On August 1, 1944, Miron Bia oszewski, later to gain renown as one of Poland s m
ost innovative poets, went out to run an errand for his mother and ran into hist
ory. With Soviet forces on the outskirts of Warsaw, the Polish capital revolted
against five years of Nazi occupation, an uprising that began in a spirit of her
oic optimism. Sixty-three days later it came to a tragic end. The Nazis suppress
ed the insurgents ruthlessly, reducing Warsaw to rubble while slaughtering some
200,000 people, mostly through mass executions. The Red Army simply looked on.
