5 - “Night of the General” and Day One

Summary

“The evening is peaceful, as usual on Saturdays. All the women are wearing slippers (in winter they leave their shoes in the cloakroom). Two are knitting and a third has just gone to the bathroom. Suddenly, Maria hears a hollow banging and has the impression that the noises are coming from somewhere in the building, beyond the metal doors leading to the hallway… . The strange vibrations seem to penetrate the building's metal structure. On the control panel, lights start turning on chaotically. Maria grabs the telephone receiver and connects to the technical center: ‘What's going on there?’ No one answers… . The noise grows stronger, so she decides to go and check herself. She had just taken a couple of steps when the double doors are opened with a strong shove. Four or five soldiers burst into the big room… . One shouts: ‘Chairs to the wall! Don't move!’ The second threatens Maria with a bayonet… . Maria sees him go closer to the glass, beyond which are the levers and buttons … and start to turn them all off chaotically. ‘They’ve gone mad,’ thinks Maria. ‘They’re going to blow up the whole installation.’ She looked instinctively at the big electric clock that had just stopped. The hands, now still, point to 11.20 p.m.”

This anonymous but very credible account was recorded by Gabriel Meretik. Maria worked in the telegram section of Warsaw's national and international telecommunications center. That's more or less how the Operation “Azalea” looked at 451 sites throughout the country (60 of them were in Warsaw). The rumors about equipment being wrecked or cables cut are not confirmed in the sources, but it is difficult to exclude the possibility that such events did in fact occur. In any case, just before midnight, the “civilian” telecommunications network fell silent for good. This blockade also included the telephone lines to the foreign diplomatic and consular posts. Approximately 5,000 people carried out the operation: 700 SB functionaries, over 3,000 soldiers from the MSW military units (including the Border Defense Troops), and about 1,200 soldiers from the army. Some of the sites that were occupied were then defended by the army, and some by Ministry of Internal Affairs services.