Warsaw: Then and now
Some 80 percent of the Warsaw was destroyed between the Nazi invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, and the end of the war. But now the city has blossomed into a major European metropolis.
The old city today
Sigismund's Column stands in the middle of Castle Square in Warsaw. King Wladyslaw IV Vasa commanded it be constructed in honor of his father. Sigismund moved the royal court from Krakow to Warsaw in the 16th century and made the city the seat of the Polish king. The city was founded in the 13th century. Sigismunds' Column now symbolizes the reconstruction of Poland after World War II.
Oil paintings for reconstruction
The Venetian master Bernardo Belotto, known in the city under his nom-de-plum Canaletto, immortalized Warsaw in his 18th-century oil paintings. In 1945, when the Polish capital was in ruins - and with it most of the maps of the city - the paintings were used as plans for reconstructing the city. Today, Warsaw's historic city center is listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.
Warsaw's famous son
Like no other, composer Frederic Chopin represent Poland's contribution to European culture. He was born in Warsaw to a French father and Polish mother. The city named its largest airport after him, while several memorials honor him, and museums are dedicated to his life and work. Chopin's body was buried in Paris - his heart, however, was sent to Warsaw upon his request.
Paris of the East
Poland did not exist on European maps for more than 100 years: Russia, Austria and Germany divided the country amongst themselves. In 1918, Poland regained its independence and the capital bloomed. In the 1930s, Warsaw boasted 20 theaters, 70 cinemas and tens of thousands of university students.
Europe's largest ghetto
The Nazi invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, started World War II. A year later, German soldiers built a ghetto in Warsaw where as many as 400,000 Jews were forced to live. Most of them would later be transported to the Treblinka extermination camp. An uprising broke out in 1943 when Nazi SS troops attempted to remove the last prisoners from the ghetto.
A Polish tragedy
On August 1, 1944, the Red Army reached the banks of the Vistula River and German troops were retreating. That was when the Armia Krajowa, Poland's so-called Home Army resistance movement, took up arms against the Germans in the famed Warsaw Uprising. But the resistance waited in vain for support from the Soviets. The Armia Krajowa held out for 63 days before having to surrender to the Germans.
End of the line
The Germans destroyed large swaths of the city after crushing the Warsaw Uprising. In October 1944, ash and rubble covered the bombed-out city and all the bridges had been blown up. Of the 720,000 residents who lived in Warsaw before the uprising, only about 900 remained in the ruins. The Warsaw Uprising was seen as the largest Polish resistance operation against Nazi occupation.
'Stalin's revenge'
A gift from Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1955, the Palace of Culture and Science is a relic of Warsaw's communist era. For the people of Warsaw, the building became a symbol of totalitarian repression. Yet the Palace has also become a symbol of the city of Warsaw, and of the age of so-called Socialist realism in Poland. It currently houses cinemas, theaters, museums and offices.
Warsaw today
Poland's capital has blossomed since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The city has seen a rennaissance, attracting more people and international companies than other city in the country. Warsaw is now home to nearly 2 million people - new buildings have been sprouting up as well, with some offices more than 200 meters tall.