Sunday, October 3, 2021

Warsaw Uprising Calendar: the last days


 The two-month battle for Warsaw has come to an end. However, the negotiations on the end of hostilities were not inaugurated by the insurgents. It was done by the Germans who contacted the Polish side on September 27 and wanted to throw all their forces against the Red Army as quickly as possible.

Mokotów and Żoliborz have already capitulated. In the last days of September, Poles in Downtown defended themselves with the last of their strength. There was a shortage of food and ammunition, but the insurgents inflicted losses on the Germans, not allowing them into the area controlled by them. For the sake of the fate of the civilian population, it was necessary to consider ending fighting. The problem of the evacuation of civilians became the most important. In Downtown, there were almost 250,000 people.

As it was not possible to evaquate the civilians in a short time General "Bór" decided to initiate  negotiations with the Germans on the end of military operations.

The talks started on October 2nd around 9:00 am in von dem Bach's quarters in Ożarów Mazowiecki. The German commander agreed to use the draft text of the agreement prepared by the Polish side in the negotiations. Thanks to this, time was gained, and the Polish side had the opportunity to push through at least some of its demands. The text was read by Lieutenant Korczyński, translated into German and discussed by both sides. The strong resistance of the Germans caused the 10th point of the agreement, the provision on sparing of Warsaw, but they agreed to make a provision on the evacuation of secular and ecclesiastical cultural goods.

After At 2 p.m. the text of the agreement was ready, after which the Poles and the Germans began to agree on both language versions. After introducing the amendments, at approximately 8:00 pm, clean texts of the contract were made in the final versions.

The document was dubbed the "Agreement on the cessation of hostilities in Warsaw". The name was proposed by von dem Bach himself a few days earlier, on September 28. The word "agreement" was supposed to eliminate the negative connotations of the word "surrender". The agreement was solemnly signed in four copies in the Polish and German versions at 8:20 pm.

Under the agreement, the military hostilities ended on October 2 at 8:00 pm.