When the bullets from Polish cannons and a volley of bullets from a PPSh submachine gun drove the Nazis from the column, together with platoon sergeant Kazimierz Otap, corporal Antoni Jabłoński and gunners Aleksander Karpowicz and Eugeniusz Mierzejewski we ran across the street towards the obelisk. Climbing the stairs leading to the top of the column, we tripped over tangled telephone wires, ammunition boxes, and densely scattered shell casings. The sounds of single gunshots were heard all around us. We realized that we were clearly visible within a radius of several hundred meters. After a while, a Polish flag fluttered at the top of the column, which had been a symbol of Prussian militarism. It was made hastily from red parachute canopy fabric and white canvas. We hurriedly carved a shaft from the branches of a fallen tree. After placing the flag, we stood to attention for a moment. In a few words, I told my friends about the historical role we had fulfilled on the frontline on our journey as soldiers. We were deeply moved.
second lieutenant Mikołaj Trocki
The 2nd of May is celebrated as Polish National Flag Day in commemoration of the events described above. How did it come to pass, however, that the white and red flag had the chance to be planted in the Third Reich’s capital city? And after so much time has passed, do we have full knowledge about those events?
In the spring of 1945 the war in Europe was coming to an end. On the 2nd of May, after over a dozen days of fighting, Berlin capitulated. Despite the most fanatic of German soldiers and armed civilians still resisting in different parts of the collapsing Reich, the fall of the capital city was a heavy blow for Germany. For the attacking armies it was a military and political success. The city was captured by the Red Army and the First Polish Army. For Poles, who had been dealing with Nazi terror since the first day of war, it was a special moment. Unfortunately, the joy and pride were overshadowed by the fact that the main victors were the Soviets, who 6 years earlier, together with the Germans, had sparked the outbreak of the war and occupied over half of Poland’s territory. Nevertheless, the sight of the white and red flag fluttering over the Berlin Victory Column at dawn on May the 2nd, must have had great significance for Polish soldiers.
However, as often happens in history, there are multiple versions of this event. According to one such version, the flag was in fact hoisted by Polish soldiers, but not the ones typically mentioned. The second account assumes that the flag also appeared earlier on the Reichstag. But here, too, the narratives are not consistent, and significant inaccuracies raise a number of questions. Did this event result in physical conflict between Polish soldiers and the Red Army soldiers who witnessed the described events? Or perhaps it is true that no fight occurred, but that Soviet soldiers treacherously shot the Polish daredevils? If so, did they shoot at the soldiers as they were hanging the flag, or did they shoot them only after they had been captured and disarmed? The questions only seem to keep multiplying and there is a lack of answers.
Will we ever truly know what transpired on the 2nd of May 1945 in Berlin? At present, this seems highly unlikely, as there are less and less participants and witnesses to these events. Ultimately, perhaps it will remain a forever unexplained page in the history of war…