Supporter of arts, liberty and fraternity.
Joined October 2012
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Dramatic view of #Govan #Fire smoke plume in #Glasgow a whole 30 miles away at #Tarbet #LochLomond @lomondtrossachs – at Gartocharn, Scotland
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
🇵🇱 Too backward to fight a modern war?
The Poles had already broken Germany’s military Enigma before Hitler invaded their country.
Yet the enduring image is of foolish cavalrymen charging tanks.
That story deserves correcting.
On September 1, 1939, at Krojanty, Polish cavalry charged German infantry and scattered it. German armored vehicles then opened fire, forcing the horsemen to withdraw. This was not a suicidal attack on tanks with lances. Polish cavalry generally fought dismounted and possessed antitank guns and rifles.
Nazi propaganda helped turn the encounter into a story of Polish stupidity. Communist-era narratives also used the myth to discredit Poland’s prewar leadership.
Now consider what that supposedly backward nation contributed to victory.
ENIGMA. Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski pioneered the breaking of Germany’s military cipher. In July 1939, Poland shared its methods and reconstructed machines with Britain and France, providing vital foundations for Bletchley Park.
THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN. Polish pilots helped defend the country that would become their wartime base. The predominantly Polish No. 303 Squadron claimed 126 victories during the Battle of Britain, the highest total of any RAF fighter squadron. Its pilots also included British and Canadian airmen, and its leading ace was a Czech, Josef František.
MINE CLEARANCE. Józef Kosacki developed the Polish mine detector, used at El Alamein to help Allied troops clear paths through Axis minefields.
TANK TECHNOLOGY. Rudolf Gundlach’s reversible periscope allowed tank crews to observe behind them without turning around. His design was adopted abroad and influenced equipment used in Allied armored vehicles.
INTELLIGENCE. The Polish underground recovered components of a German V-2 rocket and helped send them, with technical intelligence, to Britain in Operation Most III in July 1944.
MONTE CASSINO. In May 1944, soldiers of the Polish II Corps captured the ruined abbey after bitter fighting during the final Allied offensive. Many had previously endured Soviet imprisonment or deportation.
NORMANDY. General Stanisław Maczek’s 1st Armoured Division helped seal the Falaise pocket. On Hill 262, Polish troops held against repeated German attacks, helping prevent trapped forces from escaping.
THE NETHERLANDS. Maczek’s men went on to liberate Breda. Polish paratroopers fought at Driel during Operation Market Garden, helping support the beleaguered British airborne troops across the Rhine.
THE WAR AT SEA. Polish ships escorted convoys, fought submarines and supported Allied landings. The destroyer Piorun helped maintain contact with Bismarck before the German battleship’s final action.
RESISTANCE. Occupied Poland sustained an underground state, clandestine schools, intelligence networks and the Home Army. Witold Pilecki organized resistance inside Auschwitz. Jan Karski carried eyewitness testimony of the Holocaust to the Western Allies.
THE EASTERN FRONT. Polish formations fighting alongside the Red Army also contributed to Germany’s defeat, reaching Berlin in 1945.
By 1944, the Polish Armed Forces in the West alone numbered approximately 195,000.
Hitler’s regime treated Poles as racially inferior. Stalin’s regime murdered officers and intellectuals it regarded as enemies. Both occupiers attacked the people capable of sustaining an independent Poland.
Poland nevertheless supplied the Allied cause with mathematicians, inventors, intelligence officers, sailors, airmen and soldiers.
Victory came. Full independence did not. Soviet domination followed German occupation, and many Polish veterans remained in exile.
Remember the codebreakers, the pilots and the men on Hill 262! They deserve to be better known than a propaganda story about horses and tanks.
Follow @Vanguard_WW2 for more stories that deserve to be remembered.
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
During WWII, Wanda Półtawska, a member of the Polish resistance, was tortured by the German police and imprisoned at Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she was subjected to medical experiments by German doctors.
After the war, she became a psychiatrist and therapist, dedicating her life to helping others overcome trauma.
Prof. Wanda Półtawska passed away on 24 October 2023, just two days before her 102nd birthday.
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
She didn't like to be called "a hero".
