What you are seeing laid out on the table is the monthly food ration per Polish citizen in the early to mid-1980s. This seemingly modest assortment of goods, meticulously allocated through a complex system of distribution, belies the profound challenges tha…
The destruction of Warsaw at the end of World War Two stands as one of the most tragic and devastating events in the history of the Second World War. Once a city of great cultural and architectural significance, Warsaw was reduced to a pile of rubble and as…
The occupation of Warsaw by the French Army in 1806 was followed a year later by Napoleon I’s creation of the duchy of Warsaw, a measure that reinstated the city as a capital. The French emperor’s downfall, however, led to occupation by Russia. Under the Co…
The