Planned destruction of Warsaw
Encyclopedia
The planned destruction of Warsaw
refers to the largely realised plans by Nazi Germany
to completely raze the city. The plan was put into full motion after the Warsaw Uprising
in 1944. The uprising had infuriated German leaders who now wanted to make an example of the city, which they had long before selected for a major reconstruction as part of their plans to "Germanize" Eastern Europe:
Considerable resources were diverted to the destruction of the city, which was soon to fall back into Allied hands. Most of the buildings and an immense part of the cultural heritage were demolished or burned to the ground. After the war, extensive work was put into rebuilding the city according to pre-war plans and historical documents.
. On June 20, 1939 while Adolf Hitler was visiting an architectural bureau in Würzburg am Main
, his attention was captured by 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 fifteen 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. The project was soon incorporated into Generalplan Ost
. The aftermath of the failure of the Warsaw Uprising presented an opportunity for Hitler to begin the realization his pre-war conception.
In December 1939 the first mass shootings of civilians takes place in the Kampinos Forest near Warsaw where by 1943 thousands would be killed. In 1940 round-ups (lapanki) of civilians on streets and in homes became the norm. Those who did not manage to escape were sent to death camps at Auschwitz and Majdanek or forced into slave labour in Germany. The Nazis divided Warsaw into a Jewish sector, a Polish sector and a German sector. The programme of annihilation and ethnic cleansing was systematically carried out starting with Polish Jews and Jews from other areas shipped into the Warsaw ghetto.
In 1940, the Germans turned the northern part of mid-town Warsaw, about one square mile in size, into the Jewish ghetto surrounded by ten foot high walls and watch-towers. The population would eventually swell to 500,000 by some estimates. Between July 22 and October 3, 1942 the ghetto was "evacuated." More than 300,000 inhabitants perished in the gas chambers, the 70,000 remaining in the ghetto were employed as slave labourers supplying the German army. In December 1943 Nazis undertook the final destruction of the ghetto which triggered the ghetto uprising. The uprising was put down mercilessly and the whole district razed to the ground.
Elsewhere in Warsaw collective responsibility was the rule resulting in the murders of thousands, which resulted in the Warsaw Uprising on August 1, 1944. 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 with Erich von dem Bach, SS-Gruppen-fuhrer and Police General who took over from Reinefarth at the helm. Von dem Bach later wrote about his meeting with Reinefarth: "Reinfarth drew my attention to the existence of a clear order issued by Himmler. The first thing he told me was that he has been distinctly ordered not to take any prisoners but to kill every inhabitant of Warsaw. I asked him, 'women and children, too?' to which he replied, 'Yes, women and children, too...'" In the wake of this unprecedented planned destruction and ethnic cleansing, by 1944 800,000 civilians were killed, or 60% of the population.
A few days after the outbreak of the uprising Hans Frank wrote in his diary: "Almost all Warsaw is a sea of flames. To set houses afire is the surest way to deprive the insurgents of their hiding places. When we crush the uprising, Warsaw will get what it deserves – complete annihilation."
In 1944 a large transit camp (Durchgangslager) 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 Durchgangslager 121 (Dulag 121). 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.
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 elderly, aged 86 or more. In a few cases, these were also people of different ethnic backgrounds, including Jews living on "Aryan papers."
Some people hid in the deserted city. They were called Robinson Crusoes of Warsaw
(after Robinson Crusoe
) or cavemen. Germans called them rats and killed them if they were found within the city ruins. The best known Robinson of Warsaw was Władysław Szpilman. Szpilman's experiences were adapted into The Pianist
.
After the remaining population had been expelled, the Germans begun the destruction of the remnants of the city. Special groups of German engineers were dispatched throughout the city in order to burn and demolish the remaining buildings. According to German plans, after the war Warsaw was to be turned into nothing more but a military transit station. The demolition squads used flamethrower
s and explosives to methodically destroy house after house. They paid special attention to historical monuments, the Polish national archives, and other places of interest whose destruction was carried out under the supervision of German scholars. Nothing was to be left of what used to be a city.
By January 1945, about 85% of the buildings had been destroyed; 10% as a result of the September 1939 campaign
and other combat, 15% during the earlier Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
, 25% during the Uprising, and 35% due to systematic German actions after the uprising.
