The destruction of Warsaw was Nazi Germany's razing of the city in late 1944, after the 1944 Warsaw Uprising of the Polish resistance. The uprising infuriated German leaders, who decided to destroy the city in retaliation.
The razing of the city had long been planned. Warsaw had been selected for destruction and major reconstruction as part of the Nazis' planned Germanization of Central Europe, under the Nazi Generalplan Ost. However, by late 1944, with the war clearly lost, the Germans had abandoned their plans of colonizing the East. Thus, the destruction of Warsaw did not serve any military or colonial purpose; it was carried out solely as an act of reprisal.
German forces dedicated an unprecedented effort to razing the city, destroying 80–90% of Warsaw's buildings, including the vast majority of museums, art galleries, theaters, churches, parks, and historical buildings such as castles and palaces. They deliberately demolished, burned, or stole an immense part of Warsaw's cultural heritage. After the war, extensive work was put into rebuilding the city according to pre-war plans and historical documents.
The destruction of Warsaw was practically unparalleled in the Second World War, with it being noted that "Perhaps no city suffered more than Warsaw during World War II", with historian Alexandra Richie stating that "The destruction of Warsaw was unique even in the terrible history of the Second World War".[1]
The city must completely disappear from the surface of the earth and serve only as a transport station for the Wehrmacht. No stone can remain standing. Every building must be razed to its foundation.
Plan for Neue deutsche Stadt Warschau ("New German city of Warsaw")
On June 20, 1939, while Adolf Hitler was visiting an architectural bureau in Würzburg am Main, he noticed a project of a future German town – Neue deutsche Stadt Warschau. According to the Pabst Plan, Warsaw was to be turned into a provincial German city of 130,000. Third Reich planners drafted precise drawings outlining a historic "Germanic" core where a select few landmarks would be saved, such as the Royal Castle which would serve as Hitler's state residence. The Plan, which was composed of 15 drawings and a miniature architectural model, was named after German army architect Friedrich Pabst who refined the concept of destroying a nation's morale and culture by destroying its physical and architectural manifestations. The design of the actual new German city over the site of Warsaw was devised by Hubert Gross.[4][5] The aftermath of the failure of the Warsaw Uprising presented an opportunity for Hitler to begin to realize his pre-war conception.[6][pageneeded]
In 1944, a large transit camp (Durchgangslager, or Dulag) was constructed in Pruszków's Train Repair Shops (Zakłady Naprawcze Taboru Kolejowego) to house the evacuees expelled from Warsaw. In the course of the Warsaw Uprising and its suppression, the Germans deported approximately 550,000 of the city's residents and approximately 100,000 civilians from its outskirts, sending them to Dulag 121 in Pruszków[pl].[citation needed] The security police and the SS segregated the deportees and decided their fate. Approximately 650,000 people passed through the Pruszków camp in August, September, and October. Approximately 55,000 were sent to concentration camps, including 13,000 to Auschwitz.[citation needed] They included people from a variety of social classes, occupations, physical conditions, and ages. Evacuees ranged from infants only a few weeks old to the extremely elderly. In a few cases, these were also people of different ethnic backgrounds, including Jews living on "Aryan papers".[7][additional citation(s) needed]
Looting and destruction of buildings
German Brandkommando (Burning Detachment) destroying Warsaw. Taken on Leszno street. From left: building No. 24, 22 & part of 20.Sprengkommando preparing to blow up the Royal Castle, 8 September 1944
After the remaining population had been expelled, the Germans began the destruction of the remnants of the city.[10] Special groups of German combat engineers were dispatched throughout the city in order to burn (Brandkommandos) and demolish (Sprengkommandos) the remaining buildings. According to German plans, after the war Warsaw was to be turned into nothing more than a military transit station.[11]
By January 1945, between 85% and 90% of the buildings had been completely destroyed; this includes up to 10% as a result of the September 1939 campaign and following combat, up to 15% during the earlier Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 25% during the Uprising, and 40% due to systematic German demolition of city after the uprising.[10][failed verification]
Material losses were estimated at 10,455 buildings, 923 historical buildings (94%), 25 churches, 14 libraries including the National Library, 81 primary schools, 64 high schools, the University of Warsaw, the Warsaw University of Technology, and most of the city's historical monuments.[10] Almost a million inhabitants lost all of their possessions.[10] The exact losses of private and public property, including pieces of art, other cultural artifacts and scientific artifacts, is unknown but must be considered substantial since Warsaw and her inhabitants were the richest and wealthiest Poles in pre-war Poland. In 2004, the President of Warsaw, Lech Kaczyński (later President of Poland), established a historical commission to estimate losses to public property alone that were inflicted on the city by German authorities. The commission estimated the losses to be at least $31.5billion.[13] Those estimates were later raised to $45billion and in 2005, to $54.6billion (all equated to 2004 dollars). The official estimates don't include immense losses of private property, which are of unknown value since almost all of the pre-war documents (such as insurance values of private collections) have also been destroyed, but are considered between double and triple the official estimates (which are based on documented losses only[14] while for example, the National Library's list of pre-war property lost estimated to be 1% of its collection since Germans destroyed all archives too).
