The uprising
Honored last week in a resolution by the U.S. Congress as "a symbol of heroism in the face of great adversity and the pursuit of freedom," the uprising was criticized at the time as a senseless loss of lives, threatening the very "biological substance of the nation." It followed on the heels of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that completed the extermination of the city's Jewish population, which had been upwards of 330,000, or 30 percent of the inhabitants of the city, prior to the Nazi invasion. Thus, in less than two years, Warsaw lost half of its people. After the surrender of the Home Army, the resistance movement that led the uprising, German troops deported the remaining population. The number of inhabitants was thus reduced from more than a million to less than ten in a matter of months. The subsequent bombing campaign led to the destruction of the city to such an extent that it far exceeded even that of Hiroshima or Nagasaki a year later.
The city was rebuilt in the late 1940s and 1950s, but it did not reach its prewar population until 30 years later. But, unlike in other Central European capitals, Warsaw was not the scene of an anti-Soviet uprising in the intervening decades. Many say this was due to the traumatic experience of 1944, which led Varsovians to conclude that armed resistance was futile. Be that as it may, the uprising remains one of the most lasting memories of Poles, and of the capital in particular. And Warsaw still bears many scars left over from that time. If you ever wondered why the city is so ugly, the answer is that no building, save for a very few, such as the Bristol Hotel, which was a favored haunt for Nazis, is older than 59 years of age.
The city was rebuilt in the late 1940s and 1950s, but it did not reach its prewar population until 30 years later. But, unlike in other Central European capitals, Warsaw was not the scene of an anti-Soviet uprising in the intervening decades. Many say this was due to the traumatic experience of 1944, which led Varsovians to conclude that armed resistance was futile. Be that as it may, the uprising remains one of the most lasting memories of Poles, and of the capital in particular. And Warsaw still bears many scars left over from that time. If you ever wondered why the city is so ugly, the answer is that no building, save for a very few, such as the Bristol Hotel, which was a favored haunt for Nazis, is older than 59 years of age.
