The restoration of Polish cities from WW2 destruction

Let`s see how much effort Poles had to put into the work of rebuilding their war destroyed cities.

Warsaw should go first as Poland`s capital and most heroic city ever.

The losses of Warsaw during WW2:
1. 800.000 people dead (that is twice as much as American army casualties which amounted to 400.000).

80 percent of the left riverside Warsaw ceased to exist, with such major districts as the Old Town, the New Town and Downtown.

10 % in September 1939 and 30% during Warsaw Uprising in 1944 (Germans leveled some districts to the ground). The remaining 30% are houses intentionally destroyed by German demolition units which carried Hitler`s mad order to eradicate Warsaw from the surface of the earth. Some even say that his exact order was that Warsaw be turned into “a lake”.

Warsavians who had survived the war and started coming back to their city after being forcefully expelled by Germans, saw the ocean of ruins in the place where once beautiful city, like a little Paris, was located.

Some examples
The church of St. Alexander

King Zygmunt III column lies on the ground, broken

The Royal Castle
1945 – the total destruction

St. John`s Cathedral]

Krasiński Palace – only the front wall was left. I cant` show you the photo now.
strony.aster.pl/stolice/pliki/wa_krasinskich01.jpg

Prudential – the pre-war skyscraper

It had a very strong construction of welded steel beams. The famous picture shows the building hit by a 2-ton shell from the heaviest mortar ever used by Germans during the Warsaw Uprising.

The ruin of the Polish Bank was only partly rebuilt after the war, like that famous building in Hiroshima, as a war memento.

The Old Town

Apparently the great door lock in the castle was able to be restored in detail because the great lock at Blenheim Palace in England is a copy of it. Researchers were able to go an study it.

Pulling down damaged houses

Not all quarters were reconstructed. Ufortunately, socialist planners decided not to rebuild most of bourgeaisie houses.

Muranów before the war

Turned into ghetto by Nazis was later razed to the ground except for one church.

Why they left that one church when they flattened everything else?

There are at least two theories: one nice and one practical. The nice one is that the Germans didn’t want to upset the Catholic Poles by demolishing a Catholic church. I think that explanation is bollocks (the Nazis proved time and again how little Poles mattered to them) and much prefer the practical one: the church made an excellent spot for snipers and artillery spotters to keep watch over the whole area of the former ghetto. Germans used the church as a storage house for looted goods. During Warsaw Rising 44 they used the tower as machine gun and observation post. They planned to blow it up too but somehow didn`t.

 

The communists rebuilt it as a socialist estate of blocks

Other were rebuilt but with modifications, e.g., tenement houses were deprived of their bourgeasie decorations.

The communists deprived those building of its splendour.

The church of St. Alexander 1939

40-50s

2007

Map of pre-war Warsaw (second map on the site).

Red colour means totally destroyed buildings which weren`t rebuilt, green means reconstructed or preserved ones.

E.g., one square

http://www.warszawa1939.pl/index_fotoplany.php

The communists allowed to rebuild the Old Town and many things but they did a lousy job to most of pre-war architecture.

Not only that, they also pulled down undamaged houses! A fair number were pulled down for the MDM development, others for the Palace of Culture

Check this site- moving on an old photo you get a contemporary view.
The second photo shows a synagogue today replaced by a skyscraper:  http://www.warszawa.przedwojenna.prv.pl/plac_bankowy1.htm

 

or another change here
http://www.warszawa.przedwojenna.prv.pl/plac_napoleona1.htm

and here
http://www.warszawa.przedwojenna.prv.pl/plac_3+1.htm

 

The second photo shows that even the Old Town wasn`t reconstructed completely….
http://www.warszawa.przedwojenna.prv.pl/plac_zamkowy1.htm

The first photo shows that only one building was restored in the long street.
http://www.warszawa.przedwojenna.prv.pl/czackiego1.htm

The once posh elegant Marshall Street turned into a socialist architectonic nightmare
http://www.warszawa.przedwojenna.prv.pl/marszalkowska3.htm

Oh, my, Warsaw was once called the Paris of the East!:
http://www.warszawa.przedwojenna.prv.pl/marszalkowska8.htm
http://www.warszawa.przedwojenna.prv.pl/marszalkowska6.htm

Links from this site:
http://www.warszawa.przedwojenna.prv.pl/

 

Restoration is so fascinating because it reminds me of resurrection. In a sense, Poland resurrected after WW2, though had been doomed for destruction by Nazis and Soviets.

Paintings by Belotto/Canaletto from 18 century were used in rebuilding the city.

1945

Ulica Świętokrzyska ( Swietokrzyski Street)

Before the war

1945

Today

After the war the passage still stands

Nothing in 1980.

Isn’t it ironic that the English name for Warszawa is Warsaw?

Here’s another website where you can see before/after pictures of specific locations in Warszawa:
stalus.iq.pl

Source; Heartfelt thanks to Pawian from the Polish Forum who provided these photos.

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Has anyone compensated Poles for the loss of so many lives and their properties?

Does anyone hear Poles whining as much for restitutions as Jews are?

When will Poles get JUSTICE?!!

Under God’s Eye there is no privileged nor superior nation unless self-made so.

We don’t whine or moan, but we want the chance to MOVE ON; To build, improve and develop which was suppressed by others so many times during the  partitions.

We will no longer accept the ‘guilt factor’ being pinned on us nor tolerate any slander.

Time to put a STOP  to it!

 

JUSTICE FOR POLAND!