Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw | Norman Davies

Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw | Norman Davies | good, but....

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Rising '44: The Ba...

	Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw Norman Davies Viking Adult, 2004 - 784 pages average customer review:based on 47 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fine Depiction of a Tragedy

This very good and sometimes powerful book is the latest product of the distinguished historian of Poland, Norman Davies. While passionately engaged with Polish history, Davies is able to maintain a critical stance towards his subject. In this long but well written volume, Davies presents a basic narrative of the Rising, places it in historic context with very good discussions of events leading up to and after the Rising, and addresses some of the controversies surrounding the Rising. Davies does a better job on the latter two than of basic narration. Davies' presentation of the events of the Rising is certainly adequate but not outstanding. The actual events of the Rising occupy a minority of the book and while a day by day account would have been exhausting, more actual narration and detail about the events of the Rising itself would have been desirable. Davies really shines in discussing the complex politics of the Polish Government in Exile and its relations with the other Allies. Davies' careful analysis of the controversy over the Rising is also excellent. Davies deals well with many of the criticisms levelled against the leaders of the Rising. He also develops the very interesting thesis that the Rising may not have been doomed from the start. Many have assumed that nothing would have altered the outcome because Stalin was determined to let the Germans extirpate the Rising. Davies suggests that Stalin might actually have been uncertain about his policy towards the Poles and that a firm stance in support of the Poles by the Western allies might have tipped events in their favor. Its impossible to say whether or not this might have been true but it is clear that the leaders of the Home Army, stuck between the Germans and the Soviets, faced a set of horribly difficult alternatives and while their decision might have been wrong, it wasn't irrational. What is clear is that the Home Army in Warsaw and many of the citizens of Warsaw behaved with remarkable valor. It is also clear that the Poles were treated shabbily by the Western Allies, particularly the Americans. The British record is mixed, some British leaders, including Churchill, were sympathetic to the Rising. Others were definitely not. RAF bomber crews, often with mixed crews of Brits, Poles, Canadians, and South Africans, performed heroically in efforts to supply the Home Army. On balance, however, the British failed their Polish Allies. The final impression left by this book is one of tragedy.

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good, but....

Norman Davies wrote a comprehensive review of the events leading to the uprising from the end of the first world war on, the uprising itself and the aftermath. His sympathies are clearly with the insurgents, and here I think lies one of the main weaknesses of the book. One example: Davies covers the activities of Polands first President Pilsudski (1919-35) and of the Premier in Exile 'Mick' (1949-45) quite extensively. The quasi-dictator of Poland during the decisive years leading up to the second world war and into the fall of Poland, Edward Ridz-Szmigly, however is not even mentioned once in the whole book. It seems as if he is a sort of Orwellian unperson. Has this somethying to do with R-S's somewhat antisemitic politics? Or with his role in the events leading up to WW2? In the event, R-S was interned in Romania from where he escaped. He went back to Poland to organise the resistamce, which brought him in conflict with the Underground Army 'AK'. He died under mysterious circumstances in 1941 in Warsaw; what was his role in the resistance? Surely, the ex-president is not something one should leave out of the picture. I just happen to know a little bit about Poland so I noticed this. The question however arises whether or not the author has omitted other things which may affect the clean picture of the Underground Army he wants to paint, which the reader does not know anything about.

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