The communist government of Poland considered moving the capital to Łódź and leaving the rubble of Warsaw as proof of German barbarism. The decisive factor in the decision to rebuild Warsaw was the determination and sentiment of those who lived in the pre-war capital and loved it dearly. 

„This city shall disappear completely from the face of the earth and serve only as a transhipment point for Wehrmacht transport. Not a stone should be left there,” writes the order of Heinrich Himmler dated October 9, 1944. The Germans were close to achieving this goal. They destroyed almost all of Warsaw. Hundreds of priceless monuments were bombed, and the Royal Castle, the Warsaw Cathedral and the Saski Palace were razed to the ground.

The Polish capital was destroyed in a multi-year process. As early as September 1939, 10 per cent of the city lay in ruins. The destruction followed the destruction of Warsaw’s ghetto and the fall of the Warsaw Uprising when the rest of what remained of the resisting city was demolished by the Germans.

By the end of the war, in January 1945, 85 per cent of Warsaw’s buildings, 90 per cent of its industrial plants, all bridges and 30 per cent of its underground facilities had been destroyed. The city was left with 20 million cubic meters of rubble, huge amounts of mines and unexploded bombs.

Already in early 1945, the first Varsovians began to return to the left bank of the Vistula. They saw the devastated, lifeless ruins. However, the need to rebuild the city was strong among its inhabitants. Although the decision to rebuild the capital was politically motivated, without the involvement of the residents it would not have been realised. On January 3, 1945, the National National Council decided that Warsaw had to be rebuilt and made the capital of Poland. The dedicated Office of the Reconstruction of Capital started to function on the 14th of February. The office employed approximately 1,500 specialists – architects, urban planners, and engineers. The Office headquarters was located at ul. Chocimska 33.

On 3rd July 1947 Polish Sejm (the lower house of the Polish Parliament) adopted a resolution on the rebuilding of Warsaw. The capital of Poland, destroyed during WW2 would rise from the ashes.

Photo: Caroline Byczynski

Tomasz Modrzejewski