The anniversary of the end of World War II, which in most countries of the world is celebrated as a victory day, in free Poland after 1989 is treated basically as titled by the ambassador in Washington Jan Ciechanowski. “Lospe winners” – the title of the diplomat's memories reflects the sense of a great part of Poles at the time when the Allied armies, among them Polish troops on the Western and Eastern Front, could announce the end of the war in Europe and the defeat of the German Third Reich – writes Jacek Stawiski, TVN24 BIS journalist.
For the Ciechanów ambassador, the date is not the date of May 8, but on July 5, 1945. On this day, the rule of the United States and Great Britain officially recognized the Provisional Government of National Unity in Warsaw, withdrawing recognition for the Polish government in exile.
Ambassador Ciechanowski mentions that a few days earlier he received information that the American government would announce its decision to recognize the government from Warsaw exactly on July 4, on the Independence Day of the United States. The Polish diplomat was to address the American authorities to postpone the deadline by one day, because many Polish citizens respect America very much and the decision to withdraw recognition for the emigration government on such a holiday would be a great disappointment for them. The American authorities accepted the ambassador's request.
On July 5, 1945, it can be considered bitterly as the end of the fight for the Polish victory in World War II.
March, May, July …
In addition to July 5, 1945, there are several other dates that symbolize the sense of losing by Poland 80 years ago.
The date on March 27, 1945 is particularly depressing, when the leaders of the Polish Underground State were insidiously imprisoned by the Soviet NKVD and a few months later convicted in the Moscow demonstration process. The behavior of the Soviet authorities clearly showed that Moscow did not intend to respect the provisions of the Yalta agreement of February 1945, which were to give Poles grounds to rebuild the independent state. The Western Allies limited themselves to protests, but they did not intend to basically disturb the completions – in the alliance with Stalin – wars against Germany.
Source: NAC
Another date that shows the Polish defeat in 1945 is the month of July, when the Soviet troops began the Augustów roundup against Polish underground troops. Over 40,000 Soviet soldiers, including NKVD troops and the Soviet leadership of the Polish Army and the Security Office, were directed against the Polish underground. It is estimated that at least 600 people were killed in the roundup, but there are guesses that there could be up to two thousand victims.
The entry of Soviet troops into the Polish lands from the beginning of 1944 and for the following years and the installation of communist authorities brought thousands of citizens repressions, death, prison, and exile. This condition often lasted until the autumn of 1956.
Source: tvn24
It is hard for us to imagine
At the time of the surrender of Nazi Germany, Polish citizens who found themselves in the West, soldiers, officers, but also prisoners of concentration camps, had to make a basic decision: whether to go back to the country, despite the threat of repression by the communist authorities, and whether to return to a country that fell depending on the Soviet Union. It was wondered whether to go back to the destroyed Poland at all. Many had nowhere to go back, because half of the Polish state area of 1939 was included in the Soviet state, with the consent of the Western Allies.
Polish citizens who learned about the end of the war in Poland had other difficult decisions ahead of them: if they took part in the conspiracy, whether to continue resistance, this time against the Soviets and the communist authorities. Those who lived in eastern Poland had to leave their homeland and agree to the so -called Repatriation to the Majestanian Poland, to the German lands. Most citizens had to reconcile with new conditions, adapt to them and rebuild national and individual life. Saved Polish Jews also faced a huge dilemma: is it possible to rebuild Jewish life in post -war Poland, since about 90 percent of Jews were murdered. Pogroms, violence and reluctance to Jews after the war completed the sense of apocalyptic disaster.