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Poland The Struggle for Honour and Freedom The traumatic years from 1939 to 1945 determine Poland's self-perception on into the present. Nevertheless, the memory of the Resistance in Poland was controversial, at least in the early post-War years. This is reflected particularly in the memory of the Warsaw Uprising. Since it was largely sustained by the middle classes, the Communist rulers were at first loath to commemorate it. The uprising in the ghetto, on the other hand, was increasingly taken over as part of the struggle of the Polish nation. The systematic repression of the memory of the Warsaw Uprising immediately after the War can be seen in the fact that no memorial was erected to the memory of those who fought in it in 1944. By contrast, a memorial designed by Rapoport was erected to the rebellion in the Warsaw ghetto. By the time the memorial was inaugurated in 1948, those who fought in the Warsaw Uprising were already being persecuted. The political situation changed again after de-Stalinization. By 1964 there were some 300 memorial plaques in Warsaw commemorating the Uprising. From this time on the Communists claimed the memory for themselves. Since the 1970s the 1st of August, the anniversary of the Uprising, has been one of the most important Polish holidays. Alongside the strong memory of the Resistance, the remembrance of the Polish victims of the occupation is almost equally important. The site of this remembrance was and still is Auschwitz. |
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The Home Army drew attention to itself with the secret sign PW, "Polska Walcząca" (Fighting Poland), which began to appear on the house walls of Warsaw around 1942. The sign became the embodiment of hope for the inhabitants. After the War it remained a sign of resistance. This is probably why it was banned in the Stalinist post-War years. In the 1970s the sign would become part of the official memory of the Resistance. The tapestry seen here normally hangs in a central place in the Warsaw City Museum. |
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The veterans of the Warsaw Uprising were able to book a certain success with the unveiling of the "Memorial for the Little Partisan" in 1983. It stands at the defence walls of the Old City and is a donation of the Polish Boy Scouts Association. The statue of a small boy with a much too large helmet and a machine gun in his hands recalls the courage and sacrifice of the youngest fighters. Eleven years later it was still so popular that it was used as the motif for a telephone card. The card shows the memorial and has added the emblem of the Home Army – PW. |
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The German occupation has deeply marked the Polish collective memory as the "Time of Dying". In 1949 the young painter Andrzej Wróblewski created a series pf pictures with the title "Rozstrzelania" – executions. The harassed, the tortured and the executed are in the foreground, their features reminiscent of those of the artist. The perpetrators remain unseen. |
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