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August Agbola O'Brown was the only known black Warsaw insurgent. He was born in 1895 in Nigeria, then a British colony. He enlisted in the British Merchant Navy in his youth. In 1922 he came to Poland and spent over three decades of his life here. He was a jazz musician. He married a Polish woman and lived in Krakow. He moved to Warsaw(1932). He was a famous figure in the city. He took part in the city's defense battles in 1939, then worked in the structures of the Home Army and took part in the Warsaw Uprising. After the war, he managed to leave communist Poland for London, where he died. He has a commemorative plaque in the Wiech passage (Center of Warsaw). References to his character appear in Polish pop culture. August had a large Great Dane with which he walked around the city. You'll see references to this fact in the scenes of the cult crime comedy Vabank.

Building that looks like a Palace of culture and science but it is the National theater.

Beautiful, not without reason that Warsaw was called the Paris of the north.

in Poland we never had slaves. Poland always was open for all kind of peoples, and yes, there was a lot of different kind peoples leaving in Poland, even those with dark skin. Before WWII Warszawa was called Paris of the north. Unfortunately 90% of city has been completely destroyed by germans during WWII.

Hi, I'm Ksawery and I'm 12 years old, I love watching your videos with reactions to our country, Poland. On May 22, my class and I will go on a trip along the route Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot, where we will visit, among others, the pier in Sopot, Westerplatte and ride a Ferris wheel from where we will see the panorama of the entire city of Gdańsk. you make great films, that's why I admire you, greetings from the entire class 6A. Ps. I also once lived in England, specifically in the city of Bristol

5:57 ohhhhh mylisz się Polska była centrum przeróżnych narodowości za nim wylało się na świat rasistowskie ''gówno'' oraz wymysły ludzie po prostu prowadzili swoje biznesy byli tu z całego świata.....

The black gentleman in the film is Cameroonian-born Sam Sandi, an extraordinary figure, one could say he was a celebrity in pre-war Poland. He participated in the Greater Poland Uprising, took Polish citizenship and joined the Polish army, took part in the Polish-Soviet war, in civilian life he was a famous wrestler and earned the name "Iron Man" pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Sandi

At 1:30 min- you're right, it's Saxon Palace (it is being rebuilt, which is why you saw a construction site next to the grave of the unknown soldier during your visit in Warsaw) 2:30 Most Kierbedzia/ Kierbiedź's Bridge (it doesn't exist nowdays) 2:45 Hala Mirowska/ Mirowska Hall ( market hall 6:59 / 7:00 Church of St. Aleksander- a Roman Catholic church located on Trzech Krzyży Square

7:13 it is the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky, built by the Russians during the partitions, considered in Poland by many as a symbol of Russian rule and Russification, demolished between the First and Second World Wars. Think how great Warsaw would have been if the Germans had not destroyed it.

The grave of the unknown soldier is a fragment of the Saxon Palace. It was supposed to be rebuilt, but the government in Poland changed, with federalization rather than national views, hence the reconstruction project was suspended. In this square where the palace was also a religious building (not a synagogue, as you guessed). It was the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky built by Tsarist Russia during the partitions (i.e. when, among others, Russia took Poland captive). Due to the symbol of enslavement, it was demolished in the years 1924-1926, so this fragment of the film comes from before 1939. Of course, before the demolition, all mosaics and works of art were dismantled. As for the reconstruction of Warsaw after the war, the communist authorities did not want it to be as it was before the war. At night, the communist occupation authorities tore off stucco from the walls, sculptures, decorations and threw them onto the street, which was an excuse to destroy everything under the pretext that these elements were thrown onto the pavement. Much of Warsaw has not survived from those years. And what remained of the stucco were smooth walls in many buildings. Many buildings were not rebuilt because Stalin built the Palace of Culture and Science on the ruins of beautiful Warsaw buildings.

Looking at these photos and videos makes me feel very sad. Warsaw was called the Paris of the East or the North. 84% of left-bank Warsaw (the oldest and historic part) was completely destroyed. Many outstanding people died, not only in Warsaw, but also throughout Poland. The losses in Warsaw were estimated at $45.3 billion, and this is in addition to museum losses - the entire archive of old records in Warsaw was burned, just like the library collections. It is worth noting that private property in apartments and houses was also destroyed, which significantly lengthens the list of losses. Moreover, after the war, communism and poverty awaited us. The communists also renounced reparations from the Germans...

You already know how strong we got hit :) Pre-war Warsaw was called the Paris of the North. But we're alive! Warsaw has grown again. We're hard to fuck up.

