destruction of Warsaw

{{main|Pabst Plan}}

File:The Pabst Plan Warsaw 1.jpg

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.{{cite journal | url=http://ipn.gov.pl/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/58091/1-18553.pdf | title=Straty ludzkie i materialne w Powstaniu Warszawskim | author=Getter, Marek | journal=Biuletyn IPN | date=August–September 2004 | volume=8-9 | pages=71 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131217054937/http://ipn.gov.pl/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/58091/1-18553.pdf | archive-date=December 17, 2013 | df=mdy-all }}{{cite news | url=http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/archiv/-wartopia---eine-denkwuerdige-ausstellung-in-berlin-ueber-hitlers--neue-deutsche-stadt-warschau--eine-germanisierungsphantasie,10810590,10615768.html | title=Eine Germanisierungsphantasie | work=Berliner Zeitung | date=September 26, 2009 | access-date=16 December 2013 | author=Mix, Andreas | archive-date=23 September 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923184515/http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/archiv/-wartopia---eine-denkwuerdige-ausstellung-in-berlin-ueber-hitlers--neue-deutsche-stadt-warschau--eine-germanisierungsphantasie,10810590,10615768.html | url-status=dead }} The aftermath of the failure of the Warsaw Uprising presented an opportunity for Hitler to begin to realize his pre-war conception.Niels Gutschow, Barbarta Klain: Vernichtung und Utopie. Stadtplanung Warschau 1939 – 1945, Hamburg 1994, {{ISBN|3-88506-223-2}}{{page needed|date=August 2023}}{{page needed|date=August 2023}}

{{refimprove section|date=March 2019}}

File:Warsaw_1944.jpg

File:Destroyed Warsaw, capital of Poland, January 1945 - version 2.jpg in January 1945]]

The Warsaw Uprising was launched by the Polish Home Army on August 1, 1944, as part of Operation Tempest. In response, under orders from Heinrich Himmler, Warsaw was kept under ceaseless barrage by Nazi artillery and air power for sixty-three days and nights by Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski.{{fact|date=August 2023}}

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 Pruszków.{{fact|date=August 2023}} 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.{{fact|date=August 2023}} 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".Księga Pamięci, Transporty Polaków z Warszawy do KL Auschwitz 1940–1944 (Memorial Book: Transports of Poles from Warsaw to Auschwitz Concentration Camp 1940–1944){{additional citation needed|date=August 2023}}

File:Preparation for Destruction of Royal Castle in Warsaw.jpg, 8 September 1944]]

After the remaining population had been expelled, the Germans began the destruction of the remnants of the city.{{Cite web |url=http://www.warsawuprising.com/faq.htm |title=Warsaw Uprising: FAQ |access-date=2007-12-04 |archive-date=2018-09-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180929145555/http://www.warsawuprising.com/faq.htm |url-status=dead }} 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.Peter K. Gessner, [http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/uprising.html "For over two months..."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051203000118/http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/uprising.html |date=December 3, 2005 }}

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.{{Failed verification|date=October 2015}}

File:Major Sarnow and his Sprengkommando during the Warsaw Uprising.jpg

File:Kings Castle Square, Warsaw, 1945.jpg destroyed, Warsaw, 1945 viewSource: (Polish): Adolf Ciborowski: O zniszczeniu i odbudowie miasta (A City Destroyed and Rebuilt), Warszawa 1969, Poland: "Interpress" Publishers, p.63]]

File:The Saski Palace Warsaw, destroyed by Germans in 1944.jpg and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, 1945.]]

