On Christmas morning, 1944, there was little reason to celebrate.… As the Battle of the Bulge raged, a small force of American solders—including the famed 101st Airborne division, tank destroyer crews, engineers, and artillerymen—was completely surrounded by Hitler’s armies in the Belgian town of Bastogne. Taking the town was imperative to Hitler’s desperate plan to drive back the Allies and turn the tide of the war. The attack would come just before dawn. As the outnumbered, undersupplied Americans gathered in church for services or shivered in their snow-covered foxholes on the fringes of the front lines, freshly reinforced German forces of men and tanks attacked. The battle was up close and personal, with the cold, exhausted soldiers of both armies fighting for every square foot of frozen earth. In the end, the Allied forces would hold the town of Bastogne, with the hard-won victory boosting morale and sounding the death-knell for Hitler’s Third Reich. After this battle, the Nazis would never go on the offensive again. Featuring interviews with the soldiers who were there, as well as never-before-seen or translated documents, No Silent Night is a compelling chronicle of one day that changed the course of the war—and the world. INCLUDES NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS AND MAPS
On Christmas morning, 1944, there was little reason to celebrate.… As the Battle of the Bulge raged, a small force of American solders—including the famed 101st Airborne division, tank destroyer crews, engineers, and artillerymen—was completely surrounded by Hitler’s armies in the Belgian town of Bastogne. Taking the town was imperative to Hitler’s desperate plan to drive back the Allies and turn the tide of the war. The attack would come just before dawn. As the outnumbered, undersupplied Americans gathered in church for services or shivered in their snow-covered foxholes on the fringes of the front lines, freshly reinforced German forces of men and tanks attacked. The battle was up close and personal, with the cold, exhausted soldiers of both armies fighting for every square foot of frozen earth. In the end, the Allied forces would hold the town of Bastogne, with the hard-won victory boosting morale and sounding the death-knell for Hitler’s Third Reich. After this battle, the Nazis would never go on the offensive again. Featuring interviews with the soldiers who were there, as well as never-before-seen or translated documents, No Silent Night is a compelling chronicle of one day that changed the course of the war—and the world. INCLUDES NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS AND MAPS
Don McNay is a best-selling author, Huffington Post contributor and was an award winning syndicated columnist from 2003 to 2013. He is based in Kentucky and Greater New Orleans. This is a collection of his most highly acclaimed columns and short pieces. www.donmcnay.com
As Dr. Edward Jennings wisely observed, "Most Polish American historians were too conservative to be interested in radicalism. On the other hand, most historians, especially labor historians, were liberal to radical, and weren't interested in the Polish community because it wasn't radical enough." However, it must be emphasized that I am presenting primarily an American perspective of liberal persuasion of the work of Leo Krzycki in the Polish Left, 1942-1950, while attempting to be loyal to the Polish cause. The Detroit Left was an infinitesimal part of Polonia. Hopefully, I have not been chauvinistic to either view. The label, "Detroit Left," resulted from many radical activities, often spawned by the Depression. The anti-Soviet writers coined the expression, "Detroit Left," based upon the perceived headquarters of the Polish Left. Only Krzycki's involvement has been researched, not the complete breadth of the Polish Left, so that their entire involvement remains to be revealed. Starting with Daniel DeLeon's "Detroit IWW," headquartered in Hamtramck, Detroit was home to the radicals in the circle of C.L.R. James known as the Johnson-Forest Tendency in the 1940s. A 1940s member of the Detroit Habonim recalled "the panoply of radical groups that existed in Detroit, not only Zionist radicals, but Communists, Trotskyites, Socialist Labor Party people, and even a few surviving Wobblies." Black Power manifested itself in DRUM and Malcolm X, dubbed "Detroit Red." "In the Detroit area, as nationally, labor did more than most civilians to win the war," stated William O'Neill. During WW II, Detroit, America's fourth largest city, became the center of America's heavy industry, the arsenal of democracy. The auto workers union, the UAW, headquartered in Detroit, represented the "most important working-class organization in all of American machine industry." Starting in 1919, B.K. Gebert (1895-1986) agitated and organized Ford workers, 1937-40. Probably, no large American city was as unionized as Detroit with such a multitude of militant CIO unions. The higher wages paid to union members allowed those few Communist Party (CP) members and radicals of other persuasions to support not only the many CP front groups in the Detroit area but also other radical groups. Smaller than Chicago, a small Polish communist cadre developed, starting in 1919 with the Glos Robotniczy (The Worker's Voice) and then in 1924 with the paper, Trybuna Robotnicza (The Workers Tribune) by Gebert. With the most Polish city in America, Hamtramck, in its territorial center, Detroit became a central geographical location in America with its many Polish organizations and buildings. The Polish Workers Hall erected in 1919 at 3014 Yemans, Hamtramck, developed into the center for the Polish Left. Joseph Kowalski, the first Pole on the executive board of the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA or CP), made Detroit his headquarters. Marrying a Detroiter in 1920, Gebert also headquartered himself in Detroit. Stanley Nowak (1903-1994) settled in Detroit and pioneered the rise of the United Automobile Workers. His Polish Trade Union Committee consisted of militant CP members. They used the radio as effectively than FDR. However, it must be remembered that the socialists, active for over 40 years, paved the way for the CPUSA, created in 1919 from left-wing groups expelled by the Socialist Party. Tadeusz Radwanski (1884-1960) not only edited the various newspapers but developed a CP correspondence course in Polish. In 1936, the Polish left founded the Glos Ludowy (The People's Voice, 1936-1991) which because the official organ of the Polonia Society, IWO, headed by Gebert. Edited by Henry Podolski; Wladyslaw Kucharski (1883- 1960); Thomas X. Dombrowski (1917-1956); Conrad Komorowski (1906-1991); Adam Kujtkowski et al., the Glos Ludowy paper had a national circulation and it was lat
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