Joe Polowsky

Joe Polowsky's grave and memorial stone in Torgau

Joseph "Joe" P. Polowsky (born October 2, 1916 in Chicago , Illinois , † October 17, 1983 ibid) was an American soldier and peace activist . Polowsky became world famous at the end of the Second World War through the first meeting of American and Soviet troops on the Elbe near Torgau . A photograph taken by PFC Igor N. Belousevitch from California from the third patrol of the 69th Infantry Division under Major Fred W. Craig , showing the young US soldier standing on a jeep in front of a house in Burxdorf in southern Brandenburg , as well as other photos, which were created in the same place and in the Saxon town of Kreinitz , then went through the world press. The historical photographs of this encounter have been published in numerous history books. During the Cold War, Polowsky campaigned for April 25 to be recognized as a "World Day of Peace" and campaigned for better US-American-Soviet understanding. In accordance with his last will, he received his final resting place in the Protestant cemetery in Torgau in 1983, despite the still existing Iron Curtain .

Life

youth

Joseph P. Polowsky was the youngest son of Jewish emigrants from the vicinity of the Ukrainian Kiev . His family changed their name to Palmer after the death of their father in 1927. After attending school, he enrolled at Chicago University for philosophy , political science, and botany courses . In 1936, he finished a first draft of its two years earlier began about a million-word philosophical work "Principia", which he wanted to publish in 1939 and whose name on Isaac Newton's work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica applies. After the outbreak of World War II, he finally postponed the planned publication of his work until after the war.

The oath on the Elbe

Lieutenant Kotzebue and three other members of the patrol

The destroyed pontoon bridge of Lorenzkirch

The Kotzebue patrol crossing the Elbe in Kreinitz

In December 1942, Polowsky was drafted into the US Army at the age of 26 . Here he was a rifleman in the 69th Infantry Division during World War II  .

On April 24, 1945, several patrols were assembled near the small Saxon town of Trebsen an der Mulde , which were supposed to push about five miles beyond the front. The task of the first patrol, led by Lieutenant Albert L. Kotzebue, was to find out where the Red Army troops were in order to avoid unpleasant incidents between the two clashing armies due to misunderstandings. If these five miles were to be exceeded, the patrol would operate at its own risk. Since he was the only one in the company who had a good command of Russian, Polowsky was also assigned to the patrol. He was supposed to act as an interpreter in this and sat with Kotzebue in the first car of the train, which consisted of seven jeeps and a total of twenty-eight men.

On the morning of April 25th they reached the Elbe near Strehla . Soviet soldiers were spotted on the opposite side of the river. A common meeting was agreed with flares and waving. Since the pontoon bridge located here had been blown up by German troops before the arrival of the two armies, around 11:30 a.m., a seven-man troop, including Kotzebue and Polowsky, as well as a recently liberated Polish slave laborer with a sailing boat that had previously been found on the bank had, across the Elbe. In the midst of about two to three hundred corpses of German civilians, some of whom had previously been killed when the pontoon bridge was blown up and then by Soviet artillery fire , they met Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Gordejew, commander of the 175th Rifle Regiment, on the Elbe meadows near Lorenzkirch of the 58th Guards Infantry Division and other members of the Red Army. In view of the horror that faced them there, including a dead girl about five years old who held a doll in one hand and clung to her mother, who was also dead, with the other hand, the soldiers jointly took the "oath on the Elbe" by which they undertook to do everything possible to prevent another war in the future. Since the location of this meeting was not considered suitable for heroic photos because of the large number of deaths, the meeting was broken off and an appointment was made for further meetings, which took place on the same day. In order to avoid being assigned blame because of the many civilians killed, the meeting in Lorenzkirch was not recorded and not published. The patrol returned across the river with four Soviet soldiers. From there, Kotzebue radioed the first encounter with the Soviets.

At the later meetings in Kreinitz and Burxdorf , which were officially recorded on the Soviet side as the "first meeting", the recordings were made, which received attention from the world press and were subsequently published in numerous history books. The American protocol of the V  Corps in turn noted that this first meeting allegedly took place at 3:30 p.m. in Riesa . Two days later, a scene that took place a little later on April 25th in Torgau was recreated with the symbolic handshake of the American lieutenant Robertson and the Soviet lieutenant Silwaschko. Thereafter, identical press releases were issued by the governments in London , Moscow and Washington .

Polowsky as a peace activist

On January 22, 1946, Joe Polowsky was discharged from the military and he returned to the United States. From then on he remained loyal to the "oath on the Elbe" and campaigned vehemently for US-American-Soviet friendship and peace.

From 1947 onwards, he tried to get the United Nations to declare April 25th as the World Day of Peace . He referred to the “oath on the Elbe” of April 25, 1945 and the San Francisco Conference held on the same day , at which the United Nations Charter was drawn up. From the minutes of the UN General Assembly of April 25, 1949 it appears that Polowsky's efforts were supported by Costa Rica , Lebanon and the Philippines . However, his proposal was unsuccessful; The Korean War had broken out in June 1950 and East-West relations had cooled noticeably in the run-up to it.

