Warsaw 1944: Hitler, Himmler, and the Warsaw Uprising

by Alexandra Richie

The full untold story of how one of history’s bravest revolts ended in one of its greatest crimes

In 1943, the Nazis liquidated Warsaw’s Jewish ghetto. A year later, they threatened to complete the city’s destruction by deporting its remaining residents. A sophisticated and cosmopolitan community a thousand years old was facing its final days—and then opportunity struck. As Soviet soldiers turned back the Nazi invasion of Russia and began pressing west, the underground Polish Home Army decided to act. Taking advantage of German disarray and seeking to forestall the absorption of their country into the Soviet empire, they chose to liberate the city of Warsaw for themselves.
     Warsaw 1944 tells the story of this brave, and errant, calculation. For more than sixty days, the Polish fighters took over large parts of the city and held off the SS’s most brutal forces. But in the end, their efforts were doomed. Scorned by Stalin and unable to win significant support from the Western Allies, the Polish Home Army was left to face the full fury of Hitler, Himmler, and the SS. The crackdown that followed was among the most brutal episodes of history’s most brutal war, and the celebrated historian Alexandra Richie depicts this tragedy in riveting detail. Using a rich trove of primary sources, Richie relates the terrible experiences of individuals who fought in the uprising and perished in it. Her clear-eyed narrative reveals the fraught choices and complex legacy of some of World War II’s most unsung heroes.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, Poland, War, Holocaust, Military Fiction

784 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Alexandra Richie is an historian specializing in Germany as well as Central and Eastern Europe and defense and security issues. She is the author of Faust’s Metropolis: A History of Berlin which was named one of top ten books of the year by American Publisher’s Weekly, and Warsaw 1944 which won the Newsweek Teresa Torańska Prize for best non-fiction book of 2014 and the Kazimierz Moczarski Prize for Best History Book in Poland 2015. She is a Presidential Counselor at the National World War II Museum, New Orleans, U.S.A. and a Governor of St Michael’s University School In Victoria, Canada. She is Wladyslaw Bartoszewski Chair co-chair and she teaches History and International Studies at the Collegium Civitas.

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Warsaw Uprising was a "perfect storm". The Home Army misjudged events and chose exactly the wrong time to rise up. Soviet advances left the Germans short of regular troops so the task of putting down the uprising fell to Himmler and the SS, including special (i.e. sadistic) bandit hunters. And Stalin, wanting Poland for himself, stood by and watched as the Home Army broke itself against the SS.

The result, especially for innocent civilians, was horrific. The book, however, is very good. It's well researched and very well written, full of details and eyewitness accounts, a handful of maps, and has just enough info about the wider war to put things into context (although I preferred the descriptions of the action within Warsaw to events outside of it). It's also quite graphic in places and doesn't pull any punches, and consequently can be quite a disturbing/emotional read.

I wonder, though, if the author's evident love of Warsaw has led to some bias (surely unnecessary when describing atrocities as horrifying as these?). For example in her descriptions of a harmonious, multicultural Warsaw she seems to have overlooked or forgotten the attitude of many Poles to the earlier Jewish Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which at best could be described as "indifference".

Still a very good book though.

[Cold War Conversations Podcast · Rating 5 out of 5]

The numbers beggar belief. Of a prewar population of 1.3 million, 150,000 civilians and 18,000 underground soldier killed, and this is excluding 400,000 Jews who were sent to their deaths from 1939-43.

The remainder were forced from their homes into concentration camps and forced labour camps as Warsaw was demolished brick by brick on Hitler's orders, leaving a few thousand hiding amongst the ruins awaiting the Soviets.

Alexandra Ritchie weaves together the gripping and horrific story of one of the greatest tragedies of World War 2 and the opening shots of the Cold War that resulted in the almost complete destruction of one of Europe's great cities.

The Warsaw Uprising was also the site of largest single battlefield massacre of World War 2 and the details of this massacre and the treatment of the civilian population are most harrowing.

However, please do persevere with this book as it is an excellent record of the Uprising coming up to its 70th anniversary as well as the duplicity of Stalin and the politics of necessity.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unsparing, gut-wrenching account of the Warsaw Uprising against the Germans (not to be confused with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943), when the Polish Home Army launched a heroic but ultimately disastrous attack on their Nazi occupiers as Stalin's Red Army closed in on the city in the summer of 1944. Poland suffered terribly at the hands of both the Germans and the Russians during the war, and Richie describes the tragic events and the horrific atrocities of the Warsaw Uprising in unflinching detail. By the time the Poles capitulated at the end of September, over 150,000 civilians and 18,000 Polish combatants had lost their lives and Warsaw was reduced to 20 million cubic tons of ruble. Sometimes large numbers such as these can have an almost numbing effect on us - they appeal to our brain as opposed to our heart, and it can be (at least for me) hard to grasp the true magnitude of the destruction and the almost inconceivable barbarity of what actually happened beyond that of a comparative if somewhat dispassionate analysis. While Richie places the Uprising in the context of larger war, explores the rationale of the Polish leadership in launching the uprising, and examines Stalin's cynical manipulations and the Western Allies calculated indifference, to her credit her primary focus is conveying the true horror of what happened on the ground over the course of those 63 terrible days and its aftermath from primary source accounts. The result is an exceptionally grim and often stomach-turning read, but highly recommended if you are interested in World War II or Polish history. (If interested in either of those topics, I would also highly recommend Katyn: Stalin's Massacre and the Triumph of Truth by Allen Paul, which explores the Soviet Union's atrocities in Poland and how the Allies dealt with the Poland "problem" over the course of the war.)

