By M.M.
2 August 2006

Starting Aug. 1, a series of formerly top secret photographs will be on display in Warsaw, taken from German Luftwaffe aircraft in May and June 1944, on the eve of the Warsaw Uprising. The exhibition includes a multimedia presentation.

Displayed for the first time in Poland, the unique collection of aerial photographs is a kind of "last look" at prewar Warsaw. A few months later, the city-before the war known as the "Paris of the North"-was reduced to a sea of rubble. During the uprising, it was first heavily bombed by the Germans, and after the capitulation was signed and the battles ended, German commanders-contravening international conventions-gave the order to raze the already pacified city to the ground. The order was duly and systematically carried out.

The photographs present a panorama of Warsaw from various heights, with close-ups of various facilities and locations. The pictures are not typical for the needs of urban planning documentation, so why were they taken in this way? Most likely, they were documentation for the plan, developed by the Nazi occupiers much earlier, to tear down the Polish capital in order to build a smaller, "purely German" city in its stead. This idea was adopted as early as November 1939 by Adolf Hitler, who determined that Warsaw, as a center of culture and resistance of the Poles-additionally "contaminated" by the Jewish community, should be destroyed, because it was "useless" for the Germans. The uprising of 1944-with fighting so fierce that it was compared to the battles in Stalingrad in the correspondence of German commanders-demonstrated that the city was dangerous as well.

The exhibition, financed with funds from the city, will be presented in a large tent in front of the main entrance to the Palace of Culture and Science (PKiN), on Marszałkowska Street, through Sept. 1.

The reinforced concrete building of the Polish Securities Printing House (PWPW) on Sanguszki Street was the site of one of the longest stands by insurgents in the Old Town. As part of the 62nd anniversary commemorations of the Warsaw Uprising, crowds of onlookers witnessed a reenactment of the battle of the PWPW July 29.

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