Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw

Rating:
Summary: Another excellent book by Norman Davies!
Review: Another excellent book! It would be difficult not be amazed about the amount of information and effort to put it all together in the coherent form. I am also astonished at the objectivity that is displayed in this book. The subject is thorny at the best (if not worst). Nobody of the major players gets out of it unscathed, of course degrees of it vary, but nevertheless everyone is looked at in the logical and critical manner. It is so rare (and refreshing) to see all aspects considered in the balanced manner using the multidirectional approach. What is even more important, the author displays the unbending consideration (and search) for truth. Smoke and mirrors are exposed for what they are. And they were plenty. It may suffice to look at some comments below. Complaint that there is not enough "action" is childish, one should see the Schwarzeneger movie instead. Remark about ''Polish atrocities'' is equally misguided. As stated above nobody was guiltless, but only Polish Home Army (AK) established special units to combat criminals (to say nothing about Zegota unit dedicated to helping Jews). Complaint about wide historical context in which story of the Rising is set, seems illogically inappropriate. Nothing happens in the vacuum, and history cannot be considered each fact apart, as they all coincide and constantly influence each other. I would like to express my highest appreciation to the author for his honest and sincere effort at illuminating some of the "dark corners" of the history. However, it is disturbing to notice some reactions caused by this book that seem to be hateful. History shows, what the unbridled hatred led to in the past.


Rating:
Summary: Proud Poles, Doomed
Review: As someone who felt the need to learn more about Poland in WWII, I looked forward to reading "Rising '44" and can say that by slogging through the book, I filled gaps in my knowledge. Professor Davies distinguished more clearly than I had known before between the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the event that is the centerpiece of this book. Also, I had not realized that the Home Army was so directly subordinated to, and coordinated with, the government in exile in London. Nor did I know that the Germans were compelled to recognize the surrendered Home Army combatants as legitimate POWs -- regardless of what may later have befallen many of those captives. Further, the reader will be left in no doubt about Stalin's ruthlessness toward the Poles, or the often hapless moves of the Western Allies in trying to keep faith with Poland during the war, especially near the end, as the Red Army was sweeping all before it.

Unfortunately, Professor Davies puts more than a few obstacles in the reader's path. Chiefly, there was no need for him to be so condescending as to decide that we couldn't handle Polish names, particularly since he had no such compunction about spelling Russian names in full. I found his condescension a real annoyance. Someone who decides to read a book on Polish history expects to encounter Polish personal and place names. As just one example, somewhere in this 784-page tome, he could have once spelled out "Armija Krajowa" for AK or Home Army, which was, after all, the protagonist of this bloody drama. Another annoyance was his penchant for beating the reader over the head. How many times did he write that Poland was Britain's "first ally," to hammer in the point that Britain had a special obligation to the country which had been its "casus belli" in 1939?

Not being a Central Europe specialist, suspicions linger in my mind that, despite the size and scope of "Rising '44," Professor Davies omitted or glossed over a great deal, especially in the run-up to the war. What about Poland's 1934 non-aggression pact with Hitler and its annexation of a portion of Czechoslovakia in 1938? I don't recall either from the book.

I hesitated before giving the book four stars but did so out of respect for depth of the author's research and his knowledge of the subject. In any case, looking from the vantage point of 2005, after nearly a century of pain and suffering, Poland has finally achieved its rightful place in the West, as a member of NATO and the EU.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting story, curious style
Review: I enjoyed "Rising '44." I had previously conflated the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 and the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis of 1944. Indeed, the book explains part of why many people confuse the two events: The post-WWII government in Poland purposely obfuscated the heroism of the 1944 pro-democracy Polish patriots who fought the Nazis, but whom Stalin left to their fate by not assisting them meaningfully. Stalin was obviously not interested in a pro-Western Polish democracy; that had to wait 45 years, alas.

My one concern about this book is a stylistic one: The author repeatedly uses nicknames and abbreviations in lieu of Polish names, e.g., "Prime Minister Mick." I don't think the author intends it to be so, but it came across, at least to me, as being insulting or derogatory. I'm sympathetic to the difficulties of consonant-laden Polish surnames, but it seems contradictory to present people, quite rightfully, as heroes without using their actual names (except in an appendix at the end of the book).

Rating:
Summary: My Mom was waiting 60 years for this book!
Review: I lost six family members during Warsaw Uprising in 1944. One of them was my grandfather. My Mom was only 7 when he was brought home dead from the streets of Wola district. The horror of this event is still vivid in my Mom's memory, now 67. The Warsaw Uprising was forgotten not because was unimportant or of small value but because it needed to be forgotten by those that were ashamed of not coming to the rescue. The helplessness of the Western allies was as painful as the betrayal of the Soviet Army. The 60-year "silence" was finally broken with Norman Davies book. 'Rising'44' is probably the best if not only book that describes the forgotten holocaust of Polish martyrs. Thanks to Norman Davies' book let's hope that no one will ever confuse 1943 Ghetto Uprising with 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