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warsaw 1944 has come to us from the archives inherited by the author, diaries that have brought to life the full tragedy of both the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, but the very fate of the city. The amount of research to bring this text to fruition is overwhelming, and possible with the availability of both Russian and German archives many of which did not become available until the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

It is mostly a forgotten story, a small footnote which all sides wanted forgotten and buried along with the hundreds of thousands of corpses that met their demise in a slaughter of civilians un-precidented in this war. All of the allies, Britain, the United States and the Soviets can be held responsible for the abandonment of Poland, but the total destruction of Warsaw and the brutal slaughter of civilians, men women and children can only be laid at the feet of Hiltler's anti-Jewish ant-Slavic ideology based on a hatred so strong, that he diverted both manpower and material needed desperately for the defense of Germany to relentlessly kill every Warsawrian possible and to turn the city into a wasteland.

Sadly the few survivors got no final justice, few of the actual perpetrators were held accountable in any meaningful way. Few of those who survived the Nazi slaughter escaped the punishment of incarceration and killings made by Stalin's NKVD after the supposed liberation of Warsaw.
It was not a fast read even though it was written in a way that made the battles and actions present. The sheer weight of the horror of what occurred and the actions of the SS Dirlewanger Brigade and the Kiminsky brigade, made me set the book down many a night just to be able to absorb the sheer barbarity of the slaughter and destruction.

I was amazed at the psychology of those who interfaced with the survivors of each section of the city as it fell to the destruction planned for all. The people of Old Town refused to believe what the survivors of Wola told them, until they experienced it first hand and as the few escapees from both Wola and Old Town made it to the next section of Warsaw their stories were met with incredulity...no one could believe that the Germans who they suffered under for five years could descend into such abject bestiality. How hard it must be to conceive the inconceivable...my uncles-in-law turned back at the Pyrenees in their flight from the Nazis as they couldn't face what they believed were the barbarians of Spain and Portugal, as the Nazis shared their high culture and could not possibly be what they would prove themselves to be.

This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the full scope of the effect of this war and its impact on the countries that were occupied, and how war driven by sheer ideology is more devastating than wars of mere conquest of territory.

[Kristi Thielen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not about the Warsaw ghetto uprising of 1943, but the 1944 uprising led by Polish fighters against the SS. The author openly states that the desperate courage of the Jews fighting in the ghetto – with improvised weaponry – was a matchless demonstration of heroism and the second uprising is not to be considered its equal.

Having said that, the courage of the Polish fighters is tremendous and the suffering of the Warsaw civilians is staggering to read about.

Hitler had an especially outsized contempt for the Polish people and their capital. Warsaw was the only European city which Hitler wanted razed to the ground – with not a brick remaining. To achieve this, he turned Himmler and his SS loose on the city. As if the original idea wasn’t lunatic enough, he did so during the waning days of the Third Reich, when the manpower and material used to accomplish it were desperately needed by German troops fighting elsewhere.

The uprising that opposed them lasted for 60-odd days, but was ill-timed and ill-planned. The leaders called for the city’s citizens to stand with them, even though they knew the western Allies were not going to come to their aid, the Germans were not “finished,” and the treacherous Soviets could not be counted on to provide help. Citizens were told none of this. They fought on, regardless.

Much of the book calls for a very strong stomach, as it details the fighting, death and atrocities as the SS and German army moved from point to point in the sprawling city, destroying everything in their wake. The destruction of starving, sick, wounded people – often gathered together in public to be executed on the spot – occurs again and again.

Ultimately, some 10,455 buildings were destroyed, including 923 historic buildings, 25 churches and synagogues, 14 libraries – including the oldest in Poland, dating to 1747 – plus 145 schools, two universities and scores of monuments, palaces and homes.

But Himmler and Hitler had only months to live and Warsaw has risen from its ashes to be a great city again. The book is worth reading to know of Warsaw’s suffering but the ultimate fate of all involved is important to keep in mind as you learn this tragic history.

[Julian Douglass · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic, but tragic book. The city of Warsaw was a truly cosmopolitan city that was destroyed for no reason other than Hitler did not like it. The Poles of the AK were very patriotic, and stood up for as long as they could, but a combination of hubris, disorganized leadership, and naivety led to the downfall not only of the AK but of the city for about 80 or so years. Ms. Richie is incredibly detailed in her description of the events leading up to the uprising, the uprising itself, and tinkers around at the end with the aftermath, most likely because she did a lot of it during the main story. It is such a shame of what Hitler and Stalin did to the city because it was a great place.

The only minor issue is the heavy amount of editorializing that she did when describing the actions of some people. While the Nazi's were horrible people and deserve all the terrible adjectives that get assigned to them, I feel that too much of it in a work of history can be a bit problematic. Also, commentary on some of the Polish commanders too makes the book feel less of a serious work of history and almost like she is pushing an agenda. Again, the complaint is minor, and it is a tour de force to read.

