Correction: the Warsaw uprising

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Aug 03, 2004

Due to (my) lazy editing, a CWN headline story on Monday announced that Pope John Paul II, in his Sunday public audience, had recalled the 60th anniversary of the "Warsaw ghetto uprising." That was an error (which we've now corrected).

The Warsaw ghetto uprising-- a heroic moment, to be sure-- was in 1943. One year later was the entirely different historic episode now known simply as the "Warsaw uprising."

In the Warsaw uprising-- the one that the Pope was recalling-- native Poles sought to end the Nazi occupation of their capital city. Had they been successful, they would not only have ended the Nazi occupation, but also established an independent Polish government, changing the geopolitical map of Europe after World War II. And they probably would have succeeded, with just a bit of help from their "allies."

Unfortunately, the Soviet Union recognized that the success of the Warsaw uprising could have produced a strong, independent Polish force-- a brake on Stalin's plans for domination of Eastern Europe. So the Soviet army, which was advancing on Warsaw at the time of the uprising, waited and watched while the Nazis crushed the rebellion.

About 200,000 Poles died in the "Warsaw uprising" itself, and a weakened Poland was then seized by Soviet troops.