Burning of libraries
Interior of the Zamoyski Estate Library in a building at Żabia Street.The 12th-century Meuse School Bible, one of the books burned by the Germans in October 1944.
During the German suppression of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, around 70 to 80% of libraries were carefully burned by the Brandkommandos (burning detachments), whose mission was to burn Warsaw.[15] In October 1944 the Załuski Library, the oldest public library in Poland and one of the oldest and most important libraries in Europe (established in 1747), was burned down.[16] Out of about 400,000 printed items, maps and manuscripts, only some 1,800 manuscripts and 30,000 printed materials survived.[16]
In the last phase of the Warsaw Uprising and after its collapse, in September and October 1944, the three major private libraries in Warsaw (Krasiński Library, Przeździecki Library and the Libraty of Zamoyski Family Entail), including collections of priceless value to Polish culture, ceased to exist.[17] Those libraries had already suffered in September 1939, when they were bombed and burned.[17]
An important collection of books belonging to the Krasiński Library, created in 1844, was largely destroyed in 1944.[18] The collection originally consisted of 250,000 items.[18] During the Uprising, on September 5, 1944, the library's warehouses were shelled by German artillery and burned almost completely.[18] Some of the books were preserved, thrown through windows by the library's staff.[18] The surviving collection was later deliberately burned by the Germans in October 1944 after collapse of the Uprising.[18] About 26,000 manuscripts, 2,500 incunables, 80,000 early printed books, 100,000 drawings and prints, 50,000 note and theater manuscripts, and a large collection of maps and atlases were lost.[18] The Przeździecki Estate Library in 6 Foksal Street included 60,000 volumes and 500 manuscripts, a rich archive containing 800 parchment and paper documents, and a cartographic collection consisting of 350 maps, atlases and plans.[17] In addition to 10,000 prints and drawings, there was an extensive art gallery (Portrait of Casimir Jagiellon from the 15th century, Portrait of John III Sobieski from the Schleissheim Palace, the House altar of Sophia Jagiellon, 1456), valuable collection of miniatures and decorative art: textiles, porcelain, faience, glass, gold objects, military, etc.[17] It burned down on September 25, 1939 as a result of severe aerial bombardment by the Germans (incendiary bombing).[17] The surviving items sheltered in the neighbouring tenement house at Szczygla Street were burned in October 1944.[17] The last of above mentioned libraries, the Library of the Zamoyski Family Entail, acquired collections of 70,000 works (97,000 volumes), more than 2,000 manuscripts, 624 parchment diplomas, several thousand manuscripts, a collection of engravings, coins and 315 maps and atlases.[17] Library collections also gathered numerous collections of art: a rich collection of militaria, miniatures, porcelain, faience and glass, natural collections, research tools etc., gathered mostly during the existence of the Zamoyski Academy.[17] In 1939, about 50,000 items (about 30%) were destroyed in bombing.[17] On September 8, 1944, the Germans set fire to both the Zamoyski Palace (Blue Palace) and the library building.[17]
The Central Military Library, containing 350,000 books on the history of Poland, was destroyed, including the Library of Polish Museum in Rapperswil deposited there for safekeeping. The collection of the Rapperswil Library had been transported to Poland in 1927.[19] The library and the museum were founded in Rapperswil, Switzerland, in 1870 as "a refuge for [Poland's] historic memorabilia dishonored and plundered in the [occupied Polish] homeland" and for the promotion of Polish interests.[20] The greater part of library's collections, originally 20,000 engravings, 92,000 books and 27,000 manuscripts, were deliberately destroyed by the Germans in 1944.[19]
Unlike earlier Nazi book burnings where specific books were deliberately targeted, the burning of those libraries was part of the general burning of a large part of the city of Warsaw.[21] This resulted in the disappearance of many valuable old books and scrolls among about sixteen million volumes from National Library, museums and palaces burnt indiscriminately by Germans in Poland during World War II.[15]
Warsaw during World War II: destroyed townhouses between Zielna (top) and Marszałkowska streets (bottom). In bottom right corner building Marszałkowska 156 on the corner with Królewskia street, also visible Bloch Palace at Marszałkowska 154. September 1939
Intersection of Marszałkowska Street and Aleje Jerozolimskie Street in Warsaw during German occupation. Visible tramway #3 with a billboard "Kamea woda kwiatowa". Behind it ruins of destroyed in 1939 townhouse at Marszałkowska 98/al. Jerozolimskie 33 streets.
