Rising 44 [Paperback]

Davies (p. 81) is perceptive in pointing out that prewar Polish-Jewish tensions were based primarily upon economic competition (Jewish dominance in commerce, at universities, etc.), not religious or racial reasons. In no sense were Polish Jews "On the Edge of Destruction". The experiences of Polish Jews under Polish rule and then under the Germans are unworthy of even a comparison. Professor Davies was denied tenure at Stanford University as a result of Jewish pressure because he was deemed to be "an apologist for Polish anti-Semitism". This book does not support this charge. For instance, Davies (p.108) criticizes prewar and interwar Poles for their generalizations of Jews as pro-Communist and anti-Polish in the same breath that he criticizes contemporary Jews for their generalizations of Poles as anti-Semites.

Davies points out that adequate prewar English-language accounts of Poland were readily available. Yet too many Britons and Americans preferred to live in ignorance and false stereotypes about Poles and Poland. Large numbers of westerners were conspicuously in denial about the nature of Communism and the fact of Communist atrocities. Throughout this book, Davies cites the prevalent "Stalin must not be offended" theme. Davies' (p. 337, 671-673) quotation of George Orwell is priceless. Orwell incisively chided British intellectuals for their slavish pro-Russian orientation.

In common with many other writers, Davies cites the allegedly insurmountable geopolitical advantage that the Soviets had acquired owing to the fact that they had done most of the land fighting against the Germans, while, as of mid-1944, the western Allies had barely achieved a toehold in Europe. This ignores essential facts. The western Allies had blunted the German attempts on England and Africa. Also, the Soviets had contributed very little to the air and naval war against Germany. Finally, the Soviets were very dependent on American Lend Lease Aid, which could have been judiciously dispensed to force the USSR to abandon its imperialistic designs on Eastern Europe.

Instead, as early as 1941, while the USSR was still on the ropes from the German attack, Molotov made it clear that the Soviets intended to keep all the territories that the USSR had conquered earlier with Germany, including eastern Poland. Churchill and Roosevelt feebly objected. Soon thereafter, one unilateral concession against Poland followed another. To add insult to injury, the Polish government in exile in London was repeatedly called intransigent, divisive of the Allied coalition, stubborn, etc., for refusing to go along with this illegal Allied weaseling. Stalin was emboldened through the western Allies' conspicuous lack of seriousness in their support of the Atlantic Charter and of Poland's rights as a sovereign nation, not to mention the First Ally of England.

While Churchill and Roosevelt were dilly-dallying with "Uncle Joe" Stalin, his minions were busy arresting, deporting, and often killing large numbers of patriotic Poles. No sooner had Polish Underground units (notably at AK units at Lwow, Wilno, and the 27th Volhynian Division) driven the Germans out in front of the Red Army, as part of Operation "Tempest", than they were "processed" by the dreaded Soviet NKVD. Members of the British government were skeptical about Polish reports despite the fact Polish intelligence had proven, throughout the war, to be very extensive and accurate. Moreover, as discussed by Davies, the British seldom sent their own intelligence units (SOE) to verify these sobering facts for themselves. As part of the Soviet agenda of enslaving Poland, the Red Army was halted outside Warsaw in order to give the Germans almost six months to crush the Uprising and to destroy Warsaw. Thanks to the west's cowardice, 250,000 Warsaw Poles needlessly perished, and Stalin had gotten his free hand for imposing a Communist puppet state on Poland.

Davies reminds us of the frightfully extent of German cruelty during the Uprising. Tens of thousands of Polish civilians were rounded up and systematically murdered. No sooner had Polish field hospitals been marked with a red cross than Germans began bombing them. After evacuating the German wounded, the Hun would set fire to other field hospitals, burning alive the critically wounded Poles within them. Polish priests and nuns, offering spiritual succor and other humane services, were especially tortured and murdered. Towards the end of the Uprising, the Germans did give the insurgents combatant status as POWs, no doubt in order to set a precedent for German guerilla warfare following Germany's increasingly certain defeat. Davies could have devoted more attention to the German barbarism that followed the Uprising. About 90% of Warsaw ended up being destroyed during the war, and 30% represented the destruction that had predated the Uprising. Whereas about 25% of Warsaw had been destroyed during the Uprising itself, the Germans destroyed almost the remaining 35% after the Uprising. The Hun blew up the Royal Castle and other historic buildings (Imagine a foreign occupier maliciously dynamiting the State of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, or Buckingham Palace). They burned all of Warsaw's libraries and archives, inflicting a cultural-genocidal loss of over 3 million volumes, of which about 500,000 were irreplaceable.