“My mother was a teenager in the Warsaw Uprising. Her boyfriend (at the time) was captured by the SS during the fighting. I didn’t really believe the story she told me about what happened because it seemed so barbaric. That is, until I saw footage of the battle, and it confirmed her story.

Apparently her boyfriend and several others were captured, and they were used as human shields for German soldiers and tanks. They would point guns at the ‘condemned’ and have them walk slowly in front of their vehicles, or they would have women RIDE on the vehicles.

They did this to prevent Poles from firing upon their vehicles and soldiers. She said something else shocking. She told me she walked into a basement of a shop to hide from the SS and found dozens of people down there. All dead. Apparently they had been forced into the basement and killed with grenades. Children were among them.”

⁃ Julien Gębicz, submitted on behalf of his mother “Aleksandra” Warsaw Uprising. 1944.

This story was documented by Battles and Beers. Every soldier has a story, and every story deserves to be told.