Original subtitles

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hello I'm Burt Lancaster we're recording

narration for the unknown war

Poland's long history has been one of

turbulence and controversy situated in

Central Europe Poland was a geographical

Karda for invasion and war during World

War two Poland suffered enormously six

million poles lost their life in 1939

Warsaw radio played the polonaise a

paradoxical classical background for

plea for assistance to repel the Nazi

invaders two million strong in 1943 and

1944 Warsaw again saw tragedy suffering

and death during events of tragic

circumstance and even after Berlin fell

to the Allies poles continued to die

liberating their town of rata Slav in

1945 the Soviet armies forced the Nazis

from polish soil now our story the

liberation of Poland

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it was a long walk reporters longer than

for anyone else on the continent of

Europe polls were still dying in

Pottsville when in Berlin the fighting

had ceased in May of 1945

Brook sloth was finally taken by the red

re on maybe the liberation of Poland

cost the Red Army 600,000 Bibles the

German occupation and the fight against

the Nazis cost the poles six mini

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on Memorial Day in Poland year after

year they light the candles again for

their own and for the Russian did

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On June 22nd 1941 using Poland as a

springboard Hitler launched his attack

on the Soviet Union across the disputed

border lands of Bella Russia and the

Ukraine poles will escape the Nazis in

1939 have formed a government in exile

in London at its head was general

vladislav Sikorsky tens of thousands of

Polish soldiers had been in Russia

ever since the Red Army had crossed

Poland's border and entered its eastern

provinces in 1939

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they were commanded by General Anders

who sympathies lay with the London poor

relations between Anders and the Soviets

were stream

the polls have becalmed and equipped for

the Red Army but because of continued

delays by Enders they had yet to enter

battle on the Soviet side andas wanted

the Polish army to fight with the

Western Allies and Churchill supported

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Stalin finally agreed that Anders army

could leave for the West by way of Iran

while the Battle of Stalingrad was

raging in mid-1942 a hundred thousand

strong they began their long journey to

a home many of them would never reach

relations between the London polls and

the Soviet government were bad in April

of 1943 Gables salad and potato he

announced that the bodies of thousands

of Polish officers had been found in the

cutting forest near Smolensk they had

been shot Eclair by the Soviets

the London polls believed that Gables

version of might be true in response the

Soviet government broke off diplomatic

relations meanwhile within the Soviet

Union a second Polish force was formed a

Kosciusko division

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it was followed by three more armed by

the Soviets

unlike Anders army they were to fight an

Eastern Front

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under general Baili the Kosciusko

division received its baptism of fire in

a late summer of 1943 at the village of

leaning up on the road to swallow

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in September 1943 the Red Army

recaptured swollen from the Nazis and

with it the forests of Katya

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in January 1944 a Soviet committee

assembled at katene to investigate the

polish tragedy the massacre of 16,000

polish officers

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dr. Burton Co chief surgeon of the Red

Army performed the autopsies his

colleagues included the metropolitan

archbishop Nicholas of Moscow and the

office Alexei Tolstoy

among the Western observers was Kathleen

Harriman daughter of the United States a

mess

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letters were produced to refute the

Nazis claim that the Soviets had

executed the poles they bore dates later

than the time the Red Army had been

forced to withdraw from a captain at the

beginning of the war

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dr. Blanco made some dissections and

demonstrated that each officer had been

executed by a single shot in the head

a familiar style of Nazi execution

diplomatic relations with the London

polls remained broken the unknown war

will continue in a moment

he now returns with the liberation of

Warsaw and Poland the Polish people were

a proud Slavic race to the Nazis they

were an inferior breed intervention fit

only for slavery or extermination the

concentration camps in Poland was some

of the very worst the top Nazi

administrator in Poland was delegate

Hans Frank he was utterly without mercy

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the men were sent to the factories of

cruelty and Abel of Bin's while the

camp's women between 15 and 25 were

assigned to the brothels of the SS and

the diamond the rest to the war plants

of the roar or to the gas chambers

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the Jews are cause for a special case

the Warsaw Ghetto was one of the oldest

largest and most closely confined in

Europe when the Germans arrived in 1939

conditions soon change

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the SS came with their checklists the