[Evan Przesiecki · Rating 5 out of 5]

My grandma, Anna Podonowska, fought in the Warsaw Uprising with the Polish Underground. I was too young to ask my grandma questions about her life in occupied Poland, and had learned of her stories through the ones she passed along to my dad and uncle. I read Warsaw 1944 as a means to research and further understand her days in the uprising, and to help make sense of the stories I grew up learning as well as to fill in the gaps of the many questions I still had lingering. I couldn’t have asked for a better book.

Alexandra Richie put a tremendous amount of care and detail into creating an endearing and human-centred approach on one of the greatest unspoken tragedies of the Second World War. She carries the narrative with a compelling collection of first-hand accounts of the Polish fighters and civilians, and draws on haunting imagery as the reader watches one of Europe’s liveliest cities descend to its demise.

I had wondered before I started reading Warsaw 1944 if it was the right book to approach the subject, yet even before I had finished the introduction I had my faith affirmed that this was the correct choice. Richie’s love for Warsaw is vivid in her words, and her book honours dearly the heroes and victims of the uprising.

I’m sure my grandma Anna would have been proud of this book. Closing the last page, I had the answers to some of the questions I was unable to ask her while she was still alive, and for that I am thankful for having been able to read this.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alexandra Richie is a Warsawian via Oxford University. She has taken on a tragic tale of a city’s unnecessary destruction and its nation’s unwilling demise. Her love of Warsaw and of Poland shines through this disturbing history of the 1944 Uprising against the German occupation of Warsaw.

Poland has long been a hot potato between Germany and Russia. Until its post-WWI independence Poland had been sliced and diced by Russia, Austria-Hungary, and other European countries, and immediately on its freormation the Bolsheviks had invaded. The 1939 Russo-German Non-Aggression Pact opened the way to Germany’s September 1, 1939 invasion from the west and to Russia’s invasion from the east, splitting the country along the Molotov-Ribbentrop Line. Germany’s invasion of Russia in 1941 claimed all of Poland for Germany. Poland was--and long had been--the continent's wrestling mat.

Hitler wanted Poland as a land grab to implement lebesraum—the displacement of Polish farmers by Germans and the creation of blissful Teutonic hamlets. He also anticipated a third world war with Germany and the West against Russia, for which Poland would be useful territory. Stalin’s interest in Poland was more geopolitical: it would provide a Soviet buffer state—-a barrier for Germany, it would return Poland to (one of its many) its "rightful" owners, it would redress Lenin’s bitter failure to occupy Poland in 1920, and it would extend Bolshevism closer to Europe-—perhaps Stalin's ultimate goal.

After Germany captured the Polish capital, it "organized" the Jewish population in the Ghetto. Realizing that they could die fighting, or just die, a poorly organized and under-resourced resistance initiated the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It was—-as most expected-—a catastrophic failure for the Ghetto, ending with its viciously brutal destruction. The Polish Home Army then rebuilt the Warsaw resistance and awaited a propitious time to throw the Germans out of Warsaw.

In May of 1944 Stalin began Operation Bagration, a major offensive through Byelorussia headed toward Berlin. Germany was completely surprised, expecting the attack in the south through Ukraine--the Russians had moved 1.7 million men with equipment, weapons, and materiel from the Ukraine with remarkable secrecy. The Red Army rapidly reached the Vistula River near Warsaw, where a German counter-offensive temporarily stopped it. Hearing sounds of war, and believing that Russia was coming to liberate Warsaw, the Polish Home Army initiated the Warsaw Uprising on August 1, 1944; the revolt that lasted 63 days. Ironically, the Uprising began as Germans were fleeing the city in droves. Had it not started, Warsaw might have survived. But the Uprising led Hitler, on Himmler’s advice, to send new forces to Warsaw, brutally razing it and decimating its population after Hitler ordered that Warsaw was to be obliterated.

In her prologue Richie states that the book’s primary goal is to uncover the motives of the increasingly unstable Hitler and the increasingly powerful Himmler. Why did Warsaw mean so much to them? Why, when German forces and production capacity were so stretched, did they spend treasure, troops, and time destroying a city with no strategic value? I had expected more emphasis on this. Hitler’s wish to eliminate all things Polish, and his plan for Warsaw as a German signature city, were cited, but I found no insight into what led to this madness. Nor could I find much insight into Himmler’s motives, other than to rubber stamp Hitler and increase his own power. This book does not provide a psychology of madness.

What it does do—-as do so many other books—-is detail the utter devastation that WWII brought to eastern Europe in general and to Poland in particular. It does this in great detail by focusing on one of the more horrendous German actions. This is very powerful material, but while there might be novelty for historians in the details, its broad brush strokes are not new to any reader of the war in Europe: The Nazi leadership WAS brutal and (except for the Jewish “solution”) indiscriminate murderers; Poland WAS part of the bloodlands between Germany and Russia, with a long history of subjection to foreign powers; Stalin WAS a ruthless political animal intent on postwar control of Poland; Roosevelt WAS a fool where it concerned Stalin. The micro events of the Warsaw episode are stirring but the macro events surrounding it are well-traveled territory.

Still, it is remarkable that after almost 75 years, the second Great War in Europe generates such well-researched and finely written documents. Richie's story of the city and people she loves is a very powerful and very painful read. I say 4½ stars with an extra ½ star for style.

