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Description
For the first time in English, discover the history of Warsaw's six-year struggle through the devastation of war and the city's enduring spirit.
In Warsaw: A City at War 1939–45, historians Prit Buttar and Lottie Taylor bring to light the unparalleled experience of a city caught between two invading powers, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and the resilience of its citizens.
This fascinating history illuminates how Warsaw's centuries-old fight for identity shaped the course of its wartime experience. For a mere 21 years, Warsaw thrived as the proud capital of an independent Poland, only to be betrayed when Nazi Germany invaded in 1939. Yet the heart of the city – its people – refused to surrender. From the tragic Ghetto Uprising to the heroic city-wide uprising, Warsaw's resistance was fierce as it faced the systematic attempt to erase it from the map. The story does not end with the conclusion of the war, as Warsaw found itself trapped behind the Iron Curtain.
This compelling narrative is not just about battles – it's about a city and its inhabitants, whose unwavering spirit defined them in the darkest of times. Drawing from rare archival material including countless first-hand accounts, Warsaw's wartime years are majestically brought to life.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. An outline of the history of Poland through the partitions of the 18th and 19th Centuries; the survival of Polish culture and identity: Poland's restoration of independence; and the wars that shaped the Polish frontiers, creating a nation with large non-Polish populations in various regions.
3. The rising threat from Germany; Soviet ambitions to recover territory lost to Poland in the Polish-Russian War; political manoeuvring prior to September 1939 culminating in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
4. The start of the Second World War; the German invasion and the battles that followed; the Soviet invasion from the east and the conquest of Poland.
5. Occupation policies on the German and Soviet sectors; the start of German suppression of the Jewish population; the creation of ghettos; Soviet mass deportations and the massacres of Polish prisoners by the NKVD; the rise of Polish resistance forces and the creation of the Armiya Krajowa.
6. The onset of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union; the Wannsee Conference and the adoption of the Final Solution; the creation and functioning of the death camps; the developing tensions between the Polish government-in-exile in London and pro-Soviet groups in Moscow.
7. The Ghetto Uprising; Himmler's decision to liquidate all ghettos; the acceleration of the Final Solution; continuing resistance activity and preparations for Bzura.
8. The Warsaw Uprising; the fighting in Warsaw and the halting of Soviet forces to the east of the city; the German destruction of much of Warsaw.
9. The German abandonment of Warsaw in 1945 and the arrival of the Red Army.
10. The imposition of Soviet-controlled government on Poland; the waxing and waning of tensions between Poland and the Soviet Union, covering the riots and protests of the 1950s; the eventual rise of Solidarity and its suppression; the relaxation of Soviet control and the end of the Warsaw Pact.
11. Conclusions.
Product details
| Published | 10 Sep 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 432 |
| ISBN | 9781472873408 |
| Imprint | Osprey Publishing |
| Illustrations | 1 x 8pp plate section of black-and-white images |
| Series | General Military |
| Short code | GNM |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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