Jews left with what little they could

carry 300 thousand of them

the destination oblivion in the spring

of 1943 the SS decided to raise the

entire ghetto to the ground

the Jews revolted the SS entered the

ghetto with brilliance

flamethrowers machine guns Himmler had

expected the action to take three days

the little Jewish army fought for four

weeks the SS set fire to the area

blocked by blood on May 15 the Nazis

blew up a synagogue the battle was over

of the 56,000 Jews they rounded up the

Nazis shot seven thousand on the spot

for all this the SS was awarded a battle

honour they commemorated the achievement

with a souvenir book lavishly

illustrated and personally edited by the

leader of the Nazi oppressors general

strop

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by the summer of 1944 the Red Army had

completed its plans for liberating polar

Marshall Zhukov represented the Soviet

High Command marshal Rokossovsky

commanded the actions of the first

Belarusian front

in July 1944 Rokossovsky struck at the

Germans with three armies of infantry

and an army of tanks fighting alongside

the Soviets were general burling's

polish divisions now a hundred thousand

strong

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across the river boo an entered Poland

and straight

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the objective was the town of Hill

Pelham had suffered under the German

occupation for five years it was the

first town to be liberated

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with helm secured raucous oski drove an

armored spearhead towards Lublin the

first big polish city on the road to

awesome

the home of the Polish committee of

national liberation

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as soon as laverna been purged of nazis

the committee of liberation set up a

provisional government the London polls

in the Lublin committee had deep

differences on the structure of poland's

future

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the unknown war will be back after this

any now returns with the liberation of

Warsaw and Poland

camp was called my Zdenek it gave the

world its first picture of the true

nature of Nazism my donek was an

extermination camp one of the first to

enter my donek was a soviet cameraman

roman Carmen who reported the tragedy to

the United Press agency-wide onyx

inhabitants were numbered as if they

were living carcasses the gas chambers

the ovens the insane experiments all

exposed for the first time my Dannic

could dispose of 2,000 bodies a day

my Dannic was a very efficient place

nothing was wasted

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Mahara had been so great and it would be

a long time before they could even show

emotion

one and a half million had died at my

dock their enemy offensive surged

westward within a week the Soviets

recaptured the Brest fortress which had

held out so long for the first weeks of

the war

Nazi resistance was fierce and growing

in strength for six weeks of the

fighting in Poland cost the Red Army a

quarter of a million killed and wounded

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but all along the front the Red Army was

growing closer and closer to the Vistula

the last water barrier before Warsaw

and at the end of July advanced units of

the Soviets and their polish allies

fought their way into praha suburb of

Awesome

and set eyes for the first time on the

capital but between praha and Wausau lay

the broad visnu and the German

counter-attack with four Panzer

divisions in the makin for centuries

Warsaw had been one of the most romantic

cities in Europe capital of a gallant

gifted and tragic people

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now in the summer of 1944 Warsaw was to

undergo the worst of all its sufferings

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within Warsaw was the headquarters of

the Home Army the Polish resistance

movement affiliated with the government

in exile in London on August 1st 1944

its commander general bore Komarovsky

gave the order to start an uprising

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surrounded by powerful Nazi forces the

Home Army could only be supplied by air

drops from the Western Allies in the

Soviets they failed

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while the Warsaw Uprising was running

its doomed course the Polish first

Harvey struggled across the district

they were thrown back some still think

the Red Army could have succeeded the

Soviets claimed they were unable to

cross the Vistula their troops were

exhausted

five days after the start of their

revolt the insurgents were in control of

almost all of the city everyone had

rallied to the home armies call

they had lost heavily but there was

still company the government-in-exile

was standing by to fly in from London

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under the water no food no medical

supplies they were receiving nothing

from the outside

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but still they reaffirm their faith in

their future

the unknown war will be back after this

turns with the liberation of Warsaw and

Poland picked units of the SS arrived in

Warsaw on August the 8th they were

specialists

it took two months but at last the

citizens of Warsaw were overwhelmed

300,000 poles had died in the uprising

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on October 2nd the home army surrendered