In order to earn money for his peace struggle, Polowsky interrupted his studies again and took up a job as a taxi driver. In 1955 he visited Moscow with eight other war veterans on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the meeting on the occasion of an invitation . The trip was financed to a large extent by the prize money previously won on the TV show "Strike It Rich", in which the veterans took part especially for this purpose. Persecuted in the USA for “un-American activities”, Polowsky found recognition in the states of the Eastern Bloc . When the Soviet Deputy Prime Minister Anastas Mikojan was in the USA in January 1959 , he also visited Joe Polowsky and his family. Polowsky was invited again to Moscow, where there was a meeting in the Kremlin with other US war veterans with head of state and party leader Nikita Khrushchev .

Michigan Avenue Bridge in Chicago, site of Joe Polowsky's annual April 25 vigil

In April 1960, Polowsky visited Torgau for the first time, followed a year later by another visit to the city on the Elbe. During his second visit to the GDR, he was received in Berlin on April 23, 1961 by Walter Ulbricht , Chairman of the GDR's State Council . Despite Polowsky's many efforts, there was no subsequent visit to the GDR. A visit planned in 1965 was canceled at short notice by the Torgau mayor Seidler, and Polowsky's arrival on the 30th anniversary of the meeting on the Elbe was also refused.

To commemorate the historic meeting on the Elbe in 1945, Polowsky held a vigil every year on April 25 on the busy Michigan Avenue Bridge in his hometown of Chicago . He distributed leaflets and also solicited financial support for the publication of his "Principia". Polowsky, already suffering from colon cancer, held his last vigil on the bridge on April 25, 1983.

Joe Polowsky died on October 17, 1983 in Chicago's Lakeside Hospital. In his will he asked to be buried in Torgau.

Funeral in Torgau

Despite various appeals for donations, Polowsky was unable to raise the funds required for his funeral of around $ 10,000 during his lifetime. However, booksellers declared himself after his death LeRoy Wolins (1929-2005), an old friend Polowskys, peace activist and then deputy chairman of the organization "Veterans for Peace" from Pullman in the US state of Michigan , ready to take on the costs. The body of Polowsky was then transferred to the GDR despite the still existing Iron Curtain and, according to Polowsky's request, buried in the Protestant cemetery in Torgau. The funeral took place on November 26, 1983, after it had been personally approved by the head of state and party, Erich Honecker . Three Soviet and three American war veterans each rolled the silver-gray coffin covered by a US flag to his grave. Reverend William Sloane Coffin , pastor of Riverside Church in New York City , delivered the eulogy. Then, in memory of Joe Polowsky, three US and three Soviet soldiers laid wreaths at the Soviet War Memorial. In 1984 a memorial stone was inaugurated on Polowsky's grave.

In a speech given to the US Senate on February 20, 1985, Senator Paul Simon praised Joe Polowsky's struggle for peace and the “oath on the Elbe”. In the same year, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the meeting on the Elbe, forty US governors in their states declared April 25th as " Elbe Day " or " World Peace Day ".

Honors

The memorial stele in Bad Liebenwerda, surrounded by roses

Joe Polowsky Peace Rose

Joseph Polowsky was awarded the Bronze Star for his achievements on April 25, 1945 . This award of the US armed forces also received the other members of the Kotzebue patrol, Albert Kotzebue himself received the Silver Star .

Polowsky's grave is located with a memorial stone in the Protestant cemetery in Torgau. In Torgau there was also a school called "Joe Polowsky High School" from 1995 until it was closed in 2008. The city of Torgau is currently planning to name a street in the area of ​​the former school after Polowsky. In Kreinitz the "Encounter on the Elbe - Museum" commemorates the historical event. Further monuments can be found at the departure of the ferry from Strehla, in front of the Lorenzkirch cemetery, on the banks of the Elbe in Kreinitz and in Torgau.

The meeting on the Elbe is commemorated every year with Elbe Day . In Bad Liebenwerda, a new rose garden, almost two meters high, has been a reminder of the historic event on the Elbe since 2006. The stele is surrounded by American, Russian and German rose varieties. This also includes a newly bred rose variety that was christened "Joe Polowsky Peace Rose". The rose is also located in the rose garden at Torgau Hartenfels Castle , where it was planted on April 24, 2010 in the presence of numerous guests of honor.

At a memorial stone erected in Burxdorf to commemorate the legendary meeting, two sticks of this rose variety were also planted on April 25, 2010 as part of a small ceremony. The planting was carried out by the granddaughter Alexis-Rose Polowsky, who was born after the death of her grandfather and who, together with her father Ted Polowsky (* 1960), the son of Joseph Polowsky, was one of the guests at Elbe Day. 2010 in Torgau.

The American singer-songwriter Fred Small immortalized Polowsky in his song "At The Elbe".

Publications, media, individual references

The photographic recordings from Lorenzkirch, Kreinitz and Burxdorf towards the end of the Second World War, in particular by the Soviet front-line reporter Igor Belousewitsch, on which Joe Polowsky can be seen, found attention in the world press at that time and later found their way into numerous history books. It has only been known for a few years that some of the photos were taken in Burxdorf, Brandenburg, where the headquarters of the 175th Guards Rifle Regiment of the Red Army was located. These recordings were previously assigned to the Saxon town of Kreinitz.