From the very beginning of the German occupation, Irena Sendler was actively involved in helping Jews. She became head of the Children's Section of "Żegota", the Council to Aid Jews. She helped place orphaned Jewish children in orphanages, convents, care institutions and Polish families. She arranged false birth certificates for them and provided medical and financial assistance.
On 21 October 1943, she was arrested by the Gestapo, but "Żegota" managed to secure her release. During the Warsaw Uprising, she served as a nurse.
After the war, she worked in public administration and social welfare. For many years, her activities during the German occupation remained largely unknown.
In 2007 and 2008, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
ALT Irena Sendler, 1942. (Public domain, colorized by the IPN using AI)
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
Poland’s Maria Kwaśniewska (right), a javelin medalist, surrounded by 100 000 frantic Germans and in the presence of Adolf Hitler, refuses to give the Nazi salute while receiving her medal.
Berlin Summer Olympics, Germany 1936.
Maria died on 17 October 2007.
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
Under German occupation, access to education for Poles was severely restricted. Teachers organized clandestine classes, risking imprisonment and death to keep young people learning.
On Teachers’ Day in Poland, we honor their courage and dedication.
📷The photographs show classroom scenes from 1944 and 1972.
ALT A teacher demonstrates an experiment to female students at the State School of Technical Chemistry in Kraków, 1944 (National Digital Archives, colorized using AI by IPN)
ALT A music lesson at a primary school in Baboszewo, 1972 (National Digital Archives, colorized using AI by IPN)
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
The British traveler and writer Bernard Newman, who visited Warsaw in 1934, was impressed by the cleanliness of the Polish capital, comparing it favorably with London:
"London streets are a disgrace. Every Varsovian who visits London returns with this impression, and no wonder."
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
On 12 October 1944, German forces deliberately set the Polish National Library in Warsaw ablaze, causing Poland’s greatest cultural loss.
After the Warsaw Uprising’s capitulation on 2 October 1944, the Germans systematically demolished the city “for the benefit of future German generations.”
The National Library lost at least 39,000 manuscripts (likely more, possibly up to 50,000), around 80,000 books from the 15th–18th centuries, about 100,000 books from the 19th–20th centuries, 60,000 drawings and engravings, 25,000 musical scores, and 10,000 maps.
Pictured: The urn displayed at the rebuilt library holds the ashes of a millennium of Polish heritage, destroyed in an act of sheer barbarity.
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
#OTD in 🗓1939, the Germans carried out the first execution in the so-called Valley of Death near Bydgoszcz.
The murder was part of Operation Tannenberg, an extermination program targeting Polish intelligentsia. Members of German Einsatzkommando 16 and Selbstschutz would murder between 1,200 and 1,400 Poles and Jews there.
One of the victims shot in the back of the head was Władysław Bieliński, principal of the primary school in Wiąg. He orphaned five children.
ALT Władysław Bieliński moments before execution (public domain, colorized by the IPN using AI)
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
One of Poland’s greatest prewar film stars died in a Soviet labor camp.
Eugeniusz Bodo, actor, singer and director, died of starvation and exhaustion in Kotlas, northern Russia, #OTD in 1943. Arrested by the NKVD in 1941 and later sent to the camp, he was buried in an unmarked mass grave.
ALT Eugeniusz Bodo as the Sculptor in a scene from “The Man with a Blue Soul,” 1927 (National Digital Archives, colorized using AI by IPN)
ALT Eugeniusz Bodo in a Soviet prison, c. 1941 (IPN Archives, colorized using AI by IPN)
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
Eugeniusz Bodo was one of the most popular stars of interwar Polish cinema and theatre. In 1941, he was arrested by the Soviets, accused of espionage, and imprisoned in Moscow.
Two years of brutal conditions and despair broke him. Bodo died of starvation and exhaustion in a Soviet labour camp on 7 October 1943.
His body was buried in a mass grave.
Never forget!
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
"Przeżył Auschwitz, pseudomedyczne eksperymenty i marsz śmierci. Wiele lat później pozwał niemiecką telewizję ZDF za użycie określenia „polskie obozy zagłady”.
Karol Tendera podczas wojny został wywieziony na roboty przymusowe do Hanoweru. Uciekł, ale w 1943 roku trafił w ręce Gestapo. Po brutalnym przesłuchaniu osadzono go na Montelupich, a następnie wywieziono do Auschwitz, gdzie otrzymał numer 100430.
