In a recent post, I talked about the honor of meeting a Home Army (“AK”) veteran, the armed element of the Polish Underground State that fought a guerrilla war against the Nazis during the second world war. The AK’s most famous battle, though, was a two-month uprising in ’44 as well documented in the modern Warsaw Uprising Museum, which opened five years ago in the Polish capital on the 60th anniversary of the rebellion.
The uprising itself launched on Aug. 1, 1944, as part of the nationwide Operation Tempest. The Soviet army was just days away, so the underground resistance launched a full-scale fight to keep the Nazis tied down and unable to fortify their positions for the approaching Russian forces. Tragically, the Soviets planned to take over Poland after the war, and they opted to wait outside the city and allow the Nazi to eliminate a future threat. The undermanned, under-armed resistance fought on for 63 days before finally having to surrender in early October.
Early in the uprising, the AK and the civilians that joined them were able to claim several parts of the city, liberate a concentration camp and kill thousands of Nazi troops. With the Soviets on the sidelines and the Nazis receiving reinforcements, the situation soon turned grim as the German troops started systematically gunning down civilians, hundreds of thousands of them, and demolishing the city. Even if an AK soldier tried to surrender, he was shot dead on the shot as the Nazis tried to make an example of the city to discourage uprisings elsewhere. By the time the entire AK army officially surrendered, 50 percent of Warsaw’s buildings had been leveled to the ground. The Nazi went ahead and leveled another 35 percent of the buildings so that less than 15 percent of the city’s structures remained standing. The Red Army entered the city a few months later.
The Warsaw Uprising Museum offers the most artifacts and historical documents from this important period in Polish history. There are videos of survivors recalling the events, historical timelines, images from conflict and even weapons used by the insurgents. There is also a video timeline of the events, and to help capture the moment, the museum occasionally blasts the sounds of falling bombs with the tremendous rattle of impact to simulate what it must have been like for people living through this Armaggedon-like experience.
Other items at the museum include a wall dedicated to those lost in the uprising, words of protests from George Orwell over the west’s lack of action to help and even a 110-seat theater. The museum captures an incredible moment in Polish and World War II history, and it’s definitely one of the more interesting museums you’ll visit on a trip through Europe. If you love history, don’t skip the Warsaw Uprising Museum and the stories of courage it details.
