is well worth watching to see the struggles and betrayals that occurred during WWII.

Strange Bedfellows who betrayed the Poles

I was aware that Stalin and Hitler negotiated a deal in August 1939 that had a hidden clause which partitioned Poland off to both the Germans and Russians. 15 days after Hitler invaded Poland from the west, Stalin invaded Poland from the east forcing them to surrender without the Allies intervening. This was something that affected the region of Poland that my grandparents came from (Janov) earlier to Canada and later under Soviet rule became part of Ukraine. Our post titled "Magic" from 2011 detailed our exploring our roots in that region. Also in 2011 we met a surviving member of the Rising, the grandfather of our daughter-in-law who toured us through the village and countryside of where they lived 6 kms as the crow flies from the Ukraine border. 

The Tehran Agreement 1943

When the Warsaw uprising took place none of the Allies came to the aid of Poland, and Churchill betrayed Poland by not supporting the uprising, and was a party to the Tehran Pact that in 1943 permitted Poland to be partitioned off to the Soviets as their reward for switching sides and fighting with the Allies. Something else that rings true today as well. The Soviets refused to allow the allies to use their airbases during the war, and, they did do supply drops, but without parachutes so the Poles would get damaged guns etc that they couldn't use against the Russians later.

Example of Bunker Life

A Deadly self planting Mine Robot called 'Goliath'

George Orwell was a reporter during WWII and
 did not agree with the politics of the day.

Warsaw today, the Samsung Tower