[Thiago · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richie writes lucidly and unabashedly about the astonishing atrocities perpetrated by the Germans in Warsaw. The deadly combination of the SS's malice and the absurdity of the drug-addled Nazis hierarchy caused the needless destruction of a European city on par with Paris and Berlin, and the horror jumps off the page, leaving the indelible mark of abyśmy nie zapomnieli: Lest we Forget.

[Andrew Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent description of Warsaw Uprising. Apart from a thorough background on its occurrence, it provides a chronology of events, which helped me to understand how the focus of the German attacks moved from one suburb to the next. The cynicism of Russian troops stationing just few kilometres away and their refusal to allow the Allied planes to land on the eastern site of Vistula makes them co-responsible for the death of many innocent people. The hostility of Russians to AK fighters, their arrest and treatment as enemy, combined with, especially from Roosevelt site, no objections from the Allies only underlines their guilt in subjecting untold millions of Poles to inhuman treatment by their communist rulers for another 44 years.

Main Characters on the Polish Side
General Antoni Chrusciel (Monter) – Commander of AK units in Warsaw.
General Bor Komorowski – in charge of AK after Rowecki’s arrest.
Stefan Korbonski – AK’s Chief of Civil Resistance in Warsaw.
Jan Mazurkiewicz (Radoslaw) – Leader of Kedyw group. Survived the war and was persecuted by communist authorities till 1956. Died in 1988.
Colonel Kazimierz Iranek-Osmecki – the Chief of Intelligence.
Tadeusz Pelczynski – AK Chief of Staff
General Stefan Rowecki (Grot) – Tokarzewski’s deputy. Put in charge of AK after tokarzewski disappeared. Arrested by Gestapo on 30 June 1943. Executed by order of Himmler on the first day of uprising.
Jozef Rybicki – in charge of Kedyw
Colonel Rzepecki – the head of the Information and Propaganda Bureau.
General Michal Tokarzewski – on 27th of September 1939 set up SZP (Polish Victory Service). He went to the Soviet zone of occupation and was arrested by NKVD.
Colonel Karol Ziemski (Wachnowski) – In charge of the Northern Group of AK Old Town. Monter’s deputy. Emigrated to England. Died in1974.

Main Characters on the German Side
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski On 2 August 1944 took command of all German troops fighting AK. In exchange for his testimony against his former superiors at the Nuremberg Trials, Bach-Zelewski never faced trial for any war crimes. Died in 1972.
Oskar Dirlewanger – pathological sadist linked to some of the worst crimes of the war. Captured after war and apparently beaten to death by the Polish guards while in captivity.
Bronislav Kaminski – Russian collaborationist and the commander of the S.S. Sturmbrigade R.O.N.A. Perhaps 10,000 residents of Warsaw were killed in the Ochota massacre, most murdered by Kaminski's men. Himmler used the misconduct of the Warsaw group as a pretext for having Kaminski and his leadership executed after trial by court martial. They were tried for stealing the property of the Reich, as the stolen property was to have been delivered to Himmler, but Kaminski and his men had attempted to keep it for themselves.
General Heinz Reinefarth – Responsible for Wola massacre. Acted as witness in Nuremburg trials. Never faced any justice and died in 1978.

