Survey protocol
Actions of the representatives of the government in London.
In the beginning of the uprising the representatives of the Government in
London who were with the
Armia Krajowa [AK]
including the deputy of Mikolaichik were acting openly. However soon after
the failure became evident, they went underground again.
The London
delegate was acting through the city government and AK press.
The main
directions of their actions were:
- Mobilising forces of the entire population to help the AK
- Prosecution of every attempt to contact the Red Army
- Regulating the questions regarding the civil population
Consequently the representatives of the government in London were the initiators of the transfer of the population to the Germans and the capitulation of the rebels.
Preparation and implementation of the capitulation of Armia Krajowa
Seeing the failure of the uprising, the leadership of AK has begun the preparation of the future capitulation and going underground. The government in London has sent instructions through its delegates to some parts of AK staff to go underground and to prepare secret storages etc. PKB has played a special role in this.
PKB while underground, was given the following task: after the Red Army
enters Warsaw, conduct sabotage against the leadership of Polish army of
Berling,
PKNO
and prepare the second uprising in the city. For this the storages of
weapons and ammunition from outside of Warsaw were to be used.
Also,
the AK units were hiding the supplies that the Soviet aviation was dropping
above Warsaw. The “Monter” staff for instance was constantly diminishing the
amount of received supplies. After Mokotuv had fallen, the escaping officers
of AK were carrying 4-5 Soviet machine guns each, while there were very few
machine guns among the operating units.
On 24.09.1944 the Germans began the assault on Mokotuv using up to a regiment of infantry with artillery and tanks. Before that there was a complete disorder and carelessness among the leadership of AK in this region. Mokotuv was not fortified. The officers of AK were claiming: “We don’t need the Red Army, we will free Warsaw by ourselves”. The units were very undisciplined. The consequence of that was total disintegration and fall of Mokotuv by 27.09. The commander of the district, colonel Karol fled to the central region, where allegedly he was to be sent under trial.
The leadership of AK began to spread rumors among soldiers and civilians that the Germans have issued a decisive ultimatum to the rebels. This way AK was preparing the public opinion for the future capitulation. The negotiations with the Germans about the evacuation of the civilians have allegedly begun on behalf of the city government. The AK has already taken attempts to find agreement with the Germans about the evacuation of civilians, in an attempt to impove its authority. On 10.09 up to 30 000 people were allowed to leave Warsaw, all of them were settled in concentration camps within 30-40 km to the West of Warsaw.
However, after the Red Army had taken Prague, the civilians started protesting against the defeatist moods of AK and the latter was forced to stop the negotiations.
On 28.09 the leadership of AK, implementing the instructions of the government in London, renewed the negotiations with the Germans. On the Zheleznaya street the first meeting between the AK and the Germans was held about the forthcoming capitulation. The following people have participated in the meeting: general “Monter”, colonel “Slavbor”, lieutenant colonel Zigmund and also 3 German officers representing the commander of the Warsaw forces police and SS general von dem Bach. The following matters were discussed in the meeting:
- The conditions of the capitulation
- Establishing the routes for the German forces to enter
- Organizing special passes for the AK leadership
At this meeting the leadership of AK has decided to require all officers to take the oath to carry out any AK orders unconditionally, regardless of their content. Also they issued an instruction to accept only the documents signed by the AK representatives.
Officially the leadership of AK was arguing that the negotiations are led by the representatives of the city government regarding the evacuation questions and that they {AK} are not related to those negotiations.
The second meeting was held at the Borman factory and civilian evacuation questions were discussed. The Germans have proposed to create two commissions consisting of Polish organization representatives:
- The commission, containing London delegates and the Red Cross had to go to the West Warsaw region and visit the camps, created by the Germans for the civilians that had left earlier, to make sure that the conditions were plausible.
- The commission consisting of the military leadership of the AK to visit the German positions and forces in Warsaw, to witness the German force supremacy.
Both these proposals were accepted. The first commission, after visiting the camps, has reported that the civilians are issued 250 grams of bread per day, have medical hare etc. In reality however it was known that the Germans have created unbearable conditions there. The Gestapo was immediately arresting and shooting all the democratic elements. Younger ones were sent to Germany to forced labour. There was high mortality in those camps.
The second commission was led by “Monter” deputy colonel Vakhnowsky. He, after visiting the German positions, has reported to the command of the AK that German forces are exceptionally strong and it is useless to continue the struggle, thus the surrender is inevitable.
Simultaneously the AK and other reactionist elements have launched a wide campaign among the population and soldiers. They were spreading rumors that allegedly the Germans have made a peace agreement with England and America and are uniting against the USSR. Other rumors claimed that the soviet forces had left Prague.
To prepare the public opinion to the capitulation, the rumors were spread that after surrendering it will be possible to exchange the captured Poles with the help of English and Americans.
The German propaganda was calling Poles for the immediate surrender claiming that they will give them the possibility to turn their weapons against the Red Army.
Given the constant famine, lack of water, constant shelling and bombings, the civilians were leaning towards the capitulation. This mood was supported by the less stable elements among the soldiers, mostly within AK.
Source: ЦАМО РФ. Ф. 233. Оп. 2380. Д. 22. Л. 238–244.
Source: warsaw75.mil.ru
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