Rating:
Summary: A missed opportunity
Review: I picked up this book because I knew little of the Warsaw rising other than the bald facts of Allied betrayal and Nazi atrocities. Having spent the last two months wading through this book I don't know much more but I do know not to bother with any more of Norman Davies' work.
We have to struggle through 245 pages of Polish history and politics before the battle starts on August 1 1944 but within 2 pages we are at the sixth day of battle. six paragraphs are devoted to day 1; two paragraphs each to days 2,3,4 and 5 and one paragraph to day 6. For a book sub-titled "The Battle for Warsaw" I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a little bit more detail!
In his foreword the author states that he decided not to use a linear model and includes instructions on how the book should be read. I should have put it back on the shelf there and then.
The chosen structure results in references to events in the past which haven't yet occured in the text and snippets of information that you want to know more about but by the time it is addressed in more detail you've lost any interest you might have had.
However, by far the most irritating aspect of this book is the way all the Polish names have been anglicised, reduced to nicknames or to the first letter of the surname.
I accept that, at first sight, Polish looks like a hard language to pronounce but I think most people could have a reasonable stab at Igo Sym (Igo S.) or even Ludvika Zacharasiewicz (Louise Z.)
The lyricist Antoni Slonimski is reduced to Antony S. but two lines later there is a reference in full to his Russian cousin Mikhail Leonidovitch Slonimskii.
The text constantly refers to the Home Army by the Polish abbreviation AK but nowhere in the text can I find the full Polish name. In a book that features 36 appendixes including the music and Polish lyrics of the 1831 Warsaw March I'm sure space could have been found for such a relevant detail
It seems almost disrespectful to the Poles that the author cannot be bothered to use their proper names or the names of their streets.
Norman Davies owes me the two months I have wasted on his book!

Rating:
Summary: Finally the world is learning
Review: I'm very happy that mr Norman Davies is writing all those books about Poland.Poland used to be one of the biggest Nations in Europe(for a long time the biggest)yet ,because of the cold war nobody knows much about it's history.
I have been studying central european history and was always amazed how little people knew about country such as Poland.When it comes to Poland's role in WW2 it must be one of the most underrated.Poles fought in pretty much every major campaign(look at the 303 squadron in battle of Britain)their AK(Home Army)was one of the biggest ,best organized underground forces in all of Europe(i don't think any other underground army can be even compared to it)
yet there is not even a movie made about it in Hollywood if the Rising'44 took place in any other country it would be made into a movie.Everyone i asked about knew nothing about that great uprising.
Go out get the book it is well worth it,learn some more about Polish Underground(just check the V-1 V-2 rocket ,the action that gave the English the plans and the rocket itself will blow your mind)
The sad think about the Rising'44 is that it is so well documented by the Poles and the Germans ,yet the west still managed to suppress the knowledge of it.
Buy this book.
(...)

Rating:
Summary: Go home Norman Davies or my money back
Review: If you think you are buying a book about the Warsaw Uprising, forget it. The actual Uprising got scant treatment in the book, and all you get is Professor Davies' pedantic showoff of his tenuous and slippery grasp of Polish history.

And Polish brutalities, pogroms, massacres, ethnic cleansings and atrocities, before, during and after the war against its minorities, Germans, Jews, Ukrainians, Gypsies, were all but omitted.

Is that what you call history, [...]

Rating:
Summary: Less Lament and More Action, Please
Review: Norman Davies missed the mark on this one. Three hundred pages into the book the armed struggle is still barely a footnote. Indeed, RISING '44: THE BATTLE FOR WARSAW spends very little verbiage on the battle itself. With the exception of several sidebar stories, the 1944 Warsaw Uprising is treated more as a political backdrop than a military operation.

What does RISING '44 offer? If you want to verify that the Polish nation was dismembered by the Germans, you will find it here. The fact that Poland was brutalized by the Soviets is included in this volume. If your focus is in betrayals and unfullfilled promises, this book is destined for your library. Though the political setting is interesting, Davies revisits, belabors, and hammers these same issues repeatedly. At a certain point I felt like saying, "Okay, I get the idea. Poland was betrayed by everyone before, during, and after the Second World War."

Davies' book also takes on the tone that RISING '44 is the first time the Warsaw Uprising story has ever been told. In all honesty, there is an segment of the 1970s BBC television series THE WORLD AT WAR (Now available on DVD) that treats the subject much better than Davies. Though I would agree that the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising is often confused with the general uprising, the subject has been covered throughout the years.

The volume is well researched, though I question the value of including poetry in the book. The title is misleading. Maybe something more akin to POLAND'S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 1939 - 1990, would have been more appropriate. As for the battle itself, do not expect a lot of detail narrative about the see-saw battles through the city, Stukas divebombing, or giant siege mortars pounding city blocks into ruin. Politics, arrests, and betrayal comprise the foundation of this book.

Rating:
Summary: good, but....
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Anglo arrogance in name altering
Review: Norman Davies' detailed and well-researched account of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 against the Nazis is a major contribution to World War II history. The heroism of the Rising is much underappreciated, as is the malice of the Soviets and inaction of the Americans and British in relation to supporting it. Davies helps to set the record straight. However, this otherwise fine book is marred by Davies' odd decision to alter Polish personal and place names, supposedly to make them more acceptable to English readers. Even famous Poles (eg. Premier Mikolaczyk, composer Witold Lutoslawski) are not immune to having their names altered at Davies' whim. I found myself repeately slowed down in my reading by having to look up the real names of major players in the history. In all, it comes across as an appalling piece of Anglo arrogance that detracts from an othewise strong work.