Week 1 - 26th April 2014 (a) Gallipoli from Above: The Untold Story (English) 54 mins 2013

This is the true story of how a team of Australian officers used aerial intelligence, emerging technology and innovative tactics to plan the landing at Anzac Cove. Generals William Throsby Bridges and Colonel Brudenell White were charged with the difficult task of landing 20,000 ANZAC troops on a heavily defended and precipitous shoreline. They used an aircraft carrier, a tethered balloon and a squadron of biplanes to gather detailed information on the disposition of the Turkish defenders and developed a plan for the landing that avoided significant casualties. It is now nearly 100 years since the landing and hundreds of books, movies and documentaries have failed to grasp the significance of the ANZAC achievement. Instead, the mythology has clouded the real story of how these two influential Australian officers took control of the landing using every innovation they could muster to safely land their men on Z Beach. Based on Hugh Dolan’s book 36 Days, Gallipoli from Above: The Untold Story will change forever the way Australians think about Gallipoli.

(b) Once Upon a Time (1900-1923) - [Struggles for Poland] (English) 52 mins 1988 Revolts follow the Russo-Japanese War; Polish leader Jozef Pilsudski gains power; Poland gains independence. At the beginning of this century Poland did not exist as a recognized nation. The first episode of this series traces the advent of the Polish state through the 1920s.

Week 2 - 3th May 2014 (a) Warsaw Rising: Forgotten Soldiers of WW II [CNN] (English) 44 mins 2004

In 1944, Warsaw, Poland, was reduced to a smoking ruin and its people killed or banished because it had dared to rebel against Nazi rule. In "Warsaw Rising," CNN Correspondent David Ensor details the uprising and the failure of the Allies to support it because of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. It tells the story of the Polish resistance and its 63-day battle against the Nazis, a battle fought while the Western world celebrated the successful Allied landings at Normandy. Through interviews with survivors and use of rarely seen footage filmed by the Underground Army, CNN Presents offers an unflinching look at how a country known as the "first ally" was abandoned in its hour of need.

(b) Out of the Ashes (English) 51 mins 2011. Marek Krawczynski – “This documentary film not only features the amazing reconstruction of the capital of Poland after its nearly total devastation during WWII, but also demonstrates the main characteristics of Polish culture: its vitality, endurance, courage, determination, spirituality and high moral and ethical standards. . . . The film is a very personal journey which highlights the struggles and the determination of the Polish spirit following one of the greatest tragedies that the world has ever experienced, which was WWII. It is hard to believe but the destruction of the city of Warsaw was bigger in scale than that of Dresden and Hiroshima put together. The subsequent rebuilding of the whole city of Warsaw (which is still going on today) was the biggest architectural project in the history of the world. Without funds from the Marshall Plan and without proper equipment, the people of Warsaw re-built this city with their bare hands. It was a real miracle.”

Week 3 - 10th May 2014 (a) Slaughter and the Silence (English) 56 mins 1991

This film is the story of the cold and calculated slaughter of 22,000 Polish Army Officers and civilian professionals at the hands of the Soviet NKVD, predecessor of the dreaded KGB ... the attempts to place the blame on the Nazis ... the overwhelming evidence pointing to Moscow and Stalin ... the cover-up ... ...and the silence. These are the contours of a crime incomprehensible among so-called civilized nations and the complex conspiracy of three governments to conceal it.

(b) Code name: Zegota [Heroes of War] (English) 47 mins 2013 The Council to Aid Jews operated under the auspices of the Polish Government in Exile through the Government Delegation for Poland, in Warsaw. ¯egota aided the country's Jews and found places of safety for them in occupied Poland. Poland was the only country in occupied Europe where there existed such an organization.

Week 4 - 24th May 2014 (a) Officer’s Wife (English) 77 mins 2013

In an old safe, a man discovers his grandmother’s memoirs, old photos of an army officer and a mysterious postcard that link to a concealed crime; the Katyn Forest massacre. Weaving interviews with bold animation, The Officer's Wife explores the collision of truth, justice and memory in a family tragedy. The cover-up of the Katyn massacre is still rarely acknowledged. Two million families (mostly spouses, children and relatives of Polish military officers murdered at Katyn) were taken from their homes in Poland and deported to Siberia by the Soviets in 1940 and the U.S. and Great Britain took an active role in covering it up. Over half were dead within one year. Only 200,000 managed to survive and leave the Soviet Union. Those that escaped were told by the U.S. and Britain to keep their mouths shut about what happened. This is their story. Academy-award winner Jan A.P. Kaczmarek partnered with filmmaker Piotr Uzarowicz to create a moving story about a family caught in the crossfire of the Soviets and Nazis and the lifelong repercussions that followed. After 70 years, the wounds of the Katyn massacre still bleed. The Soviets were never charged; today, Russia is still unwilling to atone for the horrific crimes. Cecylia’s story is just one of almost 2 million Poles affected by the tragedy. Interviews with some of the last living survivors fuse with Cecylia’s story to reveal not only the horrors but to also forge a lasting testament to the perseverance of the human spirit. The Officer’s Wife is ultimately a soaring celebration of humanity and its power to triumph over hatred.

