Against All Odds

Say what you will about public radio - and I've certainly said a lot about it myself - but once in a while they uncork a winner.

I'm currently listening to Red Runs the Vistula: The Warsaw Uprising of 1944.

This is one of history's most horrific and inspiring moments; it's a story of hope, as the Poles rose against the Nazis after five years of unimaginably brutal occupation; betrayal, as Stalin called for the uprising, then sat and watched the Germans mop it up (the Armja Krajowa, or Home Army, was mostly non-Communist, and likely to form the core of the anti-Soviet faction in Poland after the war); and most of all, unimaginable heroism.

Poland's experience in World War II, and the following 45 years of Soviet domination, have a lot to do with their stance in the war on terror.

Give it a listen, or read the transcript.