W obozie był poddawany pseudomedycznym eksperymentom, także przez Josefa Mengele. Przeżył później ewakuację Auschwitz i marsz śmierci do KL Flossenbürg.
Po wojnie przez lata opowiadał młodzieży o swoich przeżyciach i walczył o pamięć o ofiarach niemieckich obozów. Gdy ZDF użyła określenia „polskie obozy zagłady”, skierował sprawę do sądu i wygrał.
„Byłem w trzech obozach i we wszystkich wieszali, bili, katowali i palili Niemcy, nie Polacy” – mówił podczas procesu.
Karol Tendera zmarł 1 października 2019 roku. Miał 98 lat."
za Portal do historii
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
Another Pole who gave his life trying to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Witold Zacharewicz, a Polish film actor, was arrested by the Gestapo on 1 October 1942 for helping Jews, including by producing false documents for those hiding in Warsaw.
He was deported to the German concentration camp at Auschwitz in November 1942 and murdered a couple of months later, reportedly by an injection of phenol into the heart.
R.I.P.
britishpoles.uk/the-last-rol…
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
"Został zrzucony na spadochronie do okupowanej Polski jako cichociemny. Po wojnie ujawnił się, rozpoczął studia i został mistrzem Polski w lekkiej atletyce. Niedługo później trafił do więzienia i usłyszał wyrok śmierci.
Stefan Górski „Brzeg” miał zaledwie 21 lat, gdy przeszedł szkolenie dywersyjne. W kwietniu 1944 roku zrzucono go do kraju. Trafił do Kedywu Okręgu Łódź AK, gdzie był m.in. instruktorem dywersji i dowódcą plutonu.
Po wojnie próbował wrócić do normalnego życia. Studiował i biegał w barwach Warty Poznań. W 1946 roku zdobył mistrzostwo Polski w sztafecie 3 × 1000 metrów.
W listopadzie 1947 roku został aresztowany. Oskarżono go o działalność wywiadowczą na rzecz Brytyjczyków i skazano na śmierć. Proces odbywał się przy drzwiach zamkniętych.
Miał 26 lat, gdy wykonano wyrok w więzieniu mokotowskim. W 1991 roku Sąd Najwyższy uznał wcześniejszy wyrok za bezprawny i Górskiego uniewinnił.
Jego szczątki odnaleziono dopiero w 2013 roku na „Łączce”. Zidentyfikowano je pięć lat później."
za Portal do historii
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
The Committee to Aid Jews was established on the initiative of two Polish women, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz on 27 September 1942. Two months later, it was transformed into the Council to Aid Jews, known as "Żegota".
It was the only state-sponsored organisation in German-occupied Europe dedicated to helping Jews.
"Żegota" saved about 50,000 Jews from the German persecution and murder during WW2.
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
Nobody but us would have made it! The Polish Underground State - a nationwide conspiracy.
➡ Today we are commemorating the 87th anniversary of the establishment of the Polish Underground State, which had no equivalent in any of the WW2-occupied European countries: nowhere else, except in Yugoslavia, were such powerful clandestine armed forces created, and nowhere was civilian administration so well organized. 27 September is celebrated as the Day of the Polish Underground State (Resolution of the Polish Sejm of 11 September 1998).
➡ Despite the blows received, Poles did not cease to hope for a final victory and regaining independence.
➡ Under the shadow of terror, state structures were restored in secret in the name of Republic of Poland authorities and with their formal authorisation. This included not only the military forces operating underground but also civilian administration representing the Polish government in exile. Faced with omnipresent terror, Poles created a truly parallel reality based on the activity of clandestine state structures. The resistance network began to be established, authorized by the Supreme Commander, already during the Polish Defensive War of 1939.
➡ Just before the surrender of Warsaw, on 27 September 1939, an envoy sent by top-ranking military arrived in the capital by a special plane, handing in the powers to develop a nationwide military organisation. For this reason, all established armed organisations were an integral part of the fighting Polish Army. The first to be set up was the Service for Poland’s Victory (SZP), commanded by General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski. Later it was transformed into the Union of Armed Struggle (ZWZ), whose main commander was initially General Kazimierz Sosnkowski, and later General Stefan “Grot” Rowecki. The structures of the ZWZ were painstakingly established despite severe losses and arrests under both German and Soviet occupation.