Polowsky's later activities were also covered in the press, including reports from the New York Times , the Chicago Tribune and the Literaturnaja Gazeta . Polowsky himself gave press releases and held conferences with a mixed response . The American writer and radio host Studs Terkel also reported on Joe Polowsky in his book The Good War , which describes the experiences of people from all walks of life during World War II. Terkel received the Pulitzer Prize for this work in 1985 .

The 1986 documentary "Joe Polowsky - an American dreamer" by Wolfgang Pfeiffer was awarded the "Golden Dove" of the Leipzig International Festival for Documentary and Animated Film in 1986 . The Berlinale Peace Film Prize followed in 1987, and the jury's reasoning at the time was: “The film contrasts traditional and still effective enemy images with the true story of a dreamer. In a poetic, humorous and artistically outstanding way, the director stands up for the right to the peaceful existence of everyone. He encourages international understanding not to be left to the rulers. "

Born in Torgau and co-founder of the citizens' initiative “Encounter on the Elbe” and initiator of the Torgau festival “Down By The Riverside”, Günter Schöne, published the book Joe Polowsky in 1997 in edition ost : “Bridge between the worlds: memories of the encounter the Elbe and its consequences ” . The text collection contains personal testimonies from Polowsky, newspaper articles, speeches about him and memories of contemporaries. In addition, numerous other publications in the media dealt with the events in April 1945 (→ see also the main article: Elbe Day ).

Web links

Commons : Joe Polowsky  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Joe Polowsky in the catalog of the German National Library
• Elbe Day.de. Retrieved April 23, 2020 . 
• Encounter at the Elbe - Museum Kreinitz. Retrieved April 23, 2020 . 
• Interview with Joe Polowsky. Archived from the original on February 7, 2013 ; accessed on April 23, 2020 (English). 
• Ed Ruff, Joe Polowski in conversation with Studs Terkel. In: The WFMT Studs Terkel Radio Archive. Studs Terkel , April 17, 1985, accessed April 23, 2020 . 
• Burial Set to Recall Meeting at the Elbe Associated Press Published: November 20, 1983. Retrieved April 23, 2020 . 
• Florian Stark: Everything took place in front of a field of corpses of German women. In: Welt.de . Die Welt , April 23, 2020, accessed on April 24, 2020 . 

literature

• Joe Polowsky: Bridge Between Worlds. Memories of the encounter on the Elbe and its consequences . Editor: Günter Schöne, edition ost, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-929161-48-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ This historically so important division has not yet published an article in the de: WP
2. ↑ John Toland : The Last 100 Days . Random House Publishing Group, 2014 (p. 455 f.)
3. ↑ ^{a b} Bettina Broneske: Legendary photo with Joe Polowsky returned to its roots after 60 years. In: Lausitzer Rundschau. April 28, 2005.
4. ↑ An illustrated text can be found on the website of the 69th Infantry Division
5. ^ Dietrich Maass, Wilhelm Wehling, Horst Straehle: Building blocks for the coalition of reason. Torgau 1945–1985. Encounters on the Elbe. Society for Local History in the Kulturbund der DDR, Kreisvorstand Torgau, 1987, p. 37.
6. ↑ Boat trip to the corpse field. Sächsische Zeitung, accessed on August 17, 2010 . 
7. ↑ Dr. Uwe Niedersen: The story of the young lieutenant Kotzebue, who became a stumbling block in the US Army. ( Memento of the original from August 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on a private website 
8. ↑ The story of the meeting on a private homepage for Elbe Day.
9. ↑ entry of LeRoy Wolins at Keywiki (Engl.)
10. ^ Frank Hilbert: A rose garden for the spa town. In: Lausitzer Rundschau . October 26, 2006.
11. ↑ Karsten Bär: Historical meeting on local land. In: Lausitzer Rundschau . June 22, 2007.
12. ^ Video on the planting of the "Joe Polowsky Peace Rose" on April 24, 2010 in Torgau
13. ^ The Joe Polowsky Peace Rose on the homepage of the Zeischa tree nursery Graeff.
14. ↑ Peace rose planted in Burxdorf. In: Lausitzer Rundschau. April 27, 2010.
15. ↑ Bettina Broneske: Two roses for the grandfather ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Lausitzer Rundschau of April 29, 2010. (Accessed September 2, 2010.)  
16. ↑ The text of "At The Elbe" on www.hamienet.com (Engl.)
17. ↑ "The Good War". America in World War II. Speak to contemporary witnesses. Schneekluth, Munich 1989; Reclam (UB 1342), Leipzig 1991.
18. ↑ Wolfgang Pfeiffer: "Joe Polowsky - an American dreamer", documentary, BR Germany 1985/86
19. ↑ Homepage of Wolfgang Pfeiffer Film GmbH ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
20. ↑ Official Berlinale film sheet with the jury's reasoning for the award of the Peace Film Prize 1987 ( online as a PDF file ( memento of the original from December 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. )