Section of Warsaw razed to the ground, photo c. 1950. Northwest view of the Krasiński Gardens and Świętojerska Street.
Warsaw was rebuilt by the Polish people between the 1950s and 1970s. Some landmarks were reconstructed as late as the 1980s. While the Old Town has been thoroughly reconstructed, the New Town has been only partially restored to its former state.[23]
The Warsaw Uprising, shortly after the war also known as the August Uprising, was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led by the Polish resistance Home Army. The uprising was timed to coincide with the retreat of the German forces from Poland ahead of the Soviet advance. While approaching the eastern suburbs of the city, the Red Army halted combat operations, enabling the Germans to regroup and defeat the Polish resistance and to destroy the city in retaliation. The Uprising was fought for 63 days with little outside support. It was the single largest military effort taken by any European resistance movement during World War II.
The bombing of Warsaw in World War II started with the aerial bombing campaign of Warsaw by the German Luftwaffe during the siege of Warsaw in the invasion of Poland in 1939. It also included German bombing raids during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. During the course of the war, approximately 85% of the city was destroyed due to German mass bombings, heavy artillery fire, and a planned demolition campaign.
Castle Square is a historic square in front of the Royal Castle – the former official residence of Polish monarchs – located in Warsaw, Poland. It is a popular meeting place for tourists and locals. The square, of somewhat triangular shape, features the landmark Sigismund's Column to the south-west, and is surrounded by historic townhouses. It marks the beginning of the bustling Royal Route extending to the south.
The Załuski Library established in Warsaw in 1747 by Józef Andrzej Załuski and his brother, Andrzej Stanisław Załuski, both Roman Catholic bishops, was a public library nationalized and renamed upon its founders' death into the Załuski Library of the Republic which existed until the final demise of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Third Partition of Poland in 1795.
Marszałkowska Street, also known by its English name Marshall Street, is one of the main thoroughfares of Warsaw, Poland, located in the district of Downtown (Śródmieście). It runs along the north–south axis, from Bank Square in the north to the Union of Lublin Square in the south.
Marcin Zaleski was a Polish painter, a representative of Neoclassicism, considered the greatest Polish vedutist of the 19th century. He mostly painted the cityscapes of Warsaw, Kraków and Vilnius.
The Krasiński Palace, also known as the Palace of the Commonwealth, is a reconstructed Baroque palace in Warsaw, Poland, on Krasiński Square. Initially erected between 1677 and 1683 for the powerful Krasiński family, it was heavily damaged during World War II and rebuilt in the mid-20th century.
The National Library is the central Polish library, subject directly to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
Warsaw's Old Town Market Place is the center and oldest part of the Old Town of Warsaw, Poland. Immediately after the Warsaw Uprising, it was systematically blown up by the German Army. After World War II, the Old Town Market Place was restored to its prewar appearance.
Staszic Palace is an edifice at ulica Nowy Świat 72, Warsaw, Poland. It is the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Polish culture during World War II was suppressed by the occupying powers of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, both of whom were hostile to Poland's people and cultural heritage. Policies aimed at cultural genocide resulted in the deaths of thousands of scholars and artists, and the theft and destruction of innumerable cultural artifacts. ''The maltreatment of the Poles was one of many ways in which the Nazi and Soviet regimes had grown to resemble one another", wrote British historian Niall Ferguson.