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 considered to be substantial. Studies done in the late 1940s estimated total damage at about US$30 billion. 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. Those estimates were later raised to $45 billion and in 2005, to $54.6 billion (all equated to 2004 dollars).
The destruction of the city was so severe that in order to rebuild much of Warsaw a detailed landscape of the city, painted by the Italian artists Marcello Bacciarelli
and Bernardo Bellotto
, which had been commissioned by the government before the Partitions of Poland
had to be used as a model to recreate most of the buildings.
Notable dates in the history of destruction of Warsaw:
Alfred Mensebach, one german architect and a number of camera teams documented the destruction.
The city of Warsaw was rebuilt, with the Old Town
being thoroughly reconstructed, and the New Town being partially restored to its former state.
in Poland and one of the oldest and most important libraries in Europe (established in 1747), was burned down. Out of about 400,000 printed items, maps
and manuscript
s, 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 Zamoyski Library), including collections of priceless value to Polish culture
, ceased to exist. Those libraries have already suffered in September 1939, bombed and burned.
Important collection of books belonging to the Krasiński Estate Library, created in 1844, was largely destroyed in 1944. The collection originally consisted of 250,000 items. During the Uprising, on September 5, 1944, the library's warehouse
s 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 manuscript
s, 2,500 incunables, 80,000 early printed books, 100,000 drawings and printmaking
s, 50,000 note and theater manuscripts as well as a large collection of maps and atlas
es were lost. The Przeździecki Estate Library in 6 Foksal Street included 60,000 volumes and 500 manuscripts, rich archive containing 800 parchment and paper documents, as well as the rich cartographic collection consisting of 350 maps, atlases and plans. In addition to 10,000 prints and drawings, there was a rich 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 Zamoyski Estate Library, 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. 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 was transported to Poland in 1927. 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. 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. This resulted in the disappearance of about sixteen million volumes in Poland during World War II.
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
refers to the largely realised plans by Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
to completely raze the city. The plan was put into full motion after the Warsaw Uprising
Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
in 1944. The uprising had infuriated German leaders who now wanted to make an example of the city, which they had long before selected for a major reconstruction as part of their plans to "Germanize" Eastern Europe:
Considerable resources were diverted to the destruction of the city, which was soon to fall back into Allied hands. Most of the buildings and an immense part of the cultural heritage were demolished or burned to the ground. After the war, extensive work was put into rebuilding the city according to pre-war plans and historical documents.
Pre-war plan of destruction
Destruction of the Polish capital was planned before its final destruction in 1944 and even before the start of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. On June 20, 1939 while Adolf Hitler was visiting an architectural bureau in Würzburg am Main
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
, his attention was captured by a project of a future German town – Neue deutsche Stadt Warschau. According to the Pabst Plan
Pabst Plan
The Pabst Plan was a Nazi German urban plan to reconstruct the city of Warsaw as a Nazi model city. Named after its creator Friedrich Pabst, the Nazis' "Chief Architect for Warsaw", the plan assumed that Warsaw, the historical capital of Poland and a city of 1.5 million inhabitants, would be...
, 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 fifteen 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. The project was soon incorporated into Generalplan Ost
Generalplan Ost
Generalplan Ost was a secret Nazi German plan for the colonization of Eastern Europe. Implementing it would have necessitated genocide and ethnic cleansing to be undertaken in the Eastern European territories occupied by Germany during World War II...
. The aftermath of the failure of the Warsaw Uprising presented an opportunity for Hitler to begin the realization his pre-war conception.
Expulsion of civilians
In 1940, the Germans turned the northern part of mid-town Warsaw, about one square mile in size, into the Jewish ghetto surrounded by ten foot high walls and watch-towers. The population would eventually swell to 500,000 by some estimates. Between July 22 and October 3, 1942 the ghetto was "evacuated." More than 300,000 inhabitants perished in the gas chambers, the 70,000 remaining in the ghetto were employed as slave labourers supplying the German army. In December 1943 Nazis undertook the final destruction of the ghetto which triggered the ghetto uprising. The uprising was put down mercilessly and the whole district razed to the ground.
