Warsaw Uprising

Thank you.

Well, it's been a while since we looked at the Eastern Front, hasn't it? You know about Operation Begratian, and you know about the Warsaw Uprising, which ended on October 2nd.

The month of October saw Soviet offensives across the Eastern Front, virtually everywhere except Poland.

Let me discuss a couple of them now.

We're taking a wood paneled lift up to the top floor of one of the few pre-Second World War buildings still standing in the capital of Warsaw.

It was spared as the Nazis razed most of the city in punishment for the Warsaw Uprising of nineteen forty-four because it housed SS officers.

Hi.

Hi.

Without further ado, let's get to my review of Canal.

The Canal, directed by Andre Wider, is a gripping and haunting portrayal of the Warsaw Uprising during World War II.

Released in 1957, this film is the second instalment in Wajda's war trilogy following a generation and preceding Ashes and Diamonds.

Set in the final days of the 1944 uprising, the movie captures the desperation and futility faced by a group of Polish resistance fighters as they attempt to escape the Nazi onslaught through the sewers of Warsaw.

Canal is not just a war film, it is a powerful anti-war statement.

It portrays the senselessness of conflict and the human cost of war.

The film's depiction of the Warsaw Uprising serves as a memorial to the thousands who perished, highlighting the bravery and resilience of the Polish people.

Despite its bleakness, Canal is a testament to the enduring spirit of those who fought against overwhelming odds.

Something they

did later with the Warsaw Uprising.

Right.

And the Russians held back rather than going in and helping the Poles.

Given all the other news about the threats and possibilities of artificial intelligence, this was refreshing, opening up an original way of thinking about the vexed issues around the power of new technologies and who is in control.

I'm currently researching a book on a man who was integral to the Polish underground movement during the Second World War and particularly the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

Using AI, we've been able to discover things otherwise way out of reach to ordinary research.

One of the things that shocked me was the order for execution of this man's father by the secret police in September 1937 in Leningrad.

Because the words are by this amazing Second World War Polish poet, Anna Swierczynska.

And she was a nurse during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.

And this poem is saying, if only I could hide my soldier's sweetheart inside my belly like an unborn child, then he wouldn't go out and get killed.

And so there's very much, there's sort of the music is rocking like a lullaby, but it's a very passionate love song.

He said,

About 80% of destruction in Warsaw actually is due to the fact that after the well-known terrible Warsaw Uprising...

the Germans decided to destroy the city in a very systematic and typically German way.

In other words, house by house, street by street.