Narrative

We Started the Fight for Warsaw

After a quick glance at his watch Stanisław Brzosko knew it was almost time. Just 5 more minutes and his life will change forever, permanently. Another look behind his back - yes, there is his platoon, consisting of tens of young, brave men, none of them much older than twenty. Everyone was focused and determined to fight the Nazis, to gain Warsaw’s independence. What are they thinking about? Probably about their families that they may never see again, thought Mr. Brzosko.

“The uprising cannot last for a long time,” Brzosko reminds his subordinates. “This is the perfect moment to start the uprising; we can hear the Eastern Front coming nearer. The Red Army must be advancing towards the eastern bank of the Vistula River. As soon as we shall take control of most of the strategic buildings in Warsaw, the Soviets will join us in the fight against the Nazis.” Stanisław paused for a while as he glanced at his watch yet again. “Get ready!”

Mr. Brzosko remembers well the very first hour of the uprising. It was 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Out on the streets were the first Polish rebels, rising up in arms against the occupying Nazis. Masses of bullets were flying up and down the street like lethal darts, therefore his volunteer platoon could not leave the building. This short moment seemed to last forever. Stanisław could not stand seeing his allies fight by themselves. He was eager to join them immediately! “After me, my friends!” he shouted. He kicked open the front doors of the small house, and there he was, in the midst of the greatest and most heroic uprising of Polish history.

“The first fight was with machine guns and pistols,” recalls Mr. Brzosko. “Every street, every building, every floor was being contended for!” Not a spare square meter was ever given away without combat. Often times Brzosko’s platoon would suffer severe losses as they were assigned the most difficult tasks, such as taking control of a communications center well defended by the heavily-armed Nazi soldiers. “There were tremendous casualties,” Mr. Brzosko admitted sorrowfully.

The third day into the uprising Stanisław was nominated as the commander of the second company of Kiliński battalion. When asked whether he ever felt like fleeing the battles, Brzosko replied without hesitation, “How could I leave my unit and escape? It’s out of question! You have to stay with them and die, it’s a privilege of every commanding officer!” His heart was telling him that he must remain with his comrades.

“Later Germans used heavy artillery and mortars,” Brzosko looked back on the war. “And the bombs. The bombing of our quarters was horrible. There was a deafening blast, the light of an exploding bomb. Nearby walls collapsed. Even today I can still smell the burning building and see the door flying at me. I was suffocating and could hardly breathe.” This time Stanisław Brzosko evaded death by a hair, but he still has significant hearing problems caused by the explosion. Unfortunately, thousands of others weren’t that lucky. Hundreds upon hundreds of promising young men died every day of the uprising.

Although women were not allowed to wield weapons and actively fight against the Germans, they assisted the fighters in every possible way. They delivered orders to officers, they brought food and medicine to the worn-out soldiers, they were always there to help the rebels, no matter how dangerous the situation was. “Our girls were fantastic,” Stanisław Brzosko recalls. “They were helping and taking care of all wounded people in the field. Sometimes when somebody was shot and couldn’t move they sacrificed their lives to bring him to our lines.” One month after the outbreak of the Uprising Stanisław was heavily wounded. He was not able to get up by himself, but a woman sprinted to assist him, to evacuate him from the fighting area. “I survived thanks to our girls.”

The Warsaw Uprising fell after 63 days. More than twenty thousand insurgents lost their lives fighting for their city’s independence. They were all very young men and women, some of them children, but they fought like real soldiers, with great determination, courage and bravery. This is the reason why we should always remember them They are perfect examples of what a real Polish patriot should be like.