4:45 it is Teatr Wielki Great Theater

To wspaniała reakcja na przedwojenną Warszawę zwaną ówcześnie przez Polaków Paryżem wschodu..

5:00 that’s not a bottom of PKIN but building near Piłsudski’s square and old town. I believe it is a theatre

You should made a reaction on 1944 - Warsaw uprising movie. Miasto 44 - city 44

6:13 August Agbola O'Browne (second name also spelled Agbala, Agboola, surname also spelled Brown or Browne; 1895-1976) was a Nigerian jazz musician who is believed to have been the only black participant of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. August Agbola O'Browne was born on 22 July 1895 in Lagos, the largest city of modern-day Nigeria, to Nigerian parents, possibly from the Yoruba tribe. O'Browne immigrated to Britain[2] and then joined a travelling theatre group and ended up in Poland in 1922. He lived at Złota Street in Warsaw. He was a professional musician, a drummer who worked in clubs in Warsaw. His first album, recorded in 1928, made history, for he was the first West African jazzman to achieve this.[better source needed] He married a Polish woman, Zofia Pykowna; they had two children - Ryszard (Richard) in 1928 and Aleksander (Alexander) in 1929. Although this marriage ended, his family travelled to the UK when war broke out. His friends and neighbours remembered him as a very intelligent, courteous person, and a polyglot (he spoke six languages). In 1949, he joined the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy. In the survey, he claimed that he fought in the Invasion of Poland in 1939, defending besieged Warsaw, and in the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. He stated that in the Uprising his code name was "Ali" and that he belonged to the unit led by Corporal Aleksander Marciński, code-name "Łabędź" ("Swan"). The unit fought in the Śródmieście district of Warsaw. Based on the name of the commander, historians confirmed that battalion "Iwo" fought in the district of Śródmieście Południowe (Southern Srodmiescie). Jan Radecki, code name "Czarny" ("Black"), another participant of the same uprising claimed that he saw a black man at the HQ of the battalion "Iwo" at ulica Marszałkowska 74 (74 Marszalkowska Street), possibly in the communication section. Radecki did not remember the exact personal data of the black insurgent. There are indications that before the uprising O'Browne was connected with the resistance and distributed illegal, underground newspapers (bibuła). There is little reliable information on his life after the war. Around 1949 he worked in the Department of Culture and Art of the City of Warsaw; later he continued his music career, playing in restaurants in Warsaw. O'Browne emigrated to Great Britain in 1958. "Of Browne's existence in the UK, Tatiana informed [...] her father continued to work as a percussionist in London, often at a studio in the Soho district, the home of London's jazz and swing music scene. The family resided in Camden Town, northwest London." "Londoner Ela Grabinska-Raubusch, an affiliate of the Sikorski Institute, recalls her late mother, Wanda Grabińska (née Radzikowska), a Warsaw insurgent, speaking about Browne. "My mother said that he was very famous in Warsaw before the war, since he was probably the only black person in the capital," she said. "As for his insurgent career, I only know what I've read online. Except, coincidentally, he was in Śródmieście Południe, and so was my mother. She was in the Ruczaj battalion. Mum came to London in 1957. I understand that Mr Browne came in 1958. "Mum did talk about how she met Mr Browne, and that he was with his daughter. Either at Shepherd's Bush Market or at the office of [a man named] Mehl, who dealt with transfers of money to Poland in the years 1950 to 1980. We lived in Shepherd's Bush for a while. In the 1960s, Shepherd's Bush Market was the hangout for the Caribbean community. The stalls were run by West Indians and various Polish Jews. My mother didn't speak English, so she could go ahead and buy from them in Polish."" There he lived anonymously for almost two decades and died in London in 1976.[6][3] He was buried in Hampstead Cemetery (as Augustine Agboola Browne).

6:10 Poland (before communists created "poland" in place of Poland) was one of the most tolerant countries in the world, if you would want to meet someone from some ethnic group it would be probably the best place to start looking, not counting the place where this group is from. There was even at least one black person fighting in Warsaw uprising

Oh awesome, was hoping you will watch it. First time I saw that it made me really sad to see how much history was lost after Germans razed the Warsaw. EDIT: Also, I strongly agree on idea that colorized footage helps to make history feel less distant. I remember as a kid in school, when we were shown black and white recordings or photos. They were giving false impression that all of it happened long long ago despite the fact that WW2 is still recent history. And seeing that in colour breaks that illusion.