Chronology
1 - 4 August – The uprising started at 5PM on 1st of August. By 5th of August AK had 16,000 people under its command, outnumbered the German garrison three to one and controlled over 125 km2.
5 – 8 August – Massacre in Wola.
Following on Hitler’s order to destroy Warsaw and Himmler’s to consider all as combatants and have them killed, SS troops under General Heinz Reinefarth massed on the edge of Wola and started killing Poles. Initially, they were going from house to house, ejected all living there, lined them up and shot and set fire to the building. Anyone trying to escape was shot. As they found they made too little progress, they started collecting people and moving them to a number of collection sites before shooting them there. The cruellest were troops led by Dirlewanger and his Russian and Azari members.
Between 5th and 6th of August they killed about 40,000 civilians in Wola. Fight in Wola continued till 11th of August. Soon after SS set up set up special brigades made of Polish prisoners to burn all the dead bodies. Once the job was completed they killed the prisoners to cover their tracks. Miraculously, some escaped to bear the witness.
5 – 11 August - Massacre of Ochota
About 1,700 Russians under command of Kaminski moved into Ochota. They committed numerous crimes, killing, raping and stealing from the local population. They plundered the Radium Institute, where a hospital was placed. Survivors were moved to Zieleniak where Russians set up a concentration camp. Numerous barbarities were committed there.
Von dem Bach arrived in Warsaw on 5th of August and issued an order to stop killing any non-combatants. He set up a German commission to look into behaviour of Kaminski men. Kaminski was sent to Lodz and faced a military tribunal. Was condemned to death and executed soon after.
On 6th of August Bach opened the Pruszkow transit camp. Refugees were sent from there to concentration camps or as labourers to Germany.
11 – 18 August – Attack on Old Town.
On 11th of August SS moved into Old Town. They encountered heavy resistance. Next day they attacked again with a combined force of 3,000. Again without success. Hitler decided to change the tactics and started bombing the Old Town both with airplanes and heavy artillery. Lack of Russian involvement meant total command of sky for Germans. The Old Town continued its defence.
19 August – 3 September - Second attack on Old Town
Germans assembled a force of 13,400 men and attacked again on 19th of August. Situation became unbearable. On 25th of August Bor-Komorowski was evacuated through sewers. By 2nd of September AK fighters left the Old Town through sewers, leaving injured and civilian population behind. Mass executions, rapes and pillage started soon after.
10 September – 15 September - Battle for Praga
The Russian 47th Army, with the Polish 1st Infantry Division under General W. Bewziuk and the 70th Army attacked the German 70th Grenadiers Regiment on 10th of September and reached the central part of Praga on 13th of September. By 15th of September all of Praga was in Soviet hands. Russians lost around 7,000 men, the Polish 1st Infantry Division lost 353 dead and 109 missing. The Germans lost around 8,500 men. On 13th of September all the huge bridges on the Vistula were destroyed.
11 September – 23 September - The Fall of Czerniakow
On 11 September a massive barrage rained down the AK soldiers and the hapless civilians. The Germans with 507 men of Azeri battalions and 575 men of the Eastern Muslim Regiment had about 2,500 men. On 14th of September the Soviet planes appeared in the sky and dropped supplies without using parachutes. Most was destroyed. On 16th of September 300 soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division crossed the Vistula. Another 900 troops crossed during the day and 1,200 more the next night.
On 19th of September Berling’s Army began o retreat back across the river. The AK moved to Mokotow. Those left in Czerniakow faced living hell. The fight continued till 23rd of September. The 1st Polish Army lost 4,939 men in crossing of the Vistula, with only 1,500 actually reaching the western bank.
24 September – 27 September - Fall of Mokotow
On 24th of September Germans attacked Mokotow. This time Germans allowed the civil population to leave during 2 hours of ceasefire. Over 9,000 people were sent to Pruszkow camp. Of the 3,000 AK soldiers who fought in Mokotow only 600 managed to escape to safety. The rest was shot when captured. Mokotow fell on 27th of September.
28 September – 30 September - Zoliborz
In mid-September the Germans began to bomb Zoliborz. It was defended by Lieutenant Colonel Mieczyslaw Niedzielski (Zywiciel) and his 1,500 troops. By 29 September 19th Panzer Division under General Kallner moved into position. They changed their tactics using tanks to destroy methodically all the houses on their way. Niedzielski fighters surrounded on 30th of September. They were treated as POWs and taken to Pruszkow camp.
September – October - The City Centre
Over 250,000 people were crowded into the city centre. The AK fighters managed to win the so-called Pasta building (Polska Akcyjna Spolka Telefonow) the central telephone exchange, and took 115 prisoners. Von dem Bach arranged a ceasefire on 7th and 8th of September to allow 60,000 civilians to be taken to Pruszkow camp. Bor named Lieutenant Colonel Zygmunt Dobrowolski (Zyndram) as his official representative and sent him to meet von dem Bach on 28th of September. The second meeting took place on 29th of September. The first agreement signed on 30th of September called for a ceasefire between 5 am and 7 pm on 1st and 2nd October. On 4th of October Bor surrounded. Between 3rd and 7th October over 150,000 civilians walked to collection points. By 15th of October the Germans took all they could from Warsaw and loaded 23,300 train cars with booty, including 1,600 wagons of grain.
18 October - Himmler’s Announcement
On 25th of September Hitler created the Volkssturm under Himmler. It covered all German men capable of bearing arms between the ages of 16 and 60. On 18th of October Himmler granted the Warsaw fighters the status of POW according to the Geneva Convention. He has done it to get similar treatment for his Volkssturm.
October 1944 – January 1945.
By January 1945 around 85% of all the buildings of Warsaw had been destroyed. By noon 17th of January the Soviets had taken Warsaw.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant, but not perfect history, which is something I hate to say because when you are reading this story and whether you know it or are coming to it perfect ignorance I guarantee that you would have to have a heart of stone not to weep. The Warsaw rising, what happened to Poland in WWII, what happened to Poland subsequently is monstrous. The German invasion of Poland in 1939 may have been the event which launched WWII but few countries can have received so little from its allies - the UK in 1939 who making as little effort to aid the Poles as the Soviet Union in 1944 - but the story Alexandra Ritchie tells is tinged with a romantic blindness and almost denial of the many fissures and problems in pre war Poland as well as within the wartime governance of its leaders.

This doesn't mean the book is biased, well to an extent it does, but it has a bias born of passion and love. She doesn't distort but she refuses to see what is not always pleasant to see. Still she tells a great story, but not perfectly.

[Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rzadko czytam naukowe książki historyczne, ale ta jest wyjątkowa. Dlaczego po nią sięgnąłem? Szczerze mówiąc, nie pamiętam czy z polecenia, czy z... półki "księgarniowej". Bez wątpienia godna polecenia!

Dlaczego?
Temat Powstania Warszawskiego wbrew pozorom jest tematem kontrowersyjnym "a bo powstanie niepotrzebne"; "a bo mówiąc tak kwestionujesz bohaterstwo walczących"; "a bo i tak by się nie udało".

Należy podziwiać kunszt pisarski autorki, która nie dość, że doskonale przygotowała się do jej przygotowania zbierając możliwie najobszerniejszy materiał, to całkowicie i kompletnie powstrzymuje się od jakiejkolwiek indoktrynacji czytelnika. W książce podaje "suche" fakty, relacje ludzi, zestawia ze sobą zdarzenia. Nie przemyca swojego zdania na temat powstania, organizacji, ludzi biorących weń udział.

