The Civilian Population and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944

by Joanna K. M. Hanson

The Warsaw Uprising of 1944, always a topic of passionate discussion, has already been the subject of many books and other publications. These works, however, have dealt primarily with the political and military aspects of the insurrection, and hence there has been a tendency to forget that nearly one million people, mainly civilians, were caught in insurgent Warsaw and virtually entombed there. Nearly a quarter of them did not survive the ordeal. The battle continued for over two months under incessant German bombardment and fire, whilst diplomatic manoeuvres and intrigues taking place between the Big Three failed to be of any effective help to the fighting city. For sixty-three days the inhabitants of Warsaw lived in difficult, dangerous and desperate conditions. This book is a description of their plight, of their lives, of how they organised themselves and of their survival. It is an analysis of their reaction to the battle itself and to its political and diplomatic implications. It is a study, where possible, of public opinion. The first chapter of the book is a detailed description of life in occupied Warsaw from 1939 to 1944, as this forms an indispensable background to the work. There is also a section on Poland's political and international position during the war.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

364 pages, Paperback

First published October 29, 1982

Reviews

[Wanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will not be easy to procure anywhere except at the most well stocked library or ones that deal with Poland and World War II. As a work to buy, it is fairly expensive, probably because it is hard to find. It is based on Hanson's dissertation project and is concerned with how the population of Warsaw lived in desperate circumstances during the time leading up to and during the rising of 1944. Although the work narrows its title to the uprising itself, the author provides a view of how Poles organized their lives during the years of the occupation as well. This provides context for understanding and comparing life among the population before as well as during those 63 days. It also paints a chilling picture of the terror under which the Poles had to live before the rising, and how that terror did not stamp out their indomitable spirit.
As a work of scholarship, this is outstanding for its thoroughness and its meticulous reference to copious primary sources, many of which the author had to translate from Polish in order to fulfill the requirements for her dissertation in England. Hanson is exhaustive in portraying life during the Nazi occupation and during the rising and what that day to day life looked like for ordinary Poles. It is amazing how many details are involved in maintaining a life, beginning at the foundation of Mazlow's hierarchy of needs and expanding beyond. Hence Hanson tells us under what circumstances Poles lived in their homes, their cellars, with blown out windows and no glass, what they ate, what they drank, how they communicated and the way that they tried to exist in myriad ways that many of us take for granted.
Hanson is to be commended on taking on this project, which few have had the courage to do. I suspect that due to the utter devastation that followed the rising, that many sources that may have been valuable to such a stud were lost. But Hanson does the best that she can, and this stands as one of the only empirical sources on everyday life during the rising that has been published. This is not battle strategy or political strategy; this is struggle for survival and normalcy strategy -- if that makes sense. As such, it will appeal to those who are interested less in grand narratives of war, and more in how people make sense of their worlds when they are shattered. It is a celebration of life and human resilience.
The book is well organized and divided into logical sections having to do with living conditions during and after the insurgency. She deals with life within each section of Warsaw (Old Town, Srodmiescie, Wola etc.) and how it played out during . With respect to how the book is written, it is always refreshing for me to read a piece of scholarship that is as accessible as this. Goodness knows, the subject of this work is hard enough to read, without it being written dryly. Hanson is a vivid writer and she writes with immediacy. Here and there she lets a hint of her sympathy for the plight of the Warsawians, but just as I thought I could criticize her for lack of objectivity as a historian in this regard, her subtlety and understated way of narrating actually seemed appropriate. Of course, I might not be the most neutral of reviewers in this respect.
I did appreciate Hanson's talking about the tensions over the Uprising and bringing out the fact that although it had broad support, it was not universally endorsed by Poles. I do think that too often some of these tensions and the presence of disagreeable (and even dangerous) Poles among the population and among the insurgency are not given sufficient attention. She also deals with the issue of morale, and some of the reasons for why it waned in some subsections of Warsaw.

[Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb! Too often historians deal with the actual Uprising simply from the military point of view - it is (rightfully) seen as one of the final tragedies for Poland in her martyrdom. But the fighters at least had a focus in the struggle - the civilian population were, in a sense, the ones who suffered most. Białoszewski's "A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising" give us one perception of this "quiet" martyrdom but from the point of view of a poet (an avant-garde one at that!) - even so, it is a rare piece of writing. Joanna Hanson gives us the historian's viewpoint - the day to day experience, the suffering, the horrific statistics. As a work of historical research it also is unusual - and superb.