December 19, 1995

Press Contact: Helen Dalrymple (202) 707-1940
Public Contact: Sherry Levy-Reiner (202) 707-1513

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Two Uprisings in Warsaw: Retrospectives on 1943 and 1944

The heroism, tragedy and significance of the Warsaw uprisings during World War II will be recalled in "Two Uprisings in Warsaw: Retrospectives on 1943 and 1944," a special program to be presented by the Library of Congress on January 3.

Both uprisings were doomed-but in other respects they were very different. The 1943 event was a desperate resistance by Jews in the ghetto against the fate they knew awaited them once they boarded the trains to the Nazi death camps. The 1944 uprising was the largest and last- nationalist protest against Nazi occupation. Warsaw was laid to waste in a battle that lasted 73 days and took as many as 300,000 lives.

On January 3 from noon to 2:00 p.m., the Library's Office of Scholarly Programs will present two hours of personal reminiscence, historical comment and song in the Mumford Room of the Madison Building. Leolcadia Silverstein, a participant in the 1943 ghetto uprising (now a senior cataloger at the Library of Congress), and Colonel Andrzej Pomian, a leader of the 1944 Warsaw uprising, will offer their personal recollections.

The program also will feature songs associated with the two events, performed by Patricia Miller, Professor of Music at George Mason University and a mezzo soprano who has performed internationally. Michael MacQueen, Senior Historian in the Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Department of Justice, will provide historical analysis and comment.

Sponsoring partners include the U.S. Holocaust Research Institute, the Polish American Congress, the Polish Library of Washington, the American Center of Polish Culture, and the National Capital Area Chapter of the Fulbright Association.

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PR 95-169
12/19/96
ISSN 0731-3527