Figure 1.--Here Polish boys read Micky Mouse comics amid the devestation of their city, probably Warsaw. We suspect that Mickey was no longer available during the German occupation. While the Luftwaffe was bombing Warsaw and other British cities, Goebels was already claiming that British attacks on German cities were war crimes.

Warsaw along with its people have to be the most tragic city of World War II. The much larger Luftwaff with its modern aircraft and airfields ringing Poland quickly destroyed the Polish Air Force. The initial Liuftwaffe attack on Warsaw was just the beginning of the air campaign.Many great cities would be enveloped in the wake of German assault on Warsaw, but none would suffer like Warsaw and its people. Some might point to Lenningrad, Dresden or Hiroshima, but that sad destination has to fall on Warsaw. Warsaw was the most devestated city of World War II. And the destruction of the city buildings does not capture the full horror of the attrocities imposed on the people of the citybby the NAZI occupiers and even their Sovoet 'liberators'. And in occurred in wave after wave of invaders and vicious occupiers. Warsaw was left badly damagd not only by the Luftwaffe, but by German artillery batteries. As German units moved on the capitl. They eventully ringed the city with heavy artillery batteries as the Germans laid seige to the city. Tragically it was only the beginning of the destruction of the city and the suffering of its people. Over the course of the War, an estimated 85 percent of the city would be destroyed. It all began with the initial Luftwaffe bombing (1939), but NAZI artillery fire (1939), and Soviet artillery fire (1944). A vindictive NAZI demolition completed the destruction of important buildings (1944) completed the destruction. Warsaw suffered the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto (1940-43), and the NAZI supression of the Warsaw rising (1944). It was of course the Jews who suffered most, but NAZI barbarity was not restructed to the Jews. At the onset of the NAZI occupation, the Germans setvout to murder the Polish inteligencia and leadership--A-B Aktion and the ordinary people werre targeted by the NAZI Hunger Plan. And it was not just the NAZIs that did the killing. The Soviet REd Army crossed of the Vistula in force (1945) and the Soviet NKVD continued rounding up and murdering surviving members of the Polish Home Army (1944-45).

Created: 6:42 PM 2/22/2017
Last updated: 6:42 PM 2/22/2017