The Warsaw Uprising ended October 2, 1944, after starting on
August 1 that year. Despite being undersupplied, Poles fought to end the Nazi
occupation which had existed for 5 years. The Red Army was approaching and the
Poles wanted to evict the Germans from their capital (https://www.britannica.com/event/Warsaw-Uprising).
The Germans began evacuating the city, expecting to lose it
to the Poles and Soviets. The Poles expected support from the Soviets, who were
in the alliance against the Nazis. But, the Soviets stopped across the Vistula
River and waited (https://www.britannica.com/event/Warsaw-Uprising).
The Polish troops in the Soviet army wanted to help their compatriots, but
Stalin refused, even recalling the general in charge of the Polish troops under
Soviet command, Zygmunt Berling. As the Germans realized that the Soviets would
not aid the Poles, they decided to squash the Uprising.
Overall, the Germans killed 16,000 members of the Polish
resistance and 150-200,000 civilians during the Uprising. Ten thousand
civilians were killed on August 5 alone.
The Poles had the largest underground in occupied Europe,
plus troops fighting under British and Soviet command, many of whom had been
imprisoned by the Soviets at the start of the war under the terms of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In all, Poles were the fourth largest “nation”
fighting against the Axis in Europe. I have nation in quotes here since Poland
ceased to exist after the invasions by Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939.
This October, we are seeing another “nation” being
slaughtered. This time, again, they are being sacrificed by an ally. They have
fought with this ally for many years, and soldiers on came to trust each other.
Turkey invaded northern Syria where many Kurds live, an outcome expected by
most after the US withdrawal (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/unswayed-by-top-advisers-trump-doubles-down-on-decision-to-withdraw-troops/2019/10/13/3305b884-edfc-11e9-b2da-606ba1ef30e3_story.html).
American military officers and special forces troops report
being saddened by the decision to abandon Kurdish allies, with whom they had
fought for years against ISIS. In another example of the brutality of this
invasion, Kurds are being executed by Turkish troops after being abandoned by
the US, while Turkish troops film themselves (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/turkish-led-forces-film-themselves-executing-a-kurdish-captive-in-syria/2019/10/13/22e11198-ed9c-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html).
This behavior is reminiscent of the executions filmed by ISIS, whom the
American-Kurdish alliance had previously fought. The Turks seem to be trying to
push Americans further from the border, so there will be fewer witnesses to
their actions against the Kurds (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2019/10/12/us-forces-say-turkey-was-deliberately-bracketing-american-forces-with-artillery-fire-syria/?fbclid=IwAR28p0rpfRbz0ZYnuC0XhHvdLhV6EFr3dfkCZgt9VsXDpJy7vCIoqn6QQMQ).
As an American, I am ashamed of this abandonment of the
Kurds, just as my parents were ashamed of the abandonment of the Poles during
and after WWII. Such abandonment can turn people against us, as others have in
the past. Actions such as this abandonment will result in blow-back, maybe from
the Kurds, more likely from the rebuilding of ISIS from those who escaped from
the Kurds. T he idea of the “Ugly American” is not without cause.
The Norlin Library at the University of Colorado is named
for Dr. George Norlin (https://www.colorado.edu/libraries/about/history/george-norlin).
He gave speeches rebuffing the Scopes “monkey” trial and refused to fire
Catholic and Jewish faculty on the request of the governor of Colorado. After
spending time in Berlin in 1933, he wrote and spoke about the dangers of Nazism
and anti-Semitism. An inscription for over the west entrance of the library
reads “Who knows only his own generation remains always a child.”