Elsewhere in Warsaw collective responsibility was the rule resulting in the murders of thousands, which resulted in the Warsaw Uprising on August 1, 1944. 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 with Erich von dem Bach, SS-Gruppen-fuhrer and Police General who took over from Reinefarth at the helm. Von dem Bach later wrote about his meeting with Reinefarth: "Reinfarth drew my attention to the existence of a clear order issued by Himmler. The first thing he told me was that he has been distinctly ordered not to take any prisoners but to kill every inhabitant of Warsaw. I asked him, 'women and children, too?' to which he replied, 'Yes, women and children, too...'" In the wake of this unprecedented planned destruction and ethnic cleansing, by 1944 800,000 civilians were killed, or 60% of the population.
A few days after the outbreak of the uprising Hans Frank wrote in his diary: "Almost all Warsaw is a sea of flames. To set houses afire is the surest way to deprive the insurgents of their hiding places. When we crush the uprising, Warsaw will get what it deserves – complete annihilation."
In 1944 a large transit camp (Durchgangslager) was constructed in Pruszków
Pruszków
Pruszków is a town in central Poland, situated in the Masovian Voivodeship since 1999. It was previously in Warszawa Voivodeship . Pruszków is the capital of Pruszków County, located along the western edge of the Warsaw urban area...
'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 Durchgangslager 121 (Dulag 121). 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.
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 elderly, aged 86 or more. In a few cases, these were also people of different ethnic backgrounds, including Jews living on "Aryan papers."
Some people hid in the deserted city. They were called Robinson Crusoes of Warsaw
Robinson Crusoes of Warsaw
Robinson Crusoes of Warsaw were people who, after the end of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and the subsequent planned destruction of Warsaw by Nazi Germany, decided to stay and hide in the ruins of the German-occupied city...
(after Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
) or cavemen. Germans called them rats and killed them if they were found within the city ruins. The best known Robinson of Warsaw was Władysław Szpilman. Szpilman's experiences were adapted into The Pianist
The Pianist (2002 film)
The Pianist is a 2002 biographical war film directed by Roman Polanski, starring Adrien Brody. It is an adaptation of the autobiography of the same name by Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman...
.
Looting and destruction of buildings
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...
s and explosives to methodically destroy house after house. They paid special attention to historical monuments, the Polish national archives, and other places of interest whose destruction was carried out under the supervision of German scholars. Nothing was to be left of what used to be a city.
By January 1945, about 85% of the buildings had been destroyed; 10% as a result of the September 1939 campaign
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
and other combat, 15% during the earlier Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
, 25% during the Uprising, and 35% due to systematic German actions after the uprising.
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
University of Warsaw
The University of Warsaw is the largest university in Poland and one of the most prestigious, ranked as best Polish university in 2010 and 2011...
, the Warsaw University of Technology
Warsaw University of Technology
The Warsaw University of Technology is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland, and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professors . The student body numbers 36,156 , mostly full-time. There are 17 faculties covering almost all fields of...
, 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 considered to be substantial. Studies done in the late 1940s estimated total damage at about US$30 billion. In 2004, the President of Warsaw
President of Warsaw
The Mayor of Warsaw, or more properly the President of Warsaw is the head of the capital of Poland....
, Lech Kaczyński
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
(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. Those estimates were later raised to $45 billion and in 2005, to $54.6 billion (all equated to 2004 dollars).
The destruction of the city was so severe that in order to rebuild much of Warsaw a detailed landscape of the city, painted by the Italian artists Marcello Bacciarelli
Marcello Bacciarelli
Marcello Bacciarelli was an Italian painter of the late-baroque and Neoclassic periods.He studied in Rome under Marco Benefial. In 1750 he was called to Dresden, Saxony, where he was employed by Elected King Augustus III of Poland; after whose death he went to Vienna, and thence to Warsaw...
and Bernardo Bellotto
Bernardo Bellotto
Bernardo Bellotto was a Venitian urban landscape painter or vedutista, and printmaker in etching famous for his vedutes of European cities . He was the pupil and nephew of Canaletto and sometimes used the latter's illustrious name, signing himself as Bernardo Canaletto...