Moim zdaniem książka jest szalenie ciekawa, bardzo dobrze się ją czyta, jest wciągająca. Autorka nie dokonuje oceny - powstanie słuszne, niesłuszne, opisuje fakty, a czytelnik sam może z nich wyciągnąć wnioski. Myślę, że książka nad którą warto się pochylić,a jeśli chodzi o Powstanie Warszawskie - obowiązkowa lektura.

[KB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warsaw 1944 is an intimidating book. I've had this sitting around for about half a year, but I kept putting it off. It goes without saying that the content was going to be tragic - tens of thousands of civilians killed; one of Europe's great cities reduced to rubble. The length was also something I wasn't looking forward to: this thing is huge. But the time came for me just to plunge in and read it. And it was fantastic.

Going back to the length, I'm a slow reader. And based on the size of the book, I figured this was going to take a couple months for me to get through. But the font is actually on the larger size, and there's something about Alexandra Richie's writing that makes for smooth reading. I was surprised how fast I ended up getting through this.

But I'm not saying that to trivialize the content, as if this were a breeze to read. Warsaw 1944 is brutal. The suffering, death and destruction is absolutely painful to read. It's page after page of unrelenting horror. Incredible to think that after the two-plus months of fighting that the Uprising spurred, the Germans actually thought the Poles might join with them to fight against the Soviets. Baffling!

This is a book you'll be taking a lot of notes from as you read. In reality, though the fighting was between the Germans and Polish AK, the Soviet Union was also tangentially involved. It was Stalin's drive west in Operation Bagration that was the (ill-timed) launching pad for the uprising to start. It was Stalin that chose to basically do nothing and watch as the Germans and Poles fought it out. It might be too much to say that German brutality was unique in Warsaw, but there were some things that surprised me. There was of course, the order for Warsaw to essentially be wiped off the map. It wasn't enough merely to control the city; Hitler wanted it completely destroyed. It also seemed that many German troops were left to do as they pleased, especially those under Oskar Dirlewanger, resulting in particularly sadistic killings, as well as widespread rape.

Warsaw 1944 is detailed and thorough, but presented in a way that guides readers through the Warsaw Uprising seamlessly. Although the content is hard to digest, it's both a testament to the bravery and tenacity of Polish civilians and the AK, and a witness to the horrors they endured. This book is very much recommended.

[Ian Beardsell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really need to start reading more cheerful books. After reading so much other WWII and Holocaust fare, I'm not quite sure how I made it through this further tome of hideous crimes of the Third Reich. Perhaps it was due to the author's clear, precise prose.

Some war histories can be dense works, tending to academic audiences, but this was refreshingly vibrant with the first person accounts of Hitler's utter destruction of a European capital as the war was drawing towards its end and the Home Army and many citizens of Warsaw took up arms against their occupiers with tragic bad timing. Richie's book is well researched and thought out, although the sheer number of names along with the sad, horrifying descriptions of the events against non-combatants made it challenging at times. I have never been very knowledgeable on the Soviet campaign to push the Axis forces back out of Russia and Poland, but I feel this has made at least a slight dent in my ignorance. The names of Dirlewanger, Van dem Bach, and Rheinefarth will haunt my mind for awhile.

Another sad thing to mention here, is the tragic way the Allies abandoned Poland to her fate. Perhaps Churchill tried to support the country for which they actually entered into the war from time to time, but Roosevelt made several errors in judgement of Soviet intentions, leaving Poland in the lurch. Richie makes it hard to excuse the privilege of our modern hindsight.

I look forward to reading her book on the history of Berlin: Faust's Metropolis.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars based on my gripe below.

Alex Ritchie sets out the complexity and futility of the Warsaw uprising, placing it within the context of the wider war on the eastern front.

The uprising gets relatively little attention by western historians, and where it is known it is often in the context of soviet abandonment. And whilst this part of the story, miscalculation and hubris on the part of the Home Army is also a vital part of the story. It is apparent from Ritchie’s study how quickly the uprising feel apart - before zero hour - and was fought as a series of disconnected pockets rather than as a homogeneous force.

What is undoubted and reinforced here is the terror applied by the German response, scratch SS units with a. History of counter-bandit actions were quick to deploy their tactics. The horror of Walo is unbelievable, and set out in detail. Not for the feint hearted, but important to understand nonetheless.

My only gripe with this book, and it may just be this paperback edition, is the referencing. The first third has almost no references at all, the middle third has a lot, then it tails off. But most frustratingly the reference points are not actually listed, you have to track these down on the publishers website. The same is the case for the bibliography. The author notes that many of the sources come from a private collection, but still this is disappointing.

[T. Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story of one of the great but unknown tragedies of WW2. I visited Warsaw around 2005 and was told that this interesting city had been completely rebuilt after the war. I could not understand the significance of this explanation at that time, but I do now - how Hitler in his hatred for the Polish people was determined to completely destroy the city in August 1944. This order was handed over to Himmler and psychopathic and criminal units of his SS, and this is well described in detail by the author, using a great number of Polish and German sources, with particular emphasis on showing the suffering of Warsaw's inhabitants. Alexandra Richie is a Canadian historian who both graduated and taught at Oxford, then married a Polish national and afterwards moved to Poland. As a noted historian, she writes with a style that is easy to read but authoritative, covering covers all aspects of the story: the Uprising, the battle, the final destruction, and the fate of the surviving citizens. In doing so, she commemorates the complete story of the Uprising which was incorrectly understood at the time and afterwards quickly forgotten by the rest of the world .

