Volume 51, Number 12 · July 15, 2004
A Great Betrayal
By Simon Sebag Montefiore
Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw
by Norman Davies
Viking, 752 pp., $32.95
'My aim in writing Rising '44,' Norman Davies begins his huge book, 'was nothing more complicated than to tell the story of one of the great tragedies of the twentieth century.' Of course, his stated aim is not as modest as it sounds. He has written a prodigiously ambitious book. There are few subjects more complicated—diplomatically, politically, and militarily—than the destiny of Poland during World War II. In the Warsaw Uprising, between August 1 and October 5, 1944, as many as 20,000 members of the Polish Nationalist Underground died fighting the German troops occupying the city while the Soviet army, across the Vistula River, refused to intervene. At the same time, between 150,000 and 250,000 Polish civilians were also killed by the Germans.
Review, 4411 words
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