, which had been commissioned by the government before the Partitions of Poland
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
had to be used as a model to recreate most of the buildings.
Notable dates in the history of destruction of Warsaw:
- September 4 – Royal CastleRoyal Castle, WarsawThe Royal Castle in Warsaw is a castle residency and was the official residence of the Polish monarchs. It is located in the Castle Square, at the entrance to the Warsaw Old Town. The personal offices of the king and the administrative offices of the Royal Court of Poland were located there from...
- October – Collection of manuscripts from the National Library of PolandNational Library of PolandThe National Library of Poland is the central Polish library, subject directly to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland....
burned - December 18 – Brühl PalaceBrühl Palace, WarsawThe Brühl Palace , otherwise known as Sandomierski Palace standing at Piłsudski Square. It was a large palace and one of the most beautiful rococo buildings in pre-World War II Warsaw.-History:...
- December 27 – Saxon Palace
- December – Łazienki Palace burned, about 1,000 holes drilled in its walls, the construction however preserved.
Alfred Mensebach, one german architect and a number of camera teams documented the destruction.
The city of Warsaw was rebuilt, with the Old Town
Warsaw Old Town
Warsaw's Old Town is the oldest historic district of the city. It is bounded by Wybrzeże Gdańskie, along the bank of the Vistula, and by Grodzka, Mostowa and Podwale Streets. It is one of Warsaw's most prominent tourist attractions....
being thoroughly reconstructed, and the New Town being partially restored to its former state.
Burning of libraries
During the German suppression of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 around 70 to 80% of libraries were carefully burned by the Verbrennungskommandos (Burning Detachments), whose mission and specialty were to burn Warsaw. In October 1944 the Załuski Library, the oldest public libraryPublic library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
in Poland and one of the oldest and most important libraries in Europe (established in 1747), was burned down. Out of about 400,000 printed items, maps
MAPS
Maps is the plural of map, a visual representation of an area.As an acronym, MAPS may refer to:* Mail Abuse Prevention System, an organisation that provides anti-spam support...
and manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
s, 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 Zamoyski Library), including collections of priceless value to Polish culture
Culture of Poland
The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1000 year history Its unique character developed as a result of its geography at the confluence of various European regions...
, ceased to exist. Those libraries have already suffered in September 1939, bombed and burned.
Important collection of books belonging to the Krasiński Estate Library, created in 1844, was largely destroyed in 1944. The collection originally consisted of 250,000 items. During the Uprising, on September 5, 1944, the library's warehouse
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
s 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 manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
s, 2,500 incunables, 80,000 early printed books, 100,000 drawings and printmaking
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
s, 50,000 note and theater manuscripts as well as a large collection of maps and atlas
Atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a map of Earth or a region of Earth, but there are atlases of the other planets in the Solar System. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats...
es were lost. The Przeździecki Estate Library in 6 Foksal Street included 60,000 volumes and 500 manuscripts, rich archive containing 800 parchment and paper documents, as well as the rich cartographic collection consisting of 350 maps, atlases and plans. In addition to 10,000 prints and drawings, there was a rich art gallery (Portrait of Casimir Jagiellon from the 15th century, Portrait of John III Sobieski from the Schleissheim Palace
Schleissheim Palace
The Schleissheim Palace actually comprises three palaces in a grand baroque park in the village of Oberschleißheim near Munich, Bavaria, Germany. The palace was the summer residence of the rulers of Bavaria.-Old 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
Kamienica (architecture)
Kamienica is a Polish term describing a type of residential building made of brick or stone, with at least 2 floors. The word is usually used to describe a building which is incorporated with other, similar buildings....
at Szczygla Street were burned in October 1944. The last of above mentioned libraries, the Zamoyski Estate Library, 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. 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
Polish Museum, Rapperswil
The Polish Museum, Rapperswil, was founded in Rapperswil, Switzerland, on October 23, 1870, by Polish Count Władysław Broel-Plater, at the urging of Agaton Giller, as "a refuge for [Poland's] historic memorabilia dishonored and plundered in the [occupied Polish] homeland" and for the promotion of...
deposited there for safekeeping. The collection of the Rapperswil Library was transported to Poland in 1927. The library and the museum were founded in Rapperswil
Rapperswil
Rapperswil-Jona is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of See-Gaster in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.Besides Rapperswil and Jona, which were separate municipalities until 2006, the municipality includes Bollingen, Busskirch, Curtiberg, Kempraten-Lenggis, Wagen, and Wurmsbach.-Today:On...
