It’s amazing how quickly our Russian allies turned into our Cold War enemies at the end of WWII. I’ve heard a lot of blame on both sides, the US stockpiling arms, McCarthyism fanning the flames. But the end of this story drives home just how brutal Russia was. A wwii hero who not only deliberately went to Auschwitz for three years, organized prisoners, compiled intelligence reports, then escaped and fought bravely for the resistance in Warsaw and somehow survives it all ends up getting tortured and killed by Russians a few years after the war.
This is a bone of contention and a heavily discussed subject, because the world is not a black-and-white place. The Red Army was indeed a savior. It is thanks to those masses of poor soldiers, of which eight millions died, that the horror of WWII last only five years or so. All Europe and all world indeed should be grateful to them.
On the other hand, there was the Stalinist regime, ruthless rule, killing one's own people and others - for power and control. Whenever someone makes any judgement about Russians, they make a generalizing mistake. On top of that, I'd be very careful when making judgements about people's behaviors in extreme situations, it's quite easy to make that at a distance.
When Americans arrived in Berlin they were quite horrified. Over 100,000 women in Berlin were systemically raped by Russian soliders [i]. As an American/Englishmen witnessing this and ordered not to intervene created hate and disdain for the Russian forces. The American forces had no concept of what the Russian forces endured -- still not an excuse for rape.
Eventually generals on the western side began forming plans to unite with pow German soldiers and start attacking the Russians -- it was such a secret plan it wasn't even disclosed until 1998. [ii] It is hard to visualize the attitude of the American top brass towards Russia in 1945 but I feel this is a fair representation of Patton: [iii].
The alliance with Stalin was always one of convenience, not of shared values. The Soviet Union was at war with Germany, so on that basis Churchill and Roosevelt were happy to have their help. They were never really on the same side otherwise.
Americans seldom seem to care about history these days. General Patton himself wanted to patch things up with Germany and liberate Eastern Europe straight on to Moscow, had not Eisenhower stopped him. The Russians were our allies during the war as a matter of mutual need, but communist fears had long been established by that point.
I read Pilecki's book (aThe Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery) and found it incredible. And I too was amazed to read in the introduction that during Pileki's detainment by the communist regime, he told one of his friends that, compared to what he was ensuring in that prison, Auschwitz was "like a kindergarden".
Don't forget what Russia did with regards to Poland at the start of the war. They entered into an agreement with Nazi Germany to carve up the country.
Russia had a pretty good track history of making territorial conquests. By the time the allies met in Berlin in was apparent Russia wasn't interested in giving back what they gained.
The soviets were also the enemy, going back to the Russian revolution and US participation in the counter-revolutionary invasions. They were simply an ally of convenience for the relatively brief period between the end of the Molotov-von Ribbentrop pact to cessation of hostilities in Europe.
Remember Patton wanted to rush to Berlin and the. Keep on going to Moscow — that was the enemy he had been trained to hate.
And this was quite effective for the other allies — they shipped materiel to the USSR who in exchange did the majority of the actual fighting. Not to discount the efforts of the western allies, but the level of USSR fatalities was enormous, while Eisenhower (a logistics specialist, not a tactician) delayed the proposed invasion for anyear in order to get his supply lines in order and to minimize casualties for his side.
"It’s amazing how quickly our Russian allies turned into our Cold War enemies at the end of WWII."
The 'our Russian allies' part sounds a bit strange. Are you aware that the Soviet Union started the war on the Hitler side? What's amazing is that in modern Russia most people don't believe it.
> and somehow survives it all ends up getting tortured and killed by Russians a few years after the war.
Check out Raoul Wallenberg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Wallenberg), who saved tens of thousands of people from the Holocaust in Budapest, and then ended up killed in a cell by the KGB.
We should also be remembering that large number of Russians suffered in the Holocaust, by some accounts more Soviet citizens were killed in the Holocaust than Jews.
Well, yeah. This is the level of oppression Soviet Russia was. The horrors of Nazi camps are often discussed - not many people discuss Russian camps on Siberia.
> It’s amazing how quickly our Russian allies turned into our Cold War enemies at the end of WWII.
