“Who knows only his own generation remains always a child”

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.”