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With
the Soviet Red Army closing fast and the German forces in panic, on
August 1, 1944, the Polish underground in Warsaw rose to arms to
liberate the city.
Tens of thousands of Polish insurgents seized control of the city from
the Nazis hoping for a quick end to the German occupation within a
week. They defended the liberated districts against impossible odds
until October 2, 1944. With Stalin's Red Army refusing to help,
eventually the Uprising was quelled by the Nazis who then expelled
all the inhabitants and dynamited and burned the entire city to the
ground over the next three months. Leaving almost half of the
insurgents dead, over 200,000 civilians killed and the capital
destroyed, the Uprising was the single most traumatic event in
Poland’s
modern history. It influenced Poles’ approach to post-WWII
challenges such as Soviet domination, and shaped Solidarity as a
non-violent movement.
The following
series of events is planned in Seattle to commemorate the Uprising:
1)
Anniversary Concert at the Polish Home, September 19, 2004, 2 pm
The program
features:
Part 1. A concert of patriotic Polish songs by the
Polish Song Choir directed by Anna Sawicki
Part 2.
Performance We, Warsaw’s Children, Will Fight for You,
featuring poetry and songs in scenes from the Uprising, by the
performance group from the Polish Home under the direction of
Barbara Strutynski
Part
3. Piano concert by Iwona Kaminska-Bowlby.
Ms. Kaminska-Bowlby will play Chopin's sonata in H minor, op.
58, to honor the memory of her father Jozef Kaminski, “Ziutek,” who
fought in the Uprising in
Warsaw’s Old Town
district.
The concert is
organized by the Polish Home Association; admission is free.
2)
Documentary exhibition
Warsaw
Uprising 1944
Polish Home,
September 10 – 19, 2004
Seattle
City Hall,
September 23 – October 7, 2004
The main exhibition
consists of documentary photos, maps and explanations describing the
stages and circumstances of the extraordinary 63-day struggle. It
also pays tribute to the American airmen who died flying the mission
over Warsaw in September 1944. The exhibition will be on display at
the
Polish Home in Seattle and then in the main lobby of
Seattle City Hall.
Admission is free
at both venues. The Polish Home is open every Friday and for
scheduled events. Seattle City Hall is open M–F from 8 am to 6 pm.
The main exhibition
was commissioned by the Polish Consulate General in Los Angeles and
prepared by a Polish-American design team based in
California.
The exhibit was compiled in cooperation with historians in
the USA and in Poland, and uses many of the same materials as the
recent, very successful CNN documentary featuring former national
security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and historian Norman Davies.
The exhibition is on loan from the Consulate General and staged in
Seattle by local volunteers. An additional
exhibit paying tribute to the US Air Force fliers who died on the
mission over
Warsaw on September
18, 1944, was prepared locally by K. Poraj-Kuczewski.
The exhibitions in
Seattle are financed by the Polish Home Foundation and have been
prepared in cooperation with the Consulate General, the Polish Home
Association of Seattle, the Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association
and Seattle City Hall.
3)
Book
exhibition 63 Days and Nights
Polish Home,
September 19, 2004
Seattle Central
Public Library, October 2, 2004
This complementary exhibition features books, albums and films in English
and Polish about the Uprising, as well as pointers where to obtain
these materials. This exhibition has been prepared by Hanna Gil of
the Polish Book Club in
Seattle; admission
free.
The Polish Home
Foundation plans to donate several books and films to Seattle
libraries to help educate the American public about the Warsaw
Uprising of 1944. The Foundation asks for donations to support this
goal.
4)
Ribbon-cutting ceremony for the City Hall exhibition, October 2, at
1:30 pm
City Hall opened on Saturday, October 2, 1 to 5 pm
Seattle City Hall will
be open on Saturday, October 2, from 1 pm to 5 pm for the
convenience of visitors who would like to attend the Seattle Central
Library events (2 to 4 pm) and see the exhibition at City Hall in
one outing.
The ribbon-cutting
ceremony with representatives of City Hall, Seattle-Gdynia Sister
City Association and the Polish Home Foundation is scheduled for
1:30 pm.
The exhibition at
City Hall is also open to the public M–F, 8 am to 6 pm, September 23
– October 7.
5)
CNN
documentary movie and public lecture on the Warsaw Uprising by Prof.
Chodakiewicz at the Seattle Central Public Library, October 2, 2 pm
The movie is the
recent excellent CNN documentary on the Warsaw Uprising. Prof.
Chodakiewicz will lecture on the historical and political context of
the Uprising and on making the movie.
At the Microsoft
Auditorium in the Seattle Central Library (the new library);
admission free.
Please note that
City Hall will be open before the movie and after the lecture at the
Library for convenient access to the documentary exhibition.
Prof. Marek
Chodakiewicz is “the man behind the movie”—he was the main
consultant for the CNN documentary on the Uprising (featuring former
national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and historian Norman
Davies), as well as a consultant for the documentary exhibition in
Seattle. His article on the uprising can be read at
www.WarsawUprsing.com
6)
Lecture on the
Warsaw Uprising
at the UW, October 3, 7 pm
Prof. Marek
Chodakiewicz will also lecture on the Warsaw Uprising at Kane Hall
on the University of Washington campus. Prof. Chodakiewicz is a
guest of the UW Polish Studies Endowment Fund Committee. At the Kane
Hall on the
University of
Washington
campus; admission free.
Events in Seattle
are financed by the Polish Home Foundation, the Polish Home
Association and the UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee, and
supported by the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los
Angeles, the Seattle-Gdynia Sister City Association,
Seattle
City Hall
and Seattle Public Libraries.The Polish Home Foundation invites everyone to participate in
these events commemorating
Poland’s struggle
for freedom.
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