Why? The US were were the last major country to recognise the USSR (in late 1933, just before the USSR joined the LoN), and the USSR's various stated purposes (collectivisation, state atheism, …) were very much polar opposites to the US's.
The alliance was against Nazi Germany, not for anything.
> But the end of this story drives home just how brutal Russia was.
> it all ends up getting tortured and killed by Russians a few years after the war.
Is it that brutal? Killing foreign spies is something not unheard of in this historical period (see eg. Klaus Fuchs, who stole nuclear secrets), the only difference is in the torture.
Allies? There were as bad or in some cases worse than Germans. And it's not surprising that they killed and tortured Polish resistance fighters- after all they attacked Poland just two weeks after Germans did.
While this article in general is fine, some of the details are wrong. Namely - he died on 25th of May, not 22nd as written there, also he was arrested May 8th not 5th. Not sure about the other details, I didn't had time to check it.
I finished reading Pilecki's reports (turned into a book) a year after visiting auschwitz. The reports are quite hard to read. I just had to know how somebody could get out of that camp. (Being in the military, he knew many people in the camp that helped him along the way)
This article is a great follow-up story for the book.
Sadly, Pilecki was killed by the fellow Poles, not by Soviet Russians. The article you quoted makes goes even as far as to distort the reality:
> His Soviet prosecutor, Czesław Łapiński, died on the way to the hospital, before his trial for judicial murder.
This person wasn't Soviet - he was a Pole, born in Silesia, a Polish soldier fighting the Nazi. I know it's more convenient to portray it as "the Russians were guilty of all wrong", but the reality is that during the Stalinist rule many atrocities were committed by Poles on Poles.
This point o view is actually present in the official version of the history as taught in many countries, with a notable exception of Germany: one's own country is always portrayed at its best, and its citizens as good fellows. The idea that one's ancestors might commit many atrocious crimes is terrifying. Yet, it is often the case. In this particular situation, some people were motivated by greed, some by their survival instinct, but some were just firm believers in Communism and were convinced they do the right thing. To them, Pilecki was just a bandit and a traitor. It's important to be aware of that, because this lesson from the past has bearing on present and future, for whoever is able to reason and draw conclusions.
In my book, Witold Pilecki is in the same folder as Irena Sendlerowa, a Polish nurse who smuggled hundreds of Jewish kids from the ghetto, who was tortured so severely that the Nazis bastinado-fractured her feet - to no avail. Un-fucking-believable bravery that inspires me every day to resist the silly trumps and putins of our time.
Putin actually has his opponents murdered. Look up what happened to Boris Nemtsov, he was gunned down right outside the Kremlin. I would take Trump over Putin any day.
But it would probably have more weight if you didn't compare Trump and Putin with the systems that systematically tortured and killed millions of people.
And for the record: I'm no big Trump fan.
Edit: as usual I'm honest and I'm not trying to troll anyone. And as the downvotes pile up it would be interesting to know what I've written that was so horribly wrong or offending.
Edit2: I don't care aboit those stupid points. But I do care to get my point across efficiently and without insulting anyone unnecessarily.
Another man with a related story was Jan Karski [0]. Interestingly, Jozef Cyrankiewicz, future communist PM of Poland who testified against Pilecki, smuggled Karski out from the Nazis.
[+] [-] frytaz|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] warmwaffles|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spunker540|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dvfjsdhgfv|8 years ago|reply
On the other hand, there was the Stalinist regime, ruthless rule, killing one's own people and others - for power and control. Whenever someone makes any judgement about Russians, they make a generalizing mistake. On top of that, I'd be very careful when making judgements about people's behaviors in extreme situations, it's quite easy to make that at a distance.
[+] [-] ransom1538|8 years ago|reply
[i] http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32529679
[ii]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable
[iii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxAIE9TbGyk
[+] [-] ams6110|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lr4444lr|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ziotom78|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] refurb|8 years ago|reply
Russia had a pretty good track history of making territorial conquests. By the time the allies met in Berlin in was apparent Russia wasn't interested in giving back what they gained.