The Polish Museum, Rapperswil, was founded in Rapperswil, Switzerland, on 23 October 1870, by Polish Count Władysław Broel-Plater, at the urging of Agaton Giller, as "a refuge for Poland's historic memorabilia dishonored and plundered in the [occupied Polish] homeland" and for the promotion of Polish interests.
The history of Warsaw spans over 1400 years. In that time, the city evolved from a cluster of villages to the capital of a major European power, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth—and, under the patronage of its kings, a center of enlightenment and otherwise unknown tolerance. Fortified settlements founded in the 9th century form the core of the city, in today's Warsaw Old Town.
The Pabst Plan was a Nazi German urban plan to reconstruct the city of Warsaw as a Nazi model city. Named after its creator Friedrich Pabst, the Nazis' "Chief Architect for Warsaw", the plan assumed that Warsaw, the historical capital of Poland and a city of 1.5 million inhabitants, would be completely destroyed and rebuilt as a small German town of not more than 130,000 inhabitants.
Church of the Holiest Saviour is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Śródmieście district of Warsaw, Poland. It is located on the Saviour Square.
Krasiński Library was a library in Warsaw, founded in 1844. During the German invasion and occupation of Poland, part of the building was destroyed and its collections were stolen, redistributed, or burned. Its surviving collections are now at the National Library of Poland.
Dom Prasy was a Polish news corporation of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as a name of the eponymous building in Warsaw, where it had its headquarters. It published numerous daily newspapers and weekly journals. Taken over by the Germans during World War II, the company's assets became the cornerstone of the Nowy Kurier Warszawski propaganda newspaper. After the war the Dom Prasy's assets became the foundation of several modern newspapers, including Życie Warszawy.
The 74 Marszałkowska Street multifamily residential building is a socialist realist multifamily residential building, located in the city of Warsaw, Poland, at 74 Marszałkowska Street, near the crossing with 29/31 Hoża Street. It was built in the 1960s, and since 2016, it has the status of a cultural property.
The Zamboni Brothers Tenement was a 4-storey Gothic Revival tenement residential building, located in the city of Warsaw, Poland, at 127 Marszałkowska Street. The building was designed by architect Józef Pius Dziekoński, and built in 1894. It was destroyed in 1944 during the Second World War and its ruins were deconstructed in 1946.
References
↑ "Liberation of Warsaw". The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. 2020-01-17. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
↑ Source: (Polish) Adolf Ciborowski, Warszawa – o zniszczeniu i odbudowie miasta, Warsaw, Interpress Publishers, 1969, p. 57.
↑ Krystyna Wituska, Irene Tomaszewski, Inside a Gestapo Prison: The Letters of Krystyna Wituska, 1942–1944, Wayne State University Press, 2006, ISBN0-8143-3294-3, Google Print, p.xxii
↑ Księga Pamięci, Transporty Polaków z Warszawy do KL Auschwitz 1940–1944 (Memorial Book: Transports of Poles from Warsaw to Auschwitz Concentration Camp 1940–1944)
↑ Source: (Polish): Adolf Ciborowski: O zniszczeniu i odbudowie miasta (A City Destroyed and Rebuilt), Warszawa 1969, Poland: "Interpress" Publishers, p.63
1 2 Maria Witt. "The Zaluski Collection in Warsaw". The Strange Life of One of the Greatest European Libraries of the Eighteenth Century. FYI France (September 15 and October 15, 2005). Archived from the original on December 9, 2013. Retrieved February 17, 2008.
↑ Gabriela Pauszer-Klonowska (1969). "year XXV, no 8 (281)". W Rapperswilu śladami Żeromskiego i Prusa (In Rapperswil in the Footsteps of Żeromski and Prus) (in Polish). Problemy: organ Towarzystwa Wiedzy Powszechnej. pp.466–467.
↑ Ciborowski, Adolf (1969). O zniszczeniu i odbudowie miasta[A City Destroyed and Rebuilt] (in Polish). Warszawa: "Interpress" Publishers. p.56. OCLC3369342.
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