That statue behind President Trump at his Warsaw speech

"U.S. President Donald Trump made his emotional address to the Poles speaking at the foot of the metal-and-stone Monument to the Warsaw Uprising, a heroic but failed 1944 uprising by Poland’s clandestine Home Army against the occupying Nazi Germans.

"The monument stands near the still-existing entry into the city’s sewer system that the insurgents and civilians used to flee the area as it was being overtaken by the Nazis. At least 150,000 Poles — both fighters and civilians — died in the fierce street fighting in the uprising.

It was unveiled on Aug. 1, 1989, on the 45th anniversary of the start of the uprising. It shows some fighters entering the sewer opening, while others are fleeing a wall that is collapsing after an explosion. It is a site of great emotions and pride for Poles.

"In 1994, during the 50th anniversary observances, German President Roman Herzog apologized at the site for Germany’s World War II crimes.

"As Trump’s tight schedule during the brief visit Thursday to Warsaw did not include another key memorial of a dramatic struggle, the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes, Ivanka Trump was there and laid flowers in homage to the fighters.

"Unveiled on April 19, 1948, on the fifth anniversary of the start of the uprising, the massive granite-and-metal memorial honors hundreds of Jewish fighters who on April 19, 1943, began their struggle as the Nazis were liquidating the ghetto and transporting thousands of its remaining residents to the Treblinka death camp. The monument’s metal figures show the determination of the fighters.". . . 

The 1944 Warsaw uprising  The Russian Army held up east of Warsaw, doing nothing to help the Poles in their fight with the Nazis. Stalin's goal was to let Hitler slaughter the Poles who were violently anti-communist, leaving a more compliant Poland for the Communists to rule. Stalin actually did less than nothing, refusing to allow British and American planes flying over with supplies and bombing runs to land on Russian airfields.

The 1943 uprising was another one, pitting the Jews in the ghetto against their Nazi executioners.

1944: The betrayal of Poland  . . . "The third betrayal occurred in the summer of ’44. The Polish Home Army in German-occupied Warsaw, heeding appeals from Radio Moscow, rose up against the Nazis. As the Home Army was loyal to the free Polish government in London, which was demanding an investigation of Stalin’s murder of Polish officers at Katyn, Stalin halted his own Red Army outside Warsaw to give the Nazis a free hand in crushing the Polish uprising.

"British and Americans sought to aid the Poles with air drops of food and munitions. But Stalin refused to let the allies use air fields behind his lines to refuel for the return flight to England. Churchill drafted a strong letter to Stalin, asking that the allies be allowed to use the air fields assigned them, but to appease Stalin, FDR cravenly refused to sign the letter. The Home Army was butchered." . . .

Pictured: Polish resistance fighters.