Do you know the story of the only black man to have fought in the Warsaw Uprising?
His name was August Agboola Browne
August Browne was the only known black man to have participated in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising that broke out at 1700hrs, 1 August 1944. Having been living in Poland at the time, he took up arms and fought on the side of Poland.
During WWII, Poland was the only country in Occupied Europe not to have formed a collaborative government with Germany. Poland was also the only country to have launched two uprisings against her oppressors.
The first Uprising broke out on 19 April 1943, when the Jewish Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto rose up against the Germans and their stooges. The Germans had been systematically clearing the Warsaw Ghetto of Jews and sending them by the thousands to the gas chambers of KL Treblinka II. Unknown to most, there was a concentration camp at Treblinka called Treblinka I, but that is a story for another time.
When the Germans came to the Ghetto on 19 April 1943 to finish off their evil plan to send the remaining Jews to their death, the Jews of the Ghetto Resistance decided to take a stand and take a stand they did. Using the limited weapons that could be supplied by the Armia Krajowa and other makeshift weapons, such as Molotov cocktails, the brave men and women of the ghetto fought bravely until the last, destroying the idea that Jews went like lambs to the slaughter. The Ghetto Uprising ended on 16 May 1943, but not before 17 Germans were killed in action and 93 wounded. But of course, far more Jews perished.
A little over 12 months later, the Polish Resistance, the Polish Armia Krajowa, or in English, Home Army, launched the Warsaw Uprising. The Warsaw Uprising was one of many actions undertaken as part of Operation Tempest designed to subvert the Germans in the rear as the Soviet Army approached from the East. The Warsaw Uprising, however, was the major action of Operation Tempest, designed to remove the Germans before the Soviets arrived and install a Polish government in the capital. The goal was to claim Poland for Poles before a Soviet government could be installed.
As the Soviet Army approached Warsaw, they encouraged the Poles to rise up against the Germans, and then, the Soviets being Soviets, stopped their advance within a couple of miles of Warsaw. Not only did they stop their advance instead of coming to the aid of the Poles, but they also accused the Poles of being “bandits” and “reactionaries” for having launched the Uprising. The goal of the Russians was to let the Poles and Germans destroy each other, and Warsaw, so they could take control in the aftermath. The Poles fought incredibly bravely, but in the end, after 63 days, the Polish commander General Bor-Komorowski, agree to the capitulation and the Rising was over.
A variety of soldiers not of Polish heritage fought in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising however one man who stands out is the only black man known to have fought in the Uprising – August Browne.
August Browne was born on the 22nd of July 1895 in Lagos, Nigeria. August’s farther worked the docks and his mother was a farmer. He was one of 8 children, having 3 brothers and 4 sisters. August appears to have graduate from a music school in 1917.
At the age of 20, he left Nigeria and travelled and worked as a musician in England, Germany, and France, before arriving in Warsaw on 21 February 1922 where he began working at the famous Bristol Hotel. August was a professional jazz musician known for playing the drums and subsequently made his income on the Warsaw club scene. In 1922, Poland was only 4 years old, having only won her independence again on 11 November 1918. The interwar years in Poland was a period in which Warsaw was known as the “Paris of the east”, keen to become a modern and progressive country. Jazz music was a big part of that cultural emergence – a music tradition that is still very much alive in Poland today.
August recorded his first album in 1928, making history as the first West African jazzman to reach this achievement.
In 1927, August moved to Krakow and married a woman by the name of Zofia Pykowna. The couple had two sons together Ryszard in 1928 and Aleksander in 1929. Sadly, the couple broke up soon after the birth of Aleksander. August was remembered by neighbours as an intelligent and courteous man. He was also a polyglot having spoken 6 languages! In 1932, August returned to Warsaw and worked at the Philharmonic until the outbreak of WWII.
August’s activities during WWII become a little sketchy, but what we know of him is that he was very much involved in the Polish fight. According to a form he completed in 1949, when he joined the Polish Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy, he declared that he had fought for Poland during the invasion of September 1939, in the Siege of Warsaw, as well as in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
According to the Polish Institute for National Remembrance, August spent the years of occupation trading in electronic equipment and also giving private language and music lessons. He was also involved in underground activities having joined the AK in 1941. He was particularly involved in assisting the Jewish underground resistance group ZWZ in the Warsaw Ghetto. It also appears that he was also involved in the printing and distribution of underground newspapers in Warsaw. Like all other Polish resistance members, August had a pseudonym – he was known as “Ali”.
During the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, it appears that August fought in District I “Radwan” – Sub-District “Slawbor” – in the “Iwo” Battalion. The Iwo Battalion fought in the centre of Warsaw during the Uprising. One eyewitness remembered seeing a black man at Iwo Battalion HQ during the Uprising, stating that he might have been working in communications. It appears that after the capitulation, August found himself imprison in the Pruszkow concentration camp like thousands of other AK fighters.
After WWII, August attempted to revive his career in music but struggled due to the implementation of Communism. Jazz was outlawed under Communism as the “music of the enemy”. He also took a job in cultural affairs having joined the Warsaw Department of Culture & Art. August even acted in a post war movie about Polish fighters during WWII.
In 1958, August and his second wife Olga Miechowicz, with whom he had 2 more children, left Poland and moved to London. It is said that the only language he would speak in the family home was Polish.
Accounts state that he would occasionally involve himself in jam sessions in London, and as a studio musician, but for the most part lived a quiet life until his death at the age of 81 on 7 September 1976.
Like many Poles who fought in the Warsaw Uprising, it appears August did not speak much about his underground activities during the war. It was extremely dangerous for Polish resistance members to discuss their war time activities for fear of persecution and execution by the new occupying force, the Soviet Union. It was only a chance finding by a historian at the Warsaw Rising Museum in 2009 that discovered August’s application to the Polish Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy. That application had a photo of August attached to it. I am sure that a photo of a black man attached to an application to join a WWII fighters association would have truly stood out in the pile of applications of Polish fighters during WWII.
On 2 August 2019, an obelisk was erected in the memory of August at the intersection of Wiecha Passage and Chmielna Streets in downtown Warsaw. I took this photo of the obelisk only a week ago after gentrification works had been completed in the area. You can see a red and white ribbon has been wrapped around the obelisk to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.
The English language writing on the commemorative stone reads:
“In honour of Augustine Agboola Browne, nom de guerre “Ali”, a jazz musician and participant in the Warsaw Uprising of African origin. Poland was the country he chose to live in”
August was another in a long tradition of people who have come to Poland and fallen deeply in love with the country. His love was so deep that he risked his life for Poland and for her people. Whilst we know little of the man in his life after the war in London, I like to think he continued to have fond memories of his time in Poland and his adventures in fighting for freedom against tyranny.
Never forget!
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Agbola_O%E2%80%99Brown
https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/august-agboola-browne-1895-1976/
https://www.1944.pl/powstancze-biogramy/august-o-brown,55402.html
Quite amazing. Not a well-known story. And yes, most of those brave people never spoke and took their stories to the grave. The entire generation of people who survived war and stalinism was taught to never speak - it was dangerous.
A great story of a Polish Hero. Thanks for the post.