(b) Sandakan [60 minutes] (English) 14 mins 2005

In 1945 the war in the Pacific was coming to an end. And as the imperial Japanese army retreated, its atrocities were revealed. The death camps of Changi and the Burma railway shocked the Australian public. But there was another place, a place so barbaric, so terrible, that the Australian Government decided it had to be kept secret. A place called Sandakan. In this Japanese POW camp on the island of Borneo, the Australian death toll was near 100 percent. Only recently have the families of the men who died there learned the truth, a quite extraordinary story of horror and heroism.

Week 5 - 31st May 2014 (a) In the Name of Their Mothers (Irena Sendler) (English) 60 mins 2010

This is the story of 29-year-old Irena Sendler who saw the suffering of Warsaw's Jews, and reached out to her most trusted colleagues for help, and outwitted the Nazis during World War II. Together, they rescued over 2,500 Jewish children. This film expertly captures the will and character of the women of the resistance against the backdrop of occupied Poland.

(b) Polish Rats of Tobruk (Polish) 44 mins 2008

In the Battle of Tobruk In 1941, at a critical moment for the war, Poles of the Carpathian Rifle Brigade managed to repel the attacks of the Germans. The attitude of Polish soldiers soon became a model for the Allies, a symbol of perseverance and indomitable fighting spirit.

Week 6 - 7th June 2014 (a) The Polish Battle of Britain (English) 50 mins 2010

Note: Before the film, viewers will be given a sheet with 2 alternative narratives and a table of facts. At the end a decision must be made: which narrative fits the facts and which narrative fits the film script. A dramatised documentary recounts how, during the most decisive phase of the Battle of the Britain, a single squadron of 34 Polish fighter pilots wreaked havoc on the Luftwaffe, in the process helping to change the course of history and overturning RAF prejudices. From 303 Squadron's bitter struggle for acceptance when they first arrived in the UK, to the crucial part they played in averting the German invasion, and their ultimate betrayal by the Allies, this unknown story is one of the most extraordinary episodes of World War II.

(b) The Guinea Pig Club (English) 52 mins 2004

Note: Viewers will be given a sheet about the Polish Pilots who were helped by Archibald McIndoe A documentary about the WW II work of New Zealand plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe. He pioneered burns treatment and surgical reconstruction techniques on the badly injured air crew that formed his “Guinea Pig Club”. While the physical reconstruction was important he also realised that psychological treatment was also vital to recovery and also pioneered this aspect of treatment. This was achieved by keeping the patients together, for moral support, in a group called “The Guinea Pig Club” and integrating them into the normal life of a village near the hospital as soon as possible.

Week 7 - 14th June (a) Secret Game (Polish) 47 mins 2002

Note: Viewers will be given an article outlining the feats of this most amazing Secret Agent The amazing story of Roman Garby-Czerniawski, arguably the most important secret agent of WW II, He was awarded the Virtuti Militari after being flown out of occupied France to London, where he was debriefed by both the Polish and the British government about his Interallie Operations. Czerniawski was captured when he returned to occupied France but became a double agent and played a vital role in both Fortitude North and Fortitude South, helping to convince the Germans the 1944 Allied invasion would be at Calais and not Normandy. Is there still more to be revealed about this story?

More about Garby-Czerniawski in Puls Polonii. Part One.

Part Two. Dokoñczenie.

(b) Enigma [Heroes of War] (English) 47 mins 2013 The story of Polish mathematicians first breaking the Enigma code in 1932.

Week 8 - 21 June. (a) Friends and Neighbours: 1939 – 1945 [Struggles for Poland] (English) 52 mins 1988

Archival film, not seen since World War II ended, shows the Polish army and exiled government.. Rare archival footage provides an unprecedented look at the Polish Army in action during World War II. But as the stepchild of Europe, Poland was again and again betrayed by her neighbours and friends. At the close of the war, Russia, Britain, and the United States agreed to Stalin's claims for 42% of Poland's pre-war territory to the west, slicing the nation once again in two.

(b) For Foreign Money they Forgot the Poles (Polish) 42 mins 2009

One year after the end of World War II in June 1946 in London a grand Victory Parade of the Allied forces was organised. Soldiers from nations that contributed very little to victory were invited to marched. Poland however was not invited.

Suggested also, an extension to a week 9.

Week 9 - 28 June. The Soviet Story (English) 86 mins 2006

The film tells the story of the Soviet regime.
- The Great Famine in Ukraine (1932/33)
- The Katyn massacre (1940)
- The SS-KGB partnership [in the late 1930s the KGB was called NKVD]
- Soviet mass deportations
- Medical experiments in the GULAG.

These are just a few of the subjects covered in the film. “The Soviet Story” also discusses the impact of the Soviet legacy on modern day Europe. Listen to experts and European MPs discussing the implications of a selective attitude towards mass murder; and meet a woman describing the burial of her new born son in a GULAG concentration camp. The Soviet Story is a story of pain, injustice and “realpolitik”.