➡ Nonetheless, the beginning of regaining independence by Poland in 1989 was also the triumph of the soldiers of the Underground State, who passed their resilience and persistence in fighting for the freedom to the next generations of Poles struggling with the communist enslavement. While the symbol of the victory of the ideals of the Polish Underground State remains the monument built in an independent Poland in front of the building of the Polish Parliament.
📥 Download IPN's digital exhibition about the Polish Underground State. 👉 bit.ly/30evN6p
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
Bohaterski dowódca elitarnej
jednostki, który odszedł
w zapomnieniu jako upokorzony
i zdradzony przez aliantów oraz
"rodaków" robotnik fizyczny pozbawiony Ojczyzny.
Stanisław Sosabowski - człowiek,
który miał rację, a którego nie
chciano słuchać, robiąc zeń kozła
ofiarnego.
Znakomity organizator.
Tytan pracy.
Odważny i charyzmatyczny żołnierz.
Wojskowy wizjoner.
Wielki Patriota.
Wymagający i sprawiedliwy
dowódca.
Twórca i dowódca pierwszej
polskiej jednostki
powietrznodesantowej - 1
Samodzielnej Brygady
Spadochronowej.
Już pod zaborami zaangażowany
w działalność niepodległościową.
Ciężko ranny w walkach I wś.
Stracił zaledwie 16-letniego syna.
Dowódca 21 Pułku Piechoty „Dzieci
Warszawy”.
Obrońca Warszawy i Modlina we
Wrześniu 1939.
Zbiegł z niewoli niemieckiej.
Działacz konspiracji SZP.
Bohater bitwy o Arnhem.
Dowódca w operacji "Market
Garden".
Po wojnie na emigracji.
Nie miał łatwego życia.
Niesprawiedliwie oskarżany przez
Brytyjczyków o klękę operacji
"Market Garden".
Nie doczekał się rehabilitacji
i uznania.
Pracował fizycznie jako magazynier.
Odebrano mu polskie
obywatelstwo.
25 IX 1967
odszedł na wieczną wartę
GEN. BRYG. STANISŁAW SOSABOWSKI.
Wieczna cześć Mu i chwała!
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
Today we commemorate Polish Paratroopers’ Day, observed each year on the anniversary of the formation of the legendary 1st Independent Polish Parachute Brigade in Scotland on 23 September 1941, under Major General Stanisław Sosabowski.
Its motto was “By the Shortest Way” (Najkrótszą drogą). The brigade was created with the intention of parachuting into occupied Poland to support the fight for the country’s liberation. In September 1944, however, it was instead committed to Operation Market Garden, fighting at Arnhem.
britishpoles.uk/gen-stanisla…
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
Spot the difference.
Hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east #OTD in 1939. Soviet propaganda presented the invasion as the “liberation” of Belarusians and Ukrainians. In reality, it was an unprovoked invasion.
Poland was now trapped between two totalitarian aggressors. The Wehrmacht was followed by the Einsatzgruppen, the Red Army by the NKVD. Both executed Polish POWs, dismantled Polish institutions, empowered local collaborators, targeted Polish elites, and carried out mass deportations.
The Germans murdered members of the Polish elite during Aktion AB. The Soviets murdered Polish officers and intellectuals at Katyń.
As Roger Moorhouse wrote: “The Germans had imported race war to western Poland, so the Red Army brought class war to the east.”
There, the only difference.
ALT German soldiers staging the destruction of a Polish border barrier in Kolibki for propaganda purposes, September 1939. (IPN Archives, colorized using AI by IPN)
ALT Soviet troops destroying Polish border fortifications on September 17, 1939. (IPN Archives, colorized using AI by IPN)
Ela Zych-Watson retweeted
On 17 September 1939, the Red Army invaded Poland without declaring war, breaching the Soviet–Polish Non-Aggression Pact, set to last until 1945.
Poland’s international protests were largely ignored, initiating its fourth partition.
The invasion, a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on 23 August 1939, led to the Katyń massacre, mass deportations of Poles to Siberia, civilian atrocities, and widespread plunder.
Poland was caught between two ruthless war machines.
