By Marek Jeziorski
This year we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of the II World War. On this occasion we have invited you for the screening of a Polish film “Warsaw 44” telling the story of one of the most dramatic developments of the II World War in Poland, of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 against German occupiers.
The Warsaw Uprising started on the 1st of August 1944 and lasted 63 days. It occupies an extremely important place in the historic and national consciousness of the Polish people. Till today it fires the imagination of the young generation, remains a point of reference in patriotic debates, sometimes it gives rise to controversies and extreme opinions. But one thing is beyond any doubt. It was a great heroic uprising of the Polish underground army, of Warsaw youngsters and citizens of the capital. As such it entered the history. In 1944 the Uprising was defeated, faced with the superior strength of German forces and with the decision of Stalin to discontinue the offensive of the Soviet army, which was very near, on the other side of the Vistula river. In the Uprising, some 30,000 fighters, the cream of the Polish young intelligentsia and culture, as well as some 150,000 Warsaw civilians were killed and died. Among others, the most outstanding Polish poet of that generation Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński was killed. But now, many years later, we clearly see that their sacrifice did not come to nothing. Memory of fight for independence served as an inspiration for generations of Poles during the communism. Warsaw Uprising fighters are remembered as victorious. We pay homage and remember as well the heroic Jewish people of Warsaw, who fought and fell in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising one year earlier, in 1943. Despite its tragic fate during the war the city of Warsaw, as you will be able to see at the end of the film, rose as Phoenix from ashes.
The film is in itself a great antiwar message, what has its importance today as well. Polish-German reconciliation, one of the engines of fruitful cooperation within the European Union, confirms now, after years of tragic experience of the 20th century, that in the relations between nations we are not condemned only to conflicts and disputes.
“Warsaw 44” is an extraordinary film from the artistic point of view as well. It is very strong in its message, it contains a lot of realistically shown scenes of sufferings and death. It is also stylistically innovative; you can see in it the influence, for example, of computer games.