, 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. 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
Nazi book burnings
The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the authorities of Nazi Germany to ceremonially burn all books in Germany which did not correspond with Nazi ideology.-The book-burning campaign:...
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. This resulted in the disappearance of about sixteen million volumes in Poland during World War II.
Notable damaged or destroyed structures
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Mostowski Palace Mostowski Palace is an 18th-century palace in Warsaw, Poland, located at ul. Nowolipie 2 — prior to World War II, at ul... Staszic Palace Staszic Palace is an edifice at ulica Nowy Świat 72, Warsaw, Poland. It is the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences.-Origin:The history of the Staszic Palace dates to 1620, when King Zygmunt III Vasa ordered the construction of a small Eastern Orthodox chapel, as a proper place of burial for the... Tyszkiewicz Palace, Warsaw The Tyszkiewicz Palace , or Tyszkiewicz–Potocki Palace, is a palace at 32 Krakowskie Przedmieście in Warsaw, Poland.It is one of the most beautiful neoclassical structures in the city.-History:... Kazimierzowski Palace The Kazimierz Palace is a building in Warsaw, Poland, adjacent to the Royal Route, at Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28.Originally built in 1637-41, it was rebuilt in 1660 for King John II Casimir and again in 1765-68, by Domenico Merlini, for the Corps of Cadets established by King Stanisław August... Ujazdów Castle Ujazdów Castle is a castle in the historic Ujazdów district, between Ujazdów Park and the Royal Baths Park , in Warsaw, Poland.-History:... Zygmunt's Column Sigismund's Column , erected in 1644, is located in Castle Square, Warsaw, Poland. It is one of Warsaw's most famous landmarks and one of the oldest secular monuments in northern Europe... St. Alexander's Church St. Alexander's Church is a Roman Catholic church on Plac Trzech Krzyży in Warsaw, Poland.-History:... |
St. John's Cathedral, Warsaw St. John's Archcathedral in Warsaw is a Catholic church in Warsaw's Old Town, is the only one archcathedral in Warszawa, the other 3 are cathedrals in the Polish capital. St. John's stands immediately adjacent to Warsaw's Jesuit church, and is one of the oldest churches in the city and the main... Jesuit Church, Warsaw Jesuit Church , otherwise the Church of the Gracious Mother of God is an ornate church in Warsaw, Poland. Immediately adjacent to St. John's Cathedral, it is one of the most notable mannerist churches in Poland's capital... St. Mary's Church, Warsaw The Church of the Visitation of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary , otherwise known as St. Mary's Church is a church in Warsaw, Poland. It is one of oldest buildings and one of the few surviving examples of Gothic architecture in the city. It is located at ulica Przyrynek 2.-History:St. Mary's Church... Holy Cross Church, Warsaw The Church of the Holy Cross is a Roman Catholic house of worship in downtown Warsaw, Poland. Located on Krakowskie Przedmieście opposite the main Warsaw University campus, it is one of the most notable Baroque churches in Poland's capital.... Church of the Holy Sacrament, Warsaw St. Kazimierz Church is a Roman Catholic church in Warsaw's New Town at Rynek Nowego Miasta 2 .-History:... St. Hyacinth's Church, Warsaw -History:St. Hyacinth's Church was founded by the Dominican Order and adjoins Warsaw's largest monastery. The church is a mixture of Renaissance and early-Baroque styles. Its construction began in 1603 and was completed in 1639.... Holy Trinity Church, Warsaw The Holy Trinity Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession , also known as Zug's Protestant Church is a Lutheran church in Warsaw, Poland. This is one of two Augsburg Evangelical churches in Warsaw... Field Cathedral of the Polish Army The Field Cathedral of the Polish Army is the main garrison church of Warsaw and the representative cathedral of the entire Polish Army. In the past the church served a variety of communities and roles: it used to be the church of the Collegium Nobilium and in the 19th century was also turned into... |