Warsaw by DocentX (2007) PART I

Nice walk DocentX but you could put some descriptions
Why most of the buildings on your photos are falling over?

Yes, I like it

wholagun said:

its remarkable when you stop to think that the city was destroyed to mere rubble over 60 years ago. The city is a testament to the will of Poles and their amazing resilience, as Rousseau said about the occupation of the three great powers "if they swallow you, don't let them digest you".

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That's very true indeed. Only about 15-20% of Warsaw's total urban complex either escaped ruin or suffered minor damages (mainly in the right-bank Praga suburb), the remaining 80-85% was completely obliterated, in great part due to intentional destruction operations, carried out by special German detachments on Hitler's orders (he wanted Warsaw to be "wiped off the face of the earth"). Meaning that by the end of WW2, Warsaw did not really exist anymore as an urban entity. But as Poles refused to accept that, hence they immediately embarked on rebuilding their capital and Warsaw came back to life very fast, nowadays being sometimes referred to as the "Phoenix City", as it rose like Phoenix from its ashes.

The below photo depicts a part of the Old Town in 1945. The Vistula River is in the background, and in the left upper corner, the destroyed Kierbedzia Bridge is visible. Two pictures posted in this thread by DocentX (the Zamkowy-Castle Square with King Sigismund's statue on a high column), depict the same area, so you may compare how it was right after the war, and how it looks today.



As years pass by, ever more people find it increasingly hard to believe that most of Warsaw's "old" buildings, are actually meticulous post-WW2 reconstructions.

Insomniac said:

I agree, it's amazing that Warsaw (as well as Berlin, London, and Tokyo) were all able to bounce back from the destruction they suffered in World War II to become large international cities that they are today.

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Tokyo's fate was tragic, too, as was of Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Those are perhaps the only world capitals that compare to Warsaw in terms of the proportion of material losses in WW2.

But neither Berlin's, nor - much less - London's destruction, cannot be put on a par to Warsaw.

And...

Let's not forget the human toll. In 1939, Warsaw had ca 1,3 million inhabitants. More than 600,000 of them (ca 50%) were murdered by the Germans throughout the war. That number matches all British and US casualties of WW2 combined! London itself lost some 15,000 inhabitants. As for Berlin, some 50,000 Berliners lost their lives as result of air raids, and street fighting by the end of the war.

Considering Berlin's pre-war population of ca 3,500,000, the proportion of its human casualties did not exceed 2%. The destruction of urban fabric is estimated at 50% (mainly concentrated in strict city centre).

Once again:

Berlin ca 50% destroyed --- 50,000 inhabitants dead (ca 2%).
Warsaw ca 85% destroyed --- more than 600,000 inhabitants dead (ca 50%).

Also, it must be said that Berlin never ceased existing nor functioning as an urban/social entity. While Warsaw between October 1944 and January 1945 was not only nearly completely destroyed, it was also totally deserted, as surviving inhabitants had been deported by the Germans to forced labour and concentrations camps (some were delivered to other areas of Poland to their own fate).

Finally, to this it should be said - Berlin was capital of the aggressor country. Warsaw was capital of the victimised country.

Thus, there was a time there was actually no Warsaw anymore, to put it straight. That probably did not happen to any other world capital in the modern era.

And so said gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who visited Warsaw in September 1945. Shocked at what he saw, he declared having never seen a big city as terribly destroyed, as Warsaw.

Having said all the above, the rebuilding of Warsaw cannot be compared to reconstruction of other European capitals, because it entailed the rebirth of a dead city.

ove the architecture