The Destruction of Warszaw

[BikerBabe]

Original article in danish:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izMXn4aLNX0

The museum home page is located here:
http://www.miastoruin.pl/

 

[timor]

It is very nice, that other people then Pols take interest in what was going on in Poland during the German's occupation in WW2. Actually destruction of the city happend in three waves. First in 1939 city was bombed from the air into surrender. Second is destruction of area of jewish getto in 1943 during Jewish Upraising. In 1944 it was already a sea of ruins, bombed and burnt out. And the third a heavy bombing during and systematic destruction after Warsaw Upraising. Hitler wanted this city erased from "the face of the earth". And please, don't call soldiers of AK (Home Army) rebels, Germens call them this way. Warsaw Upraising was not a rebelion, it was another battle of WW2. After the upraising soldiers of AK became POW.
The only city hit harder then Warsaw ( You have to remember, that east part of Warsaw - Praga, didn't share the same fate as the west part. By the time of Upraising was occupied by soviets, who did nothing to help) was Wrocław (german name Breslau). Over 80% destruction done by both; Germans and Russians in 1945. Fighting over there ended some time after official surrender of Germany.
I would like to see this film very much.

 

[BikerBabe]

Hi Timor, and thank you for your feedback and your corrections.
I've tried my best to translate the article as close as possible to the original text in danish, and now I've exchanged the words "rebel" with the more appropriate "home army", and "uprising" woth "battle" because it is a more appropriate term to use.
I must admit that I don't know much of the history of Poland in WW2, and I'm glad that projects like this help modern-day people understand, just exactly what went on and what happened. I'd love to see this film, too.

 

[timor]

Hi BikerBabe. Just to add one more aspect to the topic. Poland never officialy signed any capitulation papers nor surrender. Polish soldier never stopped fighting. Most of the fleet escaped to England and took a part in Battle of Atlantic from very beginning. Then was France, then Battle of England, North Africa, Italy and Western Front. Also they fought on the eastern front with soviets who created two polish armies. Tobruk, Monte Cassino, Arnhem, Falaise, Berlin...and many more.
Check for yourself, couse is too much to write here.
Polish contribution to World War II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It is a short read, but very condensed.
Sooner or later someone will post this film on the net. I am currently living in Canada so it will be propably my only source. If I find it, I will let You Know.

 

[KevinK.]

Great clip. Very well done. Thanks for sharing BikerBabe.

 

[drgondog]

Warszaw this week.

Hitler's troops invaded Poland in 1939, and stayed for 6 years. Millions of polish people got killed, and many cities were hit hard. None were hit as hard a the capitol, though, which were bombed several times over.
Before WW2, 1.3 million people lived in Warszaw. At the time of the battle, this number had fallen to 900,000, and at the end of the war, only about a thousand people lived in the ruins of the city.
The city took the worst punishment, when the germans took revenge for the polish battle in 1944, which started on august 1st, 1944. The polish Home Army made a stand for 63 days. [\quote]

Of all the awards my father received during WWII and Korea the one he was most proud of was the Polish cross of Valour he received for leading the fighter escort to the supply drop on Sept 18, 1944.

40 years later I met the lady across the street, in my neighborhood in Dallas, who was a resistance fighter - and lived off of rats and chocolate covered cherries for two months. She broke down in our living room and cried when she found out my father had been part of the attempt to drop supplies to the resistance while the Soviets waited on the other side of the Vistula until the SS had rolled the Resistance up.

I will never forget a lady who could not have been five feet tall who was a sniper. I went to her funeral in 1990 to pay homage to a very brave lady.