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compelling, graphic, and terrifying account of Warsaw at the peak of her destruction by the Nazis in 1944. An insane Hitler and his equally mad minions let loose on the innocent citizens of Warsaw where murder, rape, looting, and the total annihilation of the city was the rule of the day. The insurgent underground Polish Army tries to fight this enemy, but with little help from the Allies, and none from the nearby Soviets, her days are tragically numbered. This is a well-researched text using the words of many eyewitnesses to tell the story from both sides of the fight. Probably best for hard core history buffs of this segment of the war. The Poles had to come back to a Warsaw that was literally destroyed to dust and then suffer a further reoccupation of Stalin's oppression. However, the author does allow a little light in by recognizing that today's Warsaw is recovering quite nicely and the Polish spirit lives on.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exhaustive, and also, Exhausting.

This is 649 pages (not including backmatter) of unbelievably extensive research - which is where my word "exhaustive" comes from above.
This is also 649 pages of simply horrific reading material, which is where "exhausting" comes from.

Richie's work here is staggering. This is the kind of history where every single troop movement is analyzed and described, and in street by street urban warfare like this battle for Warsaw, this is bloody stuff.

One either can, or still cannot, understand the horror of the Warsaw Uprising when you read Hitler and Himmler's "Order for Warsaw", which was written around Aug 1 / 2 as the Poles in Warsaw began their uprising. The "Order for Warsaw" included:

1) Captured insurgents out to be killed regardless of whether they are fighting in accordance with the Hague Convention or not;
2) The part of the population not fighting, women and children, should likewise be killed;
3) The whole town must be levelled to the ground, i.e. houses, streets, offices - everything that is in the town.

As Richie immediately summarizes (page 3 of the introduction), [they] had decided that the entire population remaining in one of Europe's great capital cities was to be murdered in cold blood.

And.... as you get into the book, and read about the battles in the neighborhoods of Wola, Ochota, and elsewhere, and as you read about the German leaders Dirlewanger and Kaminski, you sink deep into the gory details about how the Germans fighting in Warsaw tried to accomplish Hitler and Himmler's order.
The Dirlewanger Brigade, operating in the Wola district, murdered between 30,000 and 40,000 civilians in Wola; most were killed in cold blood (and this was in TWO DAYS!! Aug 5 and 6 ONLY!). (page 306).

Anyway, I have no critiques of the book itself. From the interesting (but still horrible) prelude pages about the Germans basically practicing for Warsaw, in Byelorussia, to the examination of Soviet motives and the "Battle for Warsaw" (i.e. the soviet approach to warsaw and Model's successful defensive efforts against the Soviets), this is great research told in a readable way.

If one has the stomach to read this stuff.

[Rafal Jasinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historia Powstania Warszawskiego opowiedziana piórem Alexandry Richie jest lekturą wstrząsającą i wyczerpującą emocjonalnie. To bez wątpienia kompletny, wszechstronny obraz przyczyn i skutków jednej z największej tragedii, jaka dotknęła naród polski w okresie II Wojny Światowej, ale przede wszystkim, abstrahując od zawartych tu analiz i hipotez (w tej materii autorka kładzie nacisk na kompleksowe ukazanie powodów wybuchu i upadku Powstania, bez szukania winnych i wytykania błędów, które uznaje za wypadkową wielu różnych czynników, chybionych założeń, źle zinterpretowanych faktów i fatalnych zbiegów okoliczności), kanadyjska profesor i pisarka skupia się na ogromnym dramacie zwykłych ludzi - walczących Powstańców i cywilów rzuconych na żer bestii w ludzkich postaciach. Potworów pokroju Ericha von dem Bacha, Heinza Reinefartha, Oskara Dirlewangera, Bronisława Kamińskiego i podległych im morderców, dla których postępków nie istnieje kara, która dałoby się zasądzić według miary ludzkiej sprawiedliwości (mówiąc wprost - mam nadzieję, że miejsca w Piekle są im przypisane aż do Dnia Sądu).

To jednak nie o nich będę pamiętał długo po skończeniu tej książki i nie ich nazwiska przywoływał będę zawsze, kiedy w dyskusji wypłynie wzmianka o Powstaniu Warszawskim. Będę wspominał Jana Grabowskiego, który musiał być świadkiem zabójstwa swojego pięcioletniego syna, Wandę Lurie, która musiała patrzeć na śmierć trójki swoich dzieci i dwójkę niemowląt Jakubczyków, zamordowanych w swoim wózeczku... I całą rzeszę kobiet, dzieci i mężczyzn, księży, lekarzy, sióstr ze szpitali na Woli i Ochocie, zamordowanych ze szczególnym okrucieństwem, pozbawionych godności, sponiewieranych. O wszystkich tych, w których okrutnie zmasakrowanych szczątkach niejaki porucznik Peter Stölten widział "kwitnące niegdyś wdzięki i zupełnie inne, pełne miłości, beztroskie życie, albo (...) dzieci których niewinność obdarzam bez względu na język, jakim się posługują, najsilniejszą miłością..." - jak pisał do rodziców, w cytowanym w książce fragmencie listu.