[+] [-] gumby|8 years ago|reply
Remember Patton wanted to rush to Berlin and the. Keep on going to Moscow — that was the enemy he had been trained to hate.
And this was quite effective for the other allies — they shipped materiel to the USSR who in exchange did the majority of the actual fighting. Not to discount the efforts of the western allies, but the level of USSR fatalities was enormous, while Eisenhower (a logistics specialist, not a tactician) delayed the proposed invasion for anyear in order to get his supply lines in order and to minimize casualties for his side.
[+] [-] aaimnr|8 years ago|reply
The 'our Russian allies' part sounds a bit strange. Are you aware that the Soviet Union started the war on the Hitler side? What's amazing is that in modern Russia most people don't believe it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union_in_World_War_II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland
[+] [-] elcapitan|8 years ago|reply
Check out Raoul Wallenberg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Wallenberg), who saved tens of thousands of people from the Holocaust in Budapest, and then ended up killed in a cell by the KGB.
[+] [-] pawelk|8 years ago|reply
> Testimony against Pilecki was presented by a future Polish prime minister, Józef Cyrankiewicz, himself an Auschwitz survivor.
[+] [-] billfruit|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mdomans|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] masklinn|8 years ago|reply
Why? The US were were the last major country to recognise the USSR (in late 1933, just before the USSR joined the LoN), and the USSR's various stated purposes (collectivisation, state atheism, …) were very much polar opposites to the US's.
The alliance was against Nazi Germany, not for anything.
[+] [-] trs80|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CapacitorSet|8 years ago|reply
> it all ends up getting tortured and killed by Russians a few years after the war.
Is it that brutal? Killing foreign spies is something not unheard of in this historical period (see eg. Klaus Fuchs, who stole nuclear secrets), the only difference is in the torture.
[+] [-] 6d6b73|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] OnlyOnlyOnly|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] b0rsuk|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SpaceInvader|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tryonqc|8 years ago|reply
This article is a great follow-up story for the book.
[+] [-] pmoriarty|8 years ago|reply
Of his imprisonment under the Soviets he told his wife:
"I cannot live. They killed me. Because compared to them Auschwitz was just a trifle."
[1] - http://www.poloniainstitute.net/witold-pilecki-bravery-beyon...
[2] - https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/story-of-the-m...
[+] [-] dvfjsdhgfv|8 years ago|reply
> His Soviet prosecutor, Czesław Łapiński, died on the way to the hospital, before his trial for judicial murder.
This person wasn't Soviet - he was a Pole, born in Silesia, a Polish soldier fighting the Nazi. I know it's more convenient to portray it as "the Russians were guilty of all wrong", but the reality is that during the Stalinist rule many atrocities were committed by Poles on Poles.
This point o view is actually present in the official version of the history as taught in many countries, with a notable exception of Germany: one's own country is always portrayed at its best, and its citizens as good fellows. The idea that one's ancestors might commit many atrocious crimes is terrifying. Yet, it is often the case. In this particular situation, some people were motivated by greed, some by their survival instinct, but some were just firm believers in Communism and were convinced they do the right thing. To them, Pilecki was just a bandit and a traitor. It's important to be aware of that, because this lesson from the past has bearing on present and future, for whoever is able to reason and draw conclusions.
[+] [-] Moodles|8 years ago|reply
He really was quite an amazing individual.
[+] [-] laumars|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] batushka2|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dandare|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] konpoly|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reitanqild|8 years ago|reply
But it would probably have more weight if you didn't compare Trump and Putin with the systems that systematically tortured and killed millions of people.
And for the record: I'm no big Trump fan.
Edit: as usual I'm honest and I'm not trying to troll anyone. And as the downvotes pile up it would be interesting to know what I've written that was so horribly wrong or offending.
Edit2: I don't care aboit those stupid points. But I do care to get my point across efficiently and without insulting anyone unnecessarily.
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] ajuc|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bobthechef|8 years ago|reply
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Karski
[+] [-] divbyzer0|8 years ago|reply
Story of a Secret State: My Report to the World. Reads like fiction. He also entered a concentration camp to report on the activities there.
Interviews with him can be found on youtube.
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] retox|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|8 years ago|reply