Bora Komarovsky with them

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on October 11th Hitler ordered raise

Warsaw to the ground and that they did

with great efficiency when the Red Army

in the Polish divisions finally reached

Warsaw in January of 1945 nine-tenths of

the city no longer existed

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you also had the goal of Polish fighting

men everywhere

for the pilots of the squadrons flying

over England

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the sailors shepherding the convoys

across the Atlantic from America

for the tank crews fighting of the

second front

or the infantry campaigning in Norfolk

and Anders men toiling over the

mountains of Italy to storm the

monastery at Cassino

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many would never see Warsaw again

late November the Soviet High Command

approved plans for the Red Army's winter

offensive ranging from the Vistula to

the order and encompassing the

liberation of the rest upon

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January 12 1945 the opening the

offensive that would carry the Red Army

to the gates of Berlin

marshal zhukov commanded the 1st

Belorussian front and marshal Cunha the

1st Ukrainian front between them they

mustered two million soldiers 32,000

guns and mortars 6500 tanks and 5000

aircraft a clear superiority over the

Nazi forces opposing

they ripped through the main line of the

German defenses the first day

within a week

Warsaw was encircled

there was nothing left of the Warsaw

they had known no it was unlike any

other city the Red Army had liberated

there were no people at all to greet

them not a single one the poles had

returned to silence

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when the war was finally over the poles

rebuilt the city brick by brick some of

it exactly the way it had been before

the day after the liberation the people

began to return slowly at first

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and then in numbers crossing the frozen

Vistula on foot because the bridges had

been destroyed

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gradually spirits began to rise and

essential services were restored

the ruins were probed for booby traps

and unexploded bombs

Warsaw was still a dangerous place

the unknown war

will continue in a moment any now

returns with the liberation of Warsaw

and Poland by now Tsukasa 1st

Belorussian front was advancing 15 miles

a day but Nazi resistance was a stubborn

as Evan

the Nazi garrison opposed nuttin total

60,000 three times what the Soviets had

expected it took days for general

Chuikov 8th guards army the veterans of

Stalingrad to subdue it

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On February 23rd the Nazis raised the

white flag of surrender and the Polish

flag surmounted

and the time Poznan was back in Polish

hands the Soviet brand offensive had

rolled closer to the older and a heart

of Germany

in the celebration of posen there was

not only relief but a sense of

expectation

the thousand-year Reich was nearing a 10

south of you cops armies the 1st

Ukrainian front was heading for Krakow

Marshall Konya knew from Soviet

intelligence that the Germans plan to

demolish the city as they had Warsaw

his assault was so rapid and with such

power that the Nazis plans were

frustrated

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Krakow was spared to remain one of the

most elegant cities in Europe

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Oh

some of the Soviet Armour was now

advancing more than 40 miles a day the

string was beginning to tell the Red

Army was now hundreds of miles from its

bases

fuel and ammunition were in short supply

the so-called Pomeranian rem-pod was a

formidable tangle of bunkers and

anti-tank ditches the Soviets took it in

18 days

along the entire length of the front the

via Mach was being broken up piece by

piece

to the north marshal Rokossovsky second

Belarusian front was moving along the

Baltic Shore its objective he danced one

by one the seaports felt Arrakis off

skis infantry

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Hagen's pollens historic seaport in 1939

as dancing it had been one of the bones

of contention when Hitler had been

seeking his pretexts for war once more

the poles had access to the Baltic

the last Nazis were gone from trouble

Poland

got taken 6 terrible you

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ahead lay the last river the odor and

the last great European Battle of the

unknown war

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our next story the allies a nearly ten

billion dollars worth of American aid

poured into the Soviet Union during the

war American heavy bombers based on

Soviet soil American and Soviet troops

meeting on the german River all parts of

the Allied effort in the unknown war

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Wednesday Britton rallies behind

Churchill's return to the Admiralty

office before World War two on Winston

Churchill the valiant years later on our

century Warsaw Falls to Germany as world

war ii seems inevitable on the war years

now stay tuned for art in the Third

Reich on A&E premieres next

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