Mały Powstaniec (The Little Insurrectionist)

By 1944 Poland had been occupied by Nazi Germany for almost five years. Tensions mounted in the capital city with the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943. The cruel end of the Jewish ghetto and the destruction of the district didn’t bring lasting peace as in 1944 the Warsaw General Uprising began.

Without the help of the nearby Soviet Red Army, German troops managed to bring down the insurgents the order the came: “Warsaw has to be leveled to the ground in order to set a terrifying example to the rest of Europe.”

By 1944, the city’s children were no strangers to war’s atrocities. The Polish resistance was forced to begin their uprising much sooner than planned and without the help of the Allied powers. The Polish Underground Scouting, known during wartime as the Gray Ranks, played an integral role in the resistance, mostly carrying messages for the troops, but sometimes donning the stolen German helmets and guns and fighting on the front lines.

By the end of the 63-day battle, the Polish resistance had managed to kill 8,000 Nazi soldiers and wounded around the same number. But as the Nazis razed the city the resistance deaths had climbed to 16,000 people, and the civilian death toll, including the Jews being hidden by the Polish people, reached as high as 200,000. Hitler and Himmler went on to destroy almost 90% of the buildings in the area.

Jerry Jarnuszkiewicz created the design for the Little Insurrectionist in 1946, just two years after the massacre, but the statue wasn’t built until 1983. Professor Jerzy Świderski, a cardiologist who was a Gray Ranks courier, unveiled the memorial on October first.

The statue of a young boy wearing an oversized helmet and holding a German submachine gun is reputed to be modeled after a child soldier called “Antek,” a 13-year old who was killed on August 8, 1944. A plaque behind the figure features the engraved words of a popular song from the period: “Warszawskie dzieci, pójdziemy w bój/za każdy kamień twój, stolico damy krew.” (Varsovian children, we’ll head into battle/for every stone of yours, we shall give our blood).