[DOCUMENTING THE WARSAW UPRISING] Group of eleven rare books about the Warsaw Uprising, 1944-1957

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A collection of 11 publications documenting the Warsaw Uprising, ranging from works published in occupied Poland during WWII (1944), to photo documentation of the Warsaw Uprising (1957) published during the "Polish October" thaw that marked the end of Stalinism in Poland. The Warsaw Uprising (August 1-October 2, 1944) was the largest armed resistance campaign carried out during WWII and continues to be controversial due to its tragic failure that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and the systematic destruction of large parts of Warsaw by German forces. The uprising was initiated once German forces began to retreat due to the approaching Red Army. While Polish fighters initially established control over large parts of the city, the Soviets stalled and ignored calls for assistance in a strategic play by Stalin aimed at weakening the Home Army, which was opposed to Soviet rule, and instead sought to re-install the exiled Polish government. Most of the publications in the collection provide documents, press reports, and eye-witness accounts of the events, some recorded during or immediately after the uprising. The publications also emphasize different aspects of the struggle, some blaming the Western Allies, while others blame the Red Army for lack of support. Together the collection is a record of the war of information that raged around the subject of the uprising during and immediately after WWII in Poland. All publications with the exlibris stamp of Jan Straus, a Polish bibliophile and book collector, author of bibliographies and books on Polish cover design. 1. O powstaniu warszawskim [About the Warsaw Uprising]. Lublin: Ministerstwa informacji i propagandy, 1944. Octavo (21 × 15 cm). Original staple-stitched printed wrappers; 54 pp. Annotations by Jan Straus. Light foxing to wrappers and throughout, else very good. First-hand accounts of the Warsaw Uprising released only a few months after the events. The pamphlet was published by the Polish Ministry of Information and Propaganda in Lublin, at the time occupied by the Soviet troops. The anonymous introduction blames the Home Army for refusing to contact the Red Army, thereby insuring the failure of the uprising. Most of the eye-witness accounts that follow are anonymous and include brutal descriptions of fighting, including by children and teenagers. The credited authors include Captain of the People's Army Stanis?aw Januszewski (Andrzej), and Janina Forbert (Jasia), a fighter in the Resistance Army, who was seventeen at the time of the uprising. As of August 2024, KVK, OCLC show copies at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Hamburg, Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC), and Wisconsin. 2. Zaremba, Zygmunt. Powstanie Sierpniowe [The August Uprising]. Wydanie drugie. Warsaw: Polska Partja Socjalistyczna, 1945. Octavo (12.5 × 17 cm). Original staple-stitched printed wrappers; 40 pp. Light soil to wrappers; restoration to spine, with a few detached leaves. Wrappers chipped along edges, not affecting text. With envelope and handwritten notes by J. Straus. A good copy. Second edition. A first-hand account of the Warsaw uprising, written by one of the leaders of the Polish socialists, journalist, activist, and politician Zygmunt Zaremba (1895-1967). Completed in November 1944, the text includes a history of the insurrection and on-the-spot commentary of the events, as well as the role the PPS (Polish Socialist Party) played in the uprising. It condemns the failure of the allies, both the Western and Soviet troops to support the Polish fighters. First distributed in typescript in November 1944, in harsh wartime conditions, the front page of the typescript asked the reader for help in making copies and distributing the publication. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the PPS split into those who joined the Soviet communists and those like Zaremba who advocated for an independent socialist course. This second edition was published by Socialist activists in June 1945, N° de réf. du vendeur 54506

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : [DOCUMENTING THE WARSAW UPRISING] Group of ...
Reliure : Couverture souple
Edition : Edition originale