Hi Rob , that was awesome ... i saw this vid first time!!! Wow indeed and funny thing to say but you just educated one polish guy whom living in UK for last 20yrs :D (me) for that im grateful . I like Your channel very much because you explore so many aspects of Poland that even i will never thing of. Greetings from Yorks :)

I started to believe recently that trauma can be passed from generation to generation because somehow seeing Warsaw in 1939 (so beautiful) made me cry :( I didn't see this compilation yet, thanks for sharing! It was truly Paris of the east!

I am so glad to see this. After about 6 minutes in, you mentioned the idea of how there maybe shouldn't have been black people in Poland. Tadeusz Kosciuszko was an advocate of freedom even when he came to America to fight for freedom, that he wanted America's 3rd President Thomas Jefferson (who signed America's Declaration of Independence in 1776) to free his African American slaves. After Kosciuszko was given American citizenship in the early days of the nation's Independence victory, Kosciuszko wanted to leave his estate and money for Thomas Jefferson's slaves' education and freedom in his will and testament. Unfortunately, Thomas Jefferson claimed he wasn't sound in mind to carry out Kosciuszko's will. However, Thomas Jefferson called Kosciuszko one of the "foremost sons of liberty" that idealized the US Independence War of 1776. After an edit: My father was from Nowy Targ, Poland (south of Kraków but north of Zakopane in Malopolskie voivodship) and my grandmother from around the same area. I wanted to say this originally, but the first comment took hold because of what Kosciuszko fought for here in America. Seeing you react to these images helps me as a Polish American to appreciate more where my father's family comes from. Thanks a lot.

Poland has always been a beauty

Warszawa 1939 in color. Amazing film !

People calling Warsaw in those time"Paris of the East". 😥

This is not the Palace of Culture and Science, but the national theater (Great Theatre - Teatr Wielki) building, built (actually as a state theater) in the second half of the 18th century, during the times of the last king of independent Poland (in the style of classicism that followed the Baroque period). The theater was destroyed by the Germans and rebuilt after the war. It is located near the Old Town and the Monument to the Unknown Soldier.

Warszawa zwana wtedy Paryż em wschodu 😊.

4:53 The National Opera

Great video. Warsaw before the war was really beautiful, full of life. Watching this is so hard to think that all was suddenly destroyed, completely, from day to day, just like that. Anyway, I like to watch old films or pictures, showing how different places looked many years ago.

Rob, in the video you are commenting on, an unidentified aerial vehicle appears. It is visible in the sky at 5.36 sec to 5.40 sec. It's probably a plane, although it's moving quite fast. At 5.31 seconds there is also something in the sky, but it's probably a lantern hanging above the street because it is stationary. Sorry for such a reaction, but looking through photos and old films in the context of unidentified aerial phenomena is my passion.

5:36 opera

The constitution of the first and second Polish Republic guaranteed freedom and the right to life to everyone who crossed the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This was one of the reasons for the subsequent partitions.

If you're interested in learning more about Black people in mid-war Poland, check out for example who August Agbola O'Brown, or Józef Sam Sandi was 😊

Poland before WWII was very diverse place. 10% were polish jews. Poland was very important place for people to came over. It's in center of the Europe (part of Russia is in Europe. Europe is not ending on Russia border as you all think).

4:35 The Palace of Culture and Science was built after the WW2, so it can't be it. 7:06 Yes, those buildings were beautiful. It's a shame they were destroyed by Nazis... I like going on long walks in the centre of Warsaw, and I often try to imagine what Warsaw would look like if the city hasn't been so destructed. As for the Saxon Palace: as someone already mentioned in one of comments, the Palace will be rebuilt.

5:00 Teatr Wielki/Opera Narodowa

We were a wise and happy nation.

Before WW2 Warszawa had nickname "Paris of east"

Before the war, Warsaw was called the second Paris precisely because of its architecture

This is National Theatre and Opera and looks the same today :)

Hi Rob, I enjoyed watching your video. Well done. Warsaw is a beautiful city now. It used to be more beautiful before it was destroyed by Germans during WW II.

4:33 It's Grand Theatre

I also enjoy this kind of videos. Maybe Kraków next?

the last scene from the movie The Pianist shows how much destroyed was ....

