The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 – a heroic and tragic 63-day (1 August – 2 October 1944) struggle to liberate World War II Warsaw from Nazi/German occupation. Undertaken by the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK), the Polish resistance movement, at the time Allied troops were breaking through the Normandy defenses and the Red Army was standing at the line of the Vistula River.
Warsaw could have been one of the first European capitals liberated; however, various military and political miscalculations, as well as global politics – played among Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt – turned the dice against it.
These breathtaking photos show a part of the fighting, also everyday life of Polish civilians during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.
Warsaw could have been one of the first European capitals liberated; however, various military and political miscalculations, as well as global politics – played among Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt – turned the dice against it.
These breathtaking photos show a part of the fighting, also everyday life of Polish civilians during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.
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| The Victoria Hotel on Jasna Street was in insurgent hands within the first hour of the uprising and soon became their headquarter |
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| A machine gun crew on the balcony of a townhouse on Aleje Jerozolimskie |
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| A man carrying two suitcases running across a street behind a barricade |
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| A Polish partisan carrying a Błyskawica submachine gun and a radio |
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| A Polish partisan from Anna company of the Gustaw battalion, throwing a grenade towards German positions |
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| A Polish partisan in shooting position |
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| A Polish partisan of the Baszta battalion on the move |
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| A Polish partisan on the first day of the uprising |
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| A Polish partisan reading an insurgent newspaper |
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| A Polish sniper on a rooftop overlooking the Ewangelicki cemetery in Warsaw, 2nd August 1944 |
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| A Polski Fiat 508 III pick-up being used to transport a wounded partisan down Tamka Street in Powiśle |
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| A street kitchen on Czackiego Street |
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| A woman visiting the grave of a loved one |
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| A wounded civilian |
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| A wounded Polish partisan heading to Krasińskich Square to escape from the Old Town via the sewers |
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| A wounded Polish partisan receiving first aid |
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| A young girl collecting water |
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| A German POW having his head shaved in the PKO building |
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| An courier crossing a Warsaw street |
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| An insurgent patrol in Czerniaków |
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| Boy scouts delivering insurgent newspapers in the Powiśle district |
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| Burying the dead |
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| Cameramen filming on Marszałkowska Street during heavy German bombing |
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| Captured Polish partisans being executed by the Germans at the junction of Chłodna and Żelazna streets |
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| Checking for German snipers on Aleje Jerozolimskie |
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| Children will still play at soldiers, even in the most terrible of circumstances |
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| Citizens fleeing to the city centre |
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| Citizens of Warsaw evacuating the city during the daytime ceasefire on the first 2 days of October 1944. |
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| Citizens of Warsaw evacuating the city during the daytime ceasefire |
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| Citizens running down a city centre street during a German bombing raid |
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| Civilian casualties of a German bombing raid |
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| Civilians crossing a street in the city centre |
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| Civilians looking for shelter |
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| Corpses of Polish citizens on Jasna Street burned by German Nebelwerfer incendiary rockets |
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| Fire fighting efforts in Napoleon Square |
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| German POWs from the PAST, a building in the courtyard of a townhouse on Zielna Street |
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| German POWs |
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| German prisoners standing in front of the wall of the former Jewish ghetto on Bonifraterska Street |
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| Girl from Anna Company of the Gustaw battalion reading a book amid the rubble on Ślepa Street in the Old Town |
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| Help for the wounded |
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| Local residents abandoning the Wola district of Warsaw and heading towards the city centre |
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| Local residents abandoning the Wola district of Warsaw and heading towards the city centre |
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| Man firing at German positions from Piusa XI Street using a grenade launcher |
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| Man standing on the barricade between the main square of the Old Town and Świętojańska Street |
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| Members of the Kiliński battalion taking a break |
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| Members of the Polish Red Cross are blindfolded before being allowed to cross German lines for negotiations about allowing civilians to evacuate Warsaw |
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| Men carrying provisions |
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| A mother feeding her young daughter in a building on Sienna Street |
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| People crossing Wielka Street behind a barricade under fire from Germans |
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| Polish partisans entering a building through a hole in the wall |
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| Polish partisans exchanging fire with the Germans on Miodowa Street |
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| Polish partisans from the Pięść battalion crossing Chłodna Street in the Wola district |
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| Polish partisans in position behind a barricade on Mazowiecka Street |
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| Polish partisans in shooting position behind a barricade |
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| Polish partisans of the Chrobry II group |
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| Polish partisans of the Koszta Company on patrol at the crossroads of Sienkiewicza Street and Marszałkowska Street |
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| Polish partisans on the attack |
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| Polish partisans preparing to leave Warsaw |
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| Polish partisans reading a German propaganda leaflet urging them to surrender |
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| Residents of the Wola district being herded into a local church (św Wojciecha) prior to being evacuated from Warsaw |
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| Residents of the Wola district being marched down Wolska Street after being expelled from their homes |
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| Running for water across Krucza Street while under German fire |
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| People on Śniadeckich Street |
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| The forced expulsion of Warsaw's civilian population after the capitulation |
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| The Prudential building was Warsaw's tallest skyscraper and was hit by approximately 1000 artillery shells during the uprising (it remained standing until the end) |
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| The wedding of a couple of the Kiliński battalion, in a temporary chapel at 11 Moniuszki Street |
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| Victims of a massacre of civilians carried out by the Germans on Marszałkowska Street |
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| Waiting for the right moment to cross Zielna Street |
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| Weary civilians |
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| Women preparing food |
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| Women seeking information about their families after being deported to Pruszków |
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| Young insurgents on Sienkiewicza Street in central Warsaw |
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| Young insurgents playing chess on streets |
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| A Polish partisan surrendering his gun |
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| The corpses of tens of thousands of people who were killed during the uprising had to be exhumed, identified (where possible) and then reburied, 1945 |
