10 - Warsaw Uprising

The Warsaw uprising began on August 1, 1944 at 5 p.m. Approximately 45,000 members of the Polish Home Army under commandment of general Antoni Chruściel joined the combat. They were supported by 2,500 soldiers from other resistance movements, such as the National Armed Forces and the communist People's Army. Only a quarter of the partisans had access to weapons, fighting against 25,000 German soldiers equipped with artillery, tanks, and air forces. 

Within the first few days of the uprising, Polish forces took over several districts of Warsaw, including downtown and the Old Town. The Germans sent in reinforcements, however, and forced the Poles into a defensive position, bombarding them with air and artillery attacks for the next 63 days.  In the bitter house-to-house fighting against a technologically and numerically superior foe, the insurgents barely held out. More than 150,000 people died in the battle for the city. 

Meanwhile, the Red Army, which had been detained during the first days of the insurrection by a German assault, occupied a position at Praga, a suburb across the Vistula River from Warsaw, and remained idle. In addition, the Soviet government refused to allow the western Allies to use Soviet air bases to airlift supplies to the beleaguered Poles.

Without Allied support, the Home Army split into small, disconnected units and was forced to surrender when its supplies gave out Bór-Komorowski and his forces were taken prisoner, and the Germans then systematically deported the remainder of the city’s population and destroyed the city itself. German troops following Heinrich Himmler’s order to destroy the city took revenge on civilians. The bloodiest action against the inhabitants took place between August 5 and 7, 1944, when approximately 40,000 men, women, and children were murdered during massacres in the district of Wola. Simultaneously, the Germans initiated deportations of civilians from the city to the transit camp, Dulag 121, outside of Warsaw. They later relocated them for forced labor or to concentration camps.