The Berlin IC visited Warsaw a few weeks ago, and amongst the gems of history we saw in the city, one of my favourite sites was the former Polish Bank on Bielańska Street.
This was probably the best-preserved site showing just how destructive the fighting during the Warsaw Uprising was.
Sure, my home city of Berlin has its fair share of spang, but most of Berlin’s spang goes unnoticed and ignored….Warsaw, on the other hand, truly goes above and beyond to commemorate the scars of the past.
I’ll post more Warsaw pics soon, but I’ll leave you with this telling of the story of what happened at the bank on Bielańska Street…
“On the 1st of August 1944, the insurgents fail to seize the huge edifice of the Polish bank on Bielanska Street, though the German soldiers in the bank are surrounded. In the night between the 3rd & 4th of August, the German General Stahel sends in combat vehicles, enabling the German soldiers to evacuate the bank without fighting.
On August 4th, the insurgents seize the building and build barricades.
In the following weeks, German detachments increasingly attack the insurgent position on Bielanska Street.
The hardest fighting is after the 20th of August. – On September 1st, in fear of being surrounded, the insurgents retreat towards Hipoteczna Street.”
(Source: Warsaw Uprising Museum).