Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw (Paperback)

by Norman Davies (Author) "1944..." (more)
Key Phrases: powstania warszawskiego, exiled government, home army, First Ally, Soviet Union, Red Army (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The Warsaw rising of 1944—not to be confused with the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943—pitted Polish insurgents of the Home Army against the Germans in a two-month battle that left the city in ruins. Almost as bitter are the historiographical controversies over the failure of the Allies, particularly the Soviets, whose army was idling nearby, to rescue the city. Davies (Europe: A History) offers an enthralling, impressionistic account of the uprising, highlighted by vivid reminiscences from Polish and German participants, but the bulk of this sprawling book is concerned with the political background and aftermath. Delving into the diplomatic wranglings between the exiled Polish government in London, the Western Allies and Stalin, Davies sides with the anti-Communist interpretation of the episode as the opening chapter in the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe. He denounces Stalin for deliberately allowing the non-Communist Home Army to be crushed, the Western Allies for acquiescing and British intellectuals for toeing the Communist line on Poland, and includes a pointed litany of Stalinist crimes in post-war Poland. Davies is correspondingly enthusiastic about the insurgents. He exonerates them of charges of anti-Semitism, reprints poems and songs about them and, working from iffy figures on German casualties, extols their combat prowess. Davies is persuasive on many points, and his somewhat romantic defense of the rising—which failed in its objectives and triggered the German massacre of tens of thousands of civilians—amply conveys its heroism, but may not convince readers of its wisdom. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
It has been the Poles' sad historical fate to be caught between two voracious powers, Germany on the west and Russia on the east. This was most tragically evident during the 1944 uprising against the Nazi occupiers in Warsaw. Professor Davies tells that story with passion, compassion, and a justifiable sense of outrage. By the summer of 1944, the Wehrmacht was a spent force in the east and had been pushed to the Vistula River by the Soviets. The Polish resistance, essentially loyal to the Polish government in exile, began a massive rebellion in the streets of Warsaw. Stalin's army, only a few miles away, refused to provide help. Given Stalin's cynicism and distrust of the exile government, that was not surprising, but the Americans and British, through a combination of indifference and incompetence, also failed the Poles. Davies uses many newly available sources, and the result is a stirring, emotionally draining saga of heroism, betrayal, and tragedy as the Nazis slowly squeezed the life out of the rebellion while reducing Warsaw to rubble. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 784 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (October 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143035401
• ISBN-13: 978-0143035404
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #214,276 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #91 in

  Books > History > Europe > Poland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warsaw Rising in full historical context, July 28, 2004

By	Leszek Strzelecki (Beltsville, MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw (Hardcover)

There are a number of reasons why I rated this newest book by Norman Davies with all 5 stars. Not necessarily in this order:

1. "Rising '44" is an excellent read, thrilling, captivating, entertaining at times, surprising and emotionally engaging. It's the style, typical of Norman Davies that keeps the reader in suspense at all times, in need to hear and learn more and more.

2. The subject of this book, the rising against the Nazis in Warsaw in late summer 1944 is a relatively little known, or forgotten (outside of Poland), yet one of the most tragic, episode in the entire history of World War II. Just like the whole world must know about the extermination of the Jews, a part of which was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, the entire world, too, should know about another part of Holocaust, the immense suffering, and injustice, inflicted on Polish people.

3. Norman Davies did an extensive research, both in the West (Great Britain, USA) and in the East (Russia), not to mention Poland itself, to reach previously unknown documents that might shed some new light on the whole context of the event. Several theories or, rather, suspicions were well established for years but... no conclusive proof. By his own admission Davies did not quite succeed in his effort; neither in Great Britain nor in Russia were all archives made available even this many years after the end of the War. Still, the broad political perspective surrounding the uprising, all those dealings behind the closed doors, that he was able to portray, are extremely enlightening.

4. And morally disturbing. Poland was the first country to oppose Hitler. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany to defend Poland and its sovereignty. Or, so they claimed. If the terrible defeat Poland suffered in 1939 were not enough, not only from the hands of the Germans, at the end of the day Poland was traded for Stalin's continued participation in the war. The moral standards invoked in September 1939 vanished by 1944, another quarter million people lost their lives, and Poland did not regain its independence... while the rest of the world celebrated victory over Nazism.

The story of Warsaw Rising 1944, as told by Norman Davies, is a persuasive one and unsettling. The perception of the whole "big politics" picture, long-standing stereotypes about high moral ground subscribed to by the Allies' leaders, most notably Roosevelt himself, during the war will be very likely altered. And more truth about the real nature of the Stalin's regime will be acknowledged.

There is one drawback with this book, already pointed out by others. Indeed, I find Davies' use of his own phonetic versions of names rather than actual Polish an odd one, silly and confusing. The reader from Toronto was quite right pointing out as baffling for Davies to believe "that his English-speaking readers, all of whom have an interest in Poland and Polish history (otherwise they would not be reading Rising '44), are incapable of dealing with the Polish language." This notwithstanding I would not go so far as to label this decision "an appalling piece of Anglo arrogance" (for this arrogance was directed at the "Anglos" themselves). For some peculiar reason Norman Davies simply "goofed up".

But other critical remarks, quite limited in number, are squarely off the mark. One reader complained about not writing on the subject of the more famous Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. He must have missed few sections of the book for Davies gave a synopsis of the Nazi policy of extermination of the Jews and wrote about the Ghetto uprising itself; quite at length as a matter of fact.

71 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sick to death, August 2, 2004

By	R. Ambros (the author of The Brief Sun) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw (Hardcover)

I am sick to death of comments on the Warsaw Uprising by individuals who do not know the facts and suggest it was somehow motivated by foolish romanticism. The Underground army in Poland was controlled by the government-in-exile in London. The highest powers in Britain and the United States knew the Underground's actions and its goals. Since 1941, the Underground army had been resisting the Nazis, but its main purpose was to stage an uprising at the right time. Such an uprising would not succeed without help from outside the country. Unfortunately, the only realistic candidate for such assistance was the Soviet Union. While the exiled Polish government discussed whether the time was right for a general uprising, Soviet radio broadcasts promised support to the Underground Army, both in men and supplies, and encouraged them to stage the uprising. The Underground Army was never warned by either the Americans or the British that the Soviets would not comply. So the Soviet divisions sat by and watched the slaughter. The Allies themselves were surprised but still did not understand that this signaled the beginning of the Cold War. Incidentally, there was a prominent Polish figure that was against the Uprising at this time: General Wladyslaw Anders. His army was composed of Polish refugees from Siberian labor camps. He and his army witnessed the Soviet nightmare firsthand and he warned the West and the Underground not to trust the Soviets. But neither listened as they could not comprehend the depth of the nightmare. Finally, are Americans Americans anymore? Is not the state motto of New Hampshire: "Live free or die?"

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on one of WW2's greatest tragedies, July 26, 2004

By	Christopher Catherwood "author" (Richmond VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw (Hardcover)

Britain went to war in 1939 in order to defend Poland and we, the Western Allies, ended up betraying the Poles first to Nazi rule and then for the next 44 years to that of the USSR. How that terrible tragedy and betrayal happened is brilliantly portrayed in this superb, easy to read and wonderfully well researched book. Christopher Catherwood, author of CHURCHILL'S FOLLY: HOW WINSTON CHURCHILL CREATED MODERN IRAQ (Carroll and Graf 2004)