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. Almost a million inhabitants lost all of their possessions. 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 its 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 $31.5 billion.{{cite web|url=http://www.um.warszawa.pl/aktualnosci/warszawa-szacuje-straty-wojenne|title=Warszawa szacuje straty wojenne|language=pl|access-date=March 16, 2007|archive-date=February 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227051132/http://www.um.warszawa.pl/aktualnosci/warszawa-szacuje-straty-wojenne|url-status=dead}} Those estimates were later raised to $45 billion and in 2005, to $54.6 billion (all equated to 2004 dollars). The official estimates do not 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 onlySee the following pages on the official site of Warsaw: [http://www.um.warszawa.pl/sites/default/files/Raport_o_stratach_wojennych_Warszawy.pdf Raport o stratach wojennych Warszawy LISTOPAD 2004] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180717184136/http://www.um.warszawa.pl/sites/default/files/Raport_o_stratach_wojennych_Warszawy.pdf |date=2018-07-17 }}, [http://www.um.warszawa.pl/node/4452 Straty Warszawy w albumie] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225172359/http://www.um.warszawa.pl/node/4452 |date=2021-02-25 }} and [http://www.um.warszawa.pl/aktualnosci/straty-wojenne-warszawy Straty wojenne Warszawy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210311102733/https://www.um.warszawa.pl/aktualnosci/straty-wojenne-warszawy |date=2021-03-11 }} 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).

File:Zamoyski Library in Warsaw.JPG

File:Bible Meuse School.JPG 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.{{cite web |author = Maria Witt |url = http://www.fyifrance.com/f102005c.htm |title = The Zaluski Collection in Warsaw |work = The Strange Life of One of the Greatest European Libraries of the Eighteenth Century |publisher = FYI France (September 15 and October 15, 2005) |access-date = February 17, 2008 |archive-date = December 9, 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131209122840/http://www.fyifrance.com/f102005c.htm |url-status = dead }} 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.{{cite web |author=Lech Chmielewski |url=http://www.welcometo.home.pl/february_2003/happened.html |title=In the House under the Sign of the Kings |work=Welcome to Warsaw |access-date=February 17, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204161725/http://www.welcometo.home.pl/february_2003/happened.html |archive-date=February 4, 2012 |df=mdy-all }} Out of about 400,000 printed items, maps and manuscripts, only some 1,800 manuscripts and 30,000 printed materials survived.

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 Library of Zamoyski Family Entail), including collections of priceless value to Polish culture, ceased to exist.{{cite web |author=Konrad Ajewski |url=http://www.nid.pl/UserFiles/File/Publikacje/Muzealnictwo/Muzealnictwo%2045/muz_45-1.pdf |title=O trzech Bibliotekach Ordynackich w Warszawie w 60. rocznicę ich zniszczenia |work=www.nid.pl |access-date=2011-09-11 |language=pl |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330202730/http://www.nid.pl/UserFiles/File/Publikacje/Muzealnictwo/Muzealnictwo%2045/muz_45-1.pdf |archive-date=March 30, 2012 |df=mdy-all }} Those libraries had already suffered in September 1939, when they were bombed and burned.

An important collection of books belonging to the Krasiński Library, created in 1844, was largely destroyed in 1944.{{cite web |url=http://www.bn.org.pl/download/document/1236004197.pdf|title=Biblioteka Ordynacji Krasińskich|work=www.bn.org.pl|access-date=August 1, 2010|language=pl}} The collection originally consisted of 250,000 items. During the Uprising, on September 5, 1944, the library's warehouses were shelled by German artillery and burned almost completely. Some of the books were preserved, thrown through windows by the library's staff. The surviving collection was later deliberately burned by the Germans in October 1944 after collapse of the Uprising. 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. 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. 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. It burned down on September 25, 1939 as a result of severe aerial bombardment by the Germans (incendiary bombing). The surviving items sheltered in the neighbouring tenement house at Szczygla Street were burned in October 1944. 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. 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. In 1939, about 50,000 items (about 30%) were destroyed in bombing. On September 8, 1944, the Germans set fire to both the Zamoyski Palace (Blue Palace) and the library building.

