‘Today, on the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, church bells rang in the Polish capital while Polish President Andrzej Duda and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier bowed together to recall the violence of August 1944…’
PRAY to God for quickening grace: “And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.” [Luke 9:29]
Because the Nazis and their Fascist cohorts were waging a War of Extermination (Porajmos) against the Sinti and Roma (Zigeuner, Kale, Romanichels, Boyash/Rudari, Ashkali, Yenish, Dom, Lom, Rom and Abdal, gens du voyage, Camminanti, etc.), particularly at the Kulmhof extermination center and the Zigeunerlager in Auschwitz-Birkenau sector BIIe where these “Gypsies” were subjected to medical tests by SS-Hauptsturmfí¼hrer Dr. Josef Mengele and the doctors of the Institute for the Study of Racial Hygiene, then later killed in the gas chambers. “The so-called Main Gypsy Book (Hauptbuch), saved by Polish prisoners assigned to work in the scribe chamber, contains the names of about 21 thousand Sinti and Roma imprisoned in Auschwitz.” [https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/categories-of-prisoners/sinti-and-roma-in-auschwitz/]
The last 4,300 Sinti and Roma (mostly women, children, and elderly) imprisoned in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were murdered by the Nazis on the night between the second and the third of August 1944, thus, the postwar International Roma Holocaust Memorial Day has been resolved to be August 2 of every year. The designation recognizes the tragedy and the reality of the Roma genocide during World War II and the need to combat anti-Gypsyism in Europe as well as antiziganism in the world today. For this occasion, the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola said: “Today we pay tribute to Roma and Sinti people’s contribution to the rich fabric of our European societies. Europe must stand up for the values it holds to be true: the rule of law, democracy and equality. The moment we become complacent is the moment we allow history to repeat itself.” [https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20240730IPR23505/equality-over-discrimination-history-must-never-repeat-itself-ep-president]
Europe convulsed in the Anti-Fascist War, Soviet Red Armymen of the Third Byelorussian Front had “carried by storm” the German fortress of Kaunas (Kovno) thereby liberating the second-largest Lithuanian city on 01 August 1944. “A salute of 20 salvos was fired from 124 Moscow guns (honoring) 69 commanders of troops, artillerymen, tankmen, airmen, sappers and signalers whose units and formations have distinguished themselves.” [J.V. Stalin, Order of the Day, August 1, 1944] These “red guardians” found and removed 5,500 German mines from the city and its outskirts. [https://www.rbth.com/history/330792-how-red-army-liberated-europe]
About the same time in the Pacific: “A final banzai attack… occurred in the early morning hours of 1 August. A 150-man Japanese force attacked the 1st Battalion, 28th Marines, on Hoffman’s left flank. After 30 minutes, the main thrust of the attack was spent and at dawn, the Japanese withdrew; 100 bodies lay in an area 70 yards square in front of the position of Company E, 2d Battalion, 28th Marines… The following morning the two divisions went back to work. The 2nd moved across the plateau toward its eastern cliffs, the 4th toward cliffs on the south and west. When they reached the escarpment’s edge, overlooking the ocean, their job was essentially done. At 1855, General Schmidt declared the island ‘secure,’ meaning that organized resistance had ended. But not the killing. Hundreds of Japanese troops remained holed up in the caves pockmocking the southern cliffs rising up from the ocean.” [Richard Harwood, A Close Encounter: The Marine Landing on Tinian, https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USMC-C-Tinian/index.html]
“Often characterized as ‘the’ perfect amphibious operation of the Pacific War, the capture of Tinian came about due to meticulous and imaginative planning, allocation of forces vastly superior in number to the defenders, the close proximity of a logistics and fire-support base (Saipan), flawless execution, and overwhelming gunfire and air support.” [https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1944/guam-tinian.html] “Evidence of the Army’s active participation can be found throughout the landing force detailed to take Tinian…The assault on Tinian was favored with the most prolonged preliminary artillery bombardment than any other Central Pacific Island in the war. That fire support was largely provided by the XXIV Corps Artillery, consisting of 13 battalions with 156 guns.” [https://www.army.mil/article/278533/80th_anniversary_of_tinian_invasion]
Operation Forager in full swing and “J-day” plus “W-day” securing Tinian and Guam, respectively, then came the turn of the Armia Krajowa (along with the Narodowe SiÅ‚y Zbrojne and the Armia Ludowa plus the ydowska Organizacja Bojowa) to activate the Warsaw part of Operation Tempest, with nearly 50,000 Polish partisans confronting 25,000 German soldiers armed with artillery, tanks, and air assets on 01 August 1944. “The uprising lasted not one but nine weeks, turning into the longest and bloodiest urban insurgency of the Second World War. Despite an initial success in liberating most of the city from the Germans, the tide soon turned against the Home Army…The civilian population suffered the most. On August 5—6 alone more than 40,000 inhabitants of the district of Wola–men, women, and children–were slaughtered (by) the SS, police, penal battalions, and units of the Russian People’s Liberation Army, made up mostly of Russian collaborators. Altogether, the Polish losses during the uprising included 150,000 civilians dead and about 20,000 Home Army casualties.” [https://www.hoover.org/research/remembering-warsaw-uprising]
Today, on the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, church bells rang in the Polish capital while Polish President Andrzej Duda and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier bowed together to recall the violence of August 1944, paying tribute to the civilians mass-murdered by the Germans in Warsaw’s Wola district from August 5 to 12, 1944. [https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-08-01/poland-marks-80th-anniversary-of-warsaw-uprising-honoring-heroes-of-doomed-fight-for-freedom]
The Nazis murdering Roma-Sinti civilians and fighting the Polish liberators of Warsaw, and U.S. armed forces liberating Guam and the Marianas, people in the Philippines were grieving: “Yesterday morning, the news of the death of President Quezon spread in Manila. The news was confirmed by the Press in the afternoon and unfortunately, it was true. It was a great loss for the country. With the change of the present regime, a man of Quezon’s energy, prestige and ability was needed to reorganize, reconstruct and pacify these devastated and discouraged islands. The first President of the Commonwealth had directed the destiny of his country, for the last 20 years, fought for and defended the Philippines and died just when the triumph of his cause was to be realized. The void he left during these critical moments was difficult to fill. May God take him into His eternal repose.” [Diary of Juan Labrador, O.P., August 3, 1944] Foreshadowing? Six months hence, Japanese rampage will turn Manila into the “Warsaw of Asia.” Thousands of the Manila faithful would soon join Prince Jan Franciszek Czartoryski (Blessed MichaÅ‚, chaplain of the Armia Krajowa Group “Konrad”), who was one of the 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs, in Jesus Christ’s Paradise.
