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Was talking with a friend in Warsaw yesterday about my Klishin research and he told me an interesting story that he was not 100% sure was true.
Seems that Poles were the first to get to the top of the Reichstag and they planted their flag. Well, they were immediately shot by the Soviet troops when they arrived and the Polish banner taken down and replaced by the Soviet banner.
Any truth to this interesting story?
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Units of 1st Polish Army together with units of Soviet 2nd Guards tank’s army were in North West corner of Tiergarten park. In order to make it to Reichstag they were need to cross the park full of German troops, storm heavily fortified Kroll opera house and then make a run to Reichstag. And it’s never happened, so it’s extremely unlikely that any polish military personal made it to Reichstag before end of the Berlin’s battle. This is one of those stories “How I won the WWII”.
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There is a photo that I cannot find at this time showing a soldier firing on the Brandenburg gate from the east side. Could Polish soldiers of other units have been closer to the Reichstag than those with the 2nd Guard?
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jefflgarrison Wrote:Was talking with a friend in Warsaw yesterday about my Klishin research and he told me an interesting story that he was not 100% sure was true.
Seems that Poles were the first to get to the top of the Reichstag and they planted their flag. Well, they were immediately shot by the Soviet troops when they arrived and the Polish banner taken down and replaced by the Soviet banner.
Any truth to this interesting story?
Emphasis added. And no, not a jot of truth.
It took days of fighting to clear the Reichstag. How did Polish troops get to the roof before the arrival of Soviet troops? If the entire multi day assault was actually done by Polish troops, then there's been a masterful cover up for decades. If it wasn't, ie, if Soviet troops were on scene, why would they let the Poles do it, only to shoot them?
If it was someone sneaking up to the roof to raise a flag after the fighting but before the Soviets getting caught and shot, well, how would anyone know? It's not like the Soviets advertised things they found "embarrassing." Take 'em out, shoot them, and poof... it never happened.
So, it doesn't make sense. Without some documentation it must be judged a crock 'o the brown stuff.
Steiner: "Why do you want it so badly? It's just a worthless piece of metal. Look."
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Yeah, I tried to research this, nothing.
I even managed to speak with a historian at my schools university tour the other day, he says he thinks its false.
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I have heard this story few years ago - it seems it was first told by someone from the IPN (Instytut Pamięci Narodowej - Institute of National Memory - a strange institution responsible for modern history research, prosecution of people responsible for war crimes, "nazi crimes" and "communist crimes" commited on Polish citizens and for supplying some politicians with "ammo" neccessary to fight their opponents; sometimes refered to as "History Police") in some newspaper. It's probably not true. I asked a friend of mine whose grandfather took part in Berlin Battle at that time, and the old veteran said it is not true. I belive him, altough he wasn't the one who planted the flag...
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