Warsaw Uprising Museum - Warsaw, Poland
N 52° 13.960 E 020° 58.832
34U E 498670 N 5786916
The Warsaw Uprising Museum (Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego, officially translated into English as the Warsaw Rising Museum), located in Warsaw, Poland, is a museum dedicated to the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. It opened on July 31, 2004.
Waymark Code: WM56E2
Location: Mazowieckie, Poland
Date Posted: 11/18/2008
Views: 27
The Warsaw Uprising (Powstanie Warszawskie) was a World War II struggle by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. The Uprising began on 1 August 1944, as part of a nationwide rebellion, Operation Tempest. It was intended to last for only a few days until the Soviet Army would reach the city. The Soviet advance stopped short, however, while Polish resistance against the German forces continued for 63 days (until 2 October).
The Polish government-in-exile carried out frantic diplomatic efforts to gain support from their allies prior to the start of battle. However the Allies' support for the Polish resistance was not high on the priority list. The Polish government in London asked the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the Foreign Office several times for an allied mission to be sent to Poland; since such missions had already been dispatched to all other resistance movements in Europe, such as Albania, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Yugoslavia. However, the Polish pleas were not heeded until December 1944.
On 2 October General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski signed the capitulation order of the remaining Polish forces (Warszawski Korpus Armii Krajowej or Home Army Warsaw Corps) at the German headquarters in the presence of General von dem Bach. All fighting ceases by 1800 that day. According to the capitulation agreement, the Wehrmacht promised to treat Home Army soldiers in accordance with the Geneva Convention, and to treat the civilian population humanely.
The next day the Germans began to disarm the Home Army soldiers. They later sent 15,000 of them to prisoner of war camps in various parts of Germany. Between 5,000–6,000 insurgents decided to blend into the civilian population hoping to continue the fight later. The entire Warsaw civilian population was expelled from the city and sent to a transit camp Durchgangslager 121 in Pruszków. Out of 350,000–550,000 civilians who passed through the camp, 90,000 were sent to labour camps in the Reich, 60,000 were shipped to death and concentration camps (Ravensbruck, Auschwitz, Mauthausen, others), while the rest were transported to various locations in the General Government and released.
After the remaining population had been expelled, the Germans started the destruction of the remains of the city. Special groups of German engineers were dispatched throughout the city in order to burn and demolish the remaining buildings. According to German plans, after the war Warsaw was to be turned into nothing more but a military transit station, or even a lake. The demolition squads used flame-throwers and explosives to methodically destroy house after house. They paid special attention to historical monuments, Polish national archives and places of interest: nothing was to be left of what used to be a city.
By January 1945 85% of the buildings were destroyed: 25% as a result of the Uprising, 35% as a result of systematic German actions after the uprising, the rest as a result of the earlier Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (15%) and other combat including the September 1939 campaign (10%).
Material losses were estimated at 10,455 buildings, 923 historical buildings (94 percent), 25 churches, 14 libraries including the National Library, 81 primary schools, 64 high schools, University of Warsaw and Warsaw University of Technology, and most of the historical monuments. Almost a million inhabitants lost all of their possessions.
The museum is dedicated to all facets of the Warsaw Uprising. Exhibits are full of photographs, written accounts and other testimonies of how life was during 1944.
(excerpts from wikipedia)
Theme:
WWII
Street Address:
79 Grzybowska St, 00-844 Warszawa
Food Court: yes
Gift Shop: yes
Hours of Operation:
10.00 am - 8.00 pm Thursday
10.00 am - 6.00 pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday
10.00 am - 6.00 pm Saturday and Sunday
CLOSED Tuesday
Cost: 4.00 (listed in local currency)
Museum Size: Medium
Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]
|
Visit Instructions:
In order to log this waymark in this category, you must be able to provide proof of your visit. Please post a picture of yourself or your GPSr in front some identifiable feature or point of interest either in the museum, or on the museum grounds.