Word: korbonski
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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FIGHTING WARSAW, by Stefan Korbonski (495 pp., Macmillan; $6.75), presents the memoirs of the last leader of the Polish underground, and for the first time fully tells the story of the thousands who died in a futile effort to free Poland. At first, the politically ill-assorted, mutually suspicious underground leaders fell easy prey to the Germans. The flamboyance of the rank and file who took to wearing "uniforms" of top boots and padded jackets also led to wholesale arrests. Yet out of blundering and indecision, the stubborn Poles whipped together perhaps the most potent underground fighting force in Europe...
When the Jews of Warsaw made their despairing 1943 insurrection against the Germans, the underground felt unable to offer armed help. Korbonski's radio team flashed the news to London as they watched smoke and fire rising from the ghetto (said Korbonski's wife: "It will be easier for them to die with the knowledge that the world hears how they are dying"). A year later, the underground rose in its turn against the Nazis in an effort to seize Warsaw before the onrushing Soviet troops crossed the Vistula. For 63 days the Poles fought desperately, while...
...following day, in the offices of the National Committee for a Free Europe, Professor Korowicz told his story to U.S. reporters. With him was the man he had telephoned, Stefan Korbonski, who escaped from Poland in 1947, now works for Radio Free Europe. After the call, Korbonski had met Korowicz and arranged for a place where he could stay, safe from Communist reprisals...