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.{{cite web |url=http://www.muzeum-polskie.org/|title=The Polish National Museum (1870–1927)|work=www.muzeum-polskie.org|access-date=August 21, 2010}} 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.{{cite book |author=Gabriela Pauszer-Klonowska|title=W Rapperswilu śladami Żeromskiego i Prusa (In Rapperswil in the Footsteps of Żeromski and Prus)|year=1969|pages=466–467|chapter=year XXV, no 8 (281)|publisher=Problemy: organ Towarzystwa Wiedzy Powszechnej|language=pl}} 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.

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.{{cite book|author=Rebecca Knuth|title=Burning books and leveling libraries: extremist violence and cultural destruction|year=2006|page=[https://archive.org/details/burningbooksleve00rebe/page/166 166]|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=0-275-99007-9|url=https://archive.org/details/burningbooksleve00rebe/page/166|url-access=registration}} 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.

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2008-0415-508, Warschau, Luftaufnahme, Zerstörungen.jpg|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

File:Warsaw during WWII - Rondo Dmowskiego.jpg|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.

File:Warsaw Uprising - Prudential Hit - frame 2a.jpg|Prudential Building, hit by a 2-ton mortar shell

File:Old Town Warsaw waf-2012-1501-31(1945).jpg|Warsaw Old Town marketplace, 1945

File:The Royal Castle in Warsaw, 1945.jpg|Royal Castle reduced to rubble

File:Powstanie warszawskie ulica Marszałkowska.jpg|Marszałkowska Street in flames

File:Ursus factory in Warsaw set on fire during Warsaw Uprising.jpg|German soldiers in front of a burning Ursus factory

File:Warszawa Nowe Miasto 1944.jpg|St. Mary's Church, destroyed in 1944.

File:Warsaw Uprising - Christ of Holy Cross Church.jpg|Statue of Jesus Christ from the Holy Cross Church

File:Płonąca Hala Mirowska Powstanie warszawskie.jpg|Mirów Halls in flames

File:Sigismund's Column demolished during the Warsaw Uprising 01.jpg|Sigismund's Column demolished by German tank shell

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1996-057-10A, Warschauer Aufstand, Soldat mit Flammenwerfer.jpg|A German soldier sets fire to a building

File:Aerial photograph of the destroyed Warsaw Ghetto.jpg|Aerial photograph of the destroyed Warsaw Ghetto

File:Polish Soldier's Grave Warsaw 1945.jpg|Polish soldier's grave before ruins on Wyjazd Street

File:Polish Army Parade waf-2012-1502-29 (1945).jpg|Parade of the First Polish Army on Marszałkowska Street

File:Castleinwarsaw1947.jpg|Royal Castle near the Vistula River (1948)

File:Warsaw Ghetto destroyed by Germans, 1945.jpg

Warsaw was rebuilt 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.{{Cite web|title=How Warsaw Came Close to Never Being Rebuilt|url=https://culture.pl/en/article/how-warsaw-came-close-to-never-being-rebuilt|access-date=2020-11-26|website=Culture.pl|language=en}}

• Chronicles of Terror
• Destruction of Kalisz
• List of libraries damaged during World War II
• List of Polish cities and towns damaged in World War II
• Nero Decree
• Domicide
• Scorched earth

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book|last=Ciborowski|first=Adolf|title=Warsaw A City Destroyed and Rebuilt|year=1969|publisher=Interpress Publishers|location=Poland|pages=328}}

{{refend}}

• {{Commonscatinline}}
• [http://zapisyterroru.pl/dlibra/results?action=AdvancedSearchAction&type=-3&search_attid1=69&search_value1=Zburzenie+Warszawy Collection of civilian testimonies about destruction of Warsaw]
• [http://culture.pl/en/article/capturing-the-ruins-of-warsaw Capturing the Ruins of Warsaw]

{{Destroyed heritage}}

{{Warsaw|state=collapsed}}

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Warsaw

Category:Generalplan Ost

Category:Nazi war crimes during the Warsaw Uprising

Category:Germany–Poland relations

Warsaw

Category:Warsaw in World War II

Category:Military history of Warsaw

Category:Geographic history of Warsaw

Category:Reprisals

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II