Doskonale napisane, dogłębne i poruszające studium Powstania Warszawskiego, będące znakomitym uhonorowaniem pamięci o jego uczestnikach i ofiarach. Jeśli nie najlepsza z publikacji o Powstaniu, to z całą pewnością najwybitniejsza książka opisująca wydarzenia z okresu II Wojny Światowej, jaką dane mi było przeczytać. Szczerze i gorąco polecam!

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, horrifying and hard to believe that a human being is capable of doing and enduring this. I had never heard of the Warsaw Uprising. Hopefully no one will ever have to endure this type of torture again. Very well written, although extremely sad.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richie describes in painful detail the horrors perpetrated by the SS against Warsawian rebels and civilians alike: indiscriminate massacres, torture, rape and pillage on a massive scale. Though in mainstream media and memory the Warsaw Uprising is pretty much a footnote when it comes to the vast narrative of the Second World War, this account of the events of August-September 1944 recounts the tragedy in full, with its cast villains (Dirlewanger, von dem Bach, Himmler) and heroes (General Bór, Agaton, various men and women of the AK).

I travelled around Poland with my girlfriend a couple of weeks ago, and for two wonderful nights we stayed in Warsaw's Old Town. It is almost inconceivable that most of the city was systematically destroyed a little over 70 years ago; modern Warsaw, particularly the beautifully reconstructed Old Town, stands as a living memorial and testament to the grit and fortitude of the Polish people. We visited the Uprising Museum, and although it would have made for a sobering and absorbing experience even without any background knowledge, I was very glad of the context provided by Richie's book.

'Warsaw 1944' is essential reading not only for anyone planning to visit the city, but also for anyone wishing to understand modern Poland and the Polish people.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historian Alexandra Richie documents what she contends is an event lost to memory in the enormous literature of the Second World War: the Warsaw uprising of 1944 (not to be confused with the ghetto uprising the year prior).

In page after page, chapter after chapter, she details the barbarism perpetrated by the SS against both the Polish resistance and civilians. At times this long book reads as if it is little more than a catalog of human horrors. But Richie manages to provide broader military and political analysis to place the uprising in the context of the larger developments that shaped the outcome of war in 1944-45. I was grateful for these parts of the book, as they allowed my brain to take a break from the death and suffering that inhabit most of the 740 pages.

[Cwelshhans · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciated the level of detail provided about individuals, but it felt disorganized and, in places, unduly biased, which was frustrating because the facts of this story more than speak for themselves.

[Jakub Horbów · Rating 4 out of 5]

Długo planowana do przeczytania przed kolejną rocznicą powstania. Wyczerpująca, skupiająca się na ludziach - cywilach i AKowcah - prowadzonych na rzeź przez postać tragiczną "Bora", który wiedział o swoim błędzie już na chwilę po wydaniu rozkazów.

[Skuli Saeland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vel skrifuð og rannsökuð frásögn af uppreisn Pólverja í Varsjá undir lok síðari heimsstyrjaldarinnar. Richie gerir vel í að greina frá mistökum þeirra við að hefja uppreisnina líkt og þeir gerðu og hvernig þeir urðu leiksoppar stórveldanna þegar Stalín ákvað að tryggja endalok þeirra og Vesturveldin tóku ákvörðun hans þegjandi. Lýsingarnar af framferði þýska herliðsins eru vægast sagt hrollvekjandi en fróðlegt er að sjá hvernig stigbreyting varð á ofbeldinu. Fyrst var útrýming það eina sem Hitler og Himmler tóku í mál og allir voru myrtir á staðnum en þegar uppreisnin drógst á langinn þá tókst pólsku uppreisnarmönnunum að knýja fram betri meðferð því Þjóðverjum lá á að sigrast á þeim.
Mikilvæg lesning öllum sem vilja fræðast um einn af hryllilegustu lokaþáttum stríðsins.

[Steve barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had just returned from Warsaw after a brief business trip. Whilst there I saw a picture of the old town after the destruction by the Nazis. This book is a historical masterpiece. Having read most of the WW2 accounts from Max Hastings and Anthony Beevor and the like, which are also quite brilliant, Alexandra Richie brings something else to the story. It's factual yet has a warmth not normally found in this area of Non Fiction. The account of the Warsaw Uprising was completely unknown to me prior to ready this book. I can only imagine how the Poles feel about how badly they were treated. There was little the West could have done and Stalin chose to do nothing for Political gain. Quite a sobering read but worth it at every turn of the page. 10/10

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find this part of Polish history is very much unknown. I personally believe its a huge event that took place during the second world war and definitely needs more promotion.

Alexandra Richie, puts you at the heart of the action and this book is far from easy reading. The detailed accounts of what the Nazi's did to the people of Warsaw is graphic and disturbing. These events happened and the story of Warsaw suffering needs to be told.

This is a really good book and one i will probably never forget.

[Rdurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is harrowing. It describes the unspeakable horrors inflicted upon Warsaw and its inhabitants in 1944. Very tough read. And to top it off the baddies generally got to live happily ever after.

[Michael Thimsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This depravity exhibited in this book was tough to take but important to read and catalog. I came away with a deep respect for the Polish people and every story I read about Poland in the future will be filtered through the lens of this book.

[Bob Stenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a very well written book and it saddens me that this carnage of war is still going on 78 years later in the Ukraine. The Polish people have really stepped up and are taking care of the Ukraine refugees.