Poland wasn't always homogeneous by culture or "white" (It's not good phrasing but idk how to call it), we had and still have a lot of black, arabic students (even in '50 we had actors from Middle East who speak polish). I actually watch a lot of black and white movies and I think it's just that some ppl just don't want to watch it because it's too old, regardless of it's colour (and it's just bad quality). Maybe it's from ignorance and I don't think that colour can change this. I recommend watch some polish movies (for ex. movies with Eugeniusz Bodo, it's little goofy but I like them)

9:29 Nah, most of the city wasn't rebuilt to the form it looked before the war. The most clear and brutal example is Palace of Culture and Science and the large space around it - before the war there were quarters of tenement houses... You focus too much on the Old Town. The Old Town was just a small part of the pre-war Warsaw.

Before the war, Warsaw was called "Paris of the north". After the complete destruction of course it was rebuilt, but there were no beautiful townhouses and monuments, there were cold gray blocks of flats. See how this city looked in the 1980s under communism, as if it had regressed. The communists knew that Warsaw was a monument of Polish culture and a symbol of our former power, therefore in the middle of the city stood a huge building, on the model of the one in Moscow that towered over the city skyline. It was surrounded by identical gray blocks of flats. Even today's Warsaw looks like a mix of New York Manhattan with Communist style flats.

thank you rob 💗

Look at that, not a Zabka in sight, just people enjoying their lives.

Rob, that first statue it's unfortunatelly not Mikołaj Kopernik, or as you wish Nicolai Copernicus - that's another "Christ" monument in Warsaw, near to Warsaw church of the saint cros... Sorry ;) And I'm writing that as a Warsaw sceptic from Cracow ;)

In Poland diffrent skin tone or faith was no problem. I rode old (1920' or 1930' maybe 1940') arctitles in old newspapers about absurd of racismcin in other countries.

See remastered movies - warszawa w kolorze / warsaw in colour.

Superrrr❤

Rob, on 7:15 onwards you what have In view of the street is the Orthodox Cathedral of St Alexander on the square in front of the Saxon Palace. Built by the Russians 1894-1912 as a symbol of Russian domination before . Demolished to the ground in the 1920s. look: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Nevsky_Cathedral,_Warsaw

❤❤❤

Żabka started in 1998

4:40 palace of culture was build after world war 2 by russians, as a sign of Polish-russian friendship or some shit like this, but it's possible that it was built in the same place, I don't remember what was there before

4:05 mój dziadek, który urodził się w 1909, odgrażał się, że: "Jak oni mnie przejadą to ja im pokarze!" 💪💪💪

🤍❤️

Piękna była ta nasza Warszawa, co nie Niemcy ale wam marzyła sie dominacja nad Europą... ups chyba podobnie jak teraz tylko że bez czołgów, poechoty...itp tylko zielony ład, praworządność.

Budynek w oddali to prawosławna cerkiew

W tamtych czasach Warszawa była piękna a nie

Sad thing is that it's from 1939 so literally days before war :/

Rob Palace of Culture was built in the PRL times so it didn't exist in those times

What a journey 🤩

You are 1999? Lol, you Look much more older.

There were some black people even in 17th century living in Poland. Usually they escaped from Turkey or were bought by visiting nobles at turkish slave markets to became kinda fancy serwants. Then they might had some intercourse with locals (sometimes even higher class) so, from time to time it happened that there were even Poles (born and fully within our culture) that were black. I have heard about a polish black general in 17 century. Cos they were so rare there was no prejudice aganist them. They were looked upon etc as some kind of attraction but not in any bad or nasty way. Just as something... unusual, peculiar . So in Poland never was any racism aganist black people, at least not untill lately (1990's?). Instead we "had" a lot of Jews and they were hated by many. Unfortunately.

Teatr Wielki pomylić z gównem od Stalina. Żałosne.

Panie robercie jak słucham jak sie pan męczy w języku polkim to sie dotykam. jednak moje osobiste odczucia nie są ważne. prasze sie nie przejmować ja rozumiałem angielski ale bałem sie mówić przez lek przef wyśmianiem.

it's not that people wearing black - it's just colorization program did black all dark shades

I suppose you don't know that one of the generals who commanded the Polish army during the Kosciuszko uprising was black. This was General Władysław Jablonowski, nicknamed Murzynek (Negro)/*/, the son of a black man and a Polish woman. /*/ "Murzynek" is diminutive of "Murzyn" (Negro). In Polish, diminutives usually signal positive feelings. More on Władysław Jabłonowski (in EN) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%82adys%C5%82aw_Franciszek_Jab%C5%82onowski

7:25 synagogue doesn"t look like that , synagogue is relativ simple and not decorated like this temple - this is example of east european orthodox temple

Głupoty piszecie do gościa i on w to wierzy.On nie zna historii nawet Anglii,a tym bardziej Polski.

sometimes i give you link ... alll delete why ? you delete this?