Best of Poland

On August 1, 1944, after nearly 5 years of occupation, the Warsaw Rising started and Poles fought a battle of 63 days against the German Nazis in which many lost their lives. The rising reached an end on October 5, 1944, the insurgent army and the Poland national authorities were taken from the capital into captivity. Hitler ordered the complete destruction of Warsaw, 85% of the city was bombarded and destroyed. Even though the Soviet Union army was already in Poland and had encouraged the Warsaw Rising through broadcasting, they stayed in the distance looking at the tragedy without doing anything to help the Poles fight against the German Nazis. Before the Warsaw Rising the city had 900,000 inhabitants and after the rising only 1,000 people were still in the city. The Soviet Army entered into a destroyed Warsaw in January 17, 1945. The destruction of the capital, which was not able to actively oppose the postwar Communist occupation, made it easier to impose the communist regime and Sovietize the Polish society. The end of the Second World War was declared on May 8, 1945. After the war, many of Poland’s leaders who participated or contributed in the Warsaw Rising were capture and sentence to prison by the Soviet Union in Moscow, which many died in prison. It took years and resiliency for the city of Warsaw to be rebuilt. 10 years later the capital once again obtained one million inhabitants.