Polish bear 'that fought Nazis' to be commemorated

Polish bear 'that fought Nazis' to be commemorated

www.telegraph.co.uk

The £200,000 monument is to commemorate the extraordinary life of "Private Wojtek", a 6ft tall, 500lb brown bear who served alongside Polish soldiers -- and lived out his years after the war in Edinburgh Zoo.

A maquette of the planned work, by Scottish sculptor Alan Herriot, shows Wojtek's 'keeper', soldier Peter Prendys, placing a hand on the shoulder of the gentle giant, a stance he always adopted when the pair walked around camp together.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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Thought this was worth a look! The bear sounds like a real character and a bit of a legend. Certainly worthy of commemoration!

The statue itself will be in celebration of the relationship between the soldiers and the bear. It is also to celebrate the Polish contribution in the second world war.

Wojtek, the "happy warrior" retired to Edinburgh zoo after the war and this is where the statue will be erected. I think you'll agree a very light hearted and interesting story. You don't get many of those about WW2!

www.telegraph.co.uk (visit the link for the full news article)

This is what the statue will look like when finished and will cost roughly £200,000.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c6adfc8c558e.jpg[/atsimg]

My favourite bit of the story has to be this;

She said she had been captivated by his story ever since she visited him at Edinburgh Zoo, aged eight, with a Polish friend.

When Wojtek heard her friend speaking Polish his ears pricked up and he waved to the two delighted school girls.

cool post
never heard of this before
thanks for sharing

Yeah, first I've heard of this, maybe it's true that animals have a primal sense for evil?

reply to post by Longy4eva


First of all I love this story!

Now to address what you said about animals sensing evil. I cannot say that it has been proven by science that they do; however I can say that my own observations have led my opinion that they do indeed have a sense of someone's "character". I am not sure if they pick up on body language that we do not or if they perceive something with a "sixth" sense.

I grew up on a farm and raised a variety of livestock as well as domesticated animals. I have noticed on numerous occasions that otherwise friendly and sociable animals will avoid someone seemingly at random without cause. I say seemingly random because on more than once occasion the person they avoided turned out to be someone I wish I had avoided myself.

My current dog (a pug-huahua) is a great example of this not being true. She barks at everything until it gives her attention and then she loves whatever it is. I did once have a dog that loved everyone except the mail man. Every time the mailman came around this dog went crazy. That particular mailman was later terminated due to complaints that he was peeping in houses on his route. Thought provoking to say the least?

Of course, regarding the evil sensing abilities, we are assuming here that every German soldier fighting in that region of Poland was evil.

Pretty big blanket statement.

Still pretty awesome story. I think the bear needs armoured plate and a little saddle... No one would mess with that!

This is the best story I've heard this year!!!
so talk about serendipity or synchronicity or what ever you want to call it. I've been watching reruns of an HBO show called Carnivale,and one thread of the story has to do with WWII and there are flashback scenes dealing with a war fighting bear!!! I never would have known how that fit in without this thread!! Started watching it last night ,today I find this post ! AWESOME!!!

reply to post by MrsBlonde


I'll have to watch that Carnivale at some point it looked really good but I kept missing it! Gotta watch a series like that from the start.

What a cool story!

Would make a great film.

reply to post by Big Raging Loner


Yeah it's very well crafted I saw it when it came out and the bear thing did not make sense but it does now!!
I rented it on netfilx ,now everyone who sees this thread should watch it ! the only TV series known to reference the War Bear!!!! Yahoo!!

Well, I'm not going to get into the Nazi bashing thing b/c, quite honestly, its been done to death. However...
They took this Northern European, seriously hairy, brown bear to the deserts of North Africa & it survived? Then they took it to Monte Casino, where the Polish forces took the brunt of the grief on the Allied side? It not only didn't run away, but helped them carry ammo?
If that bear isn't already in the "Hall of Badassitude", he deserves to be!

A clever move on the part of the Poles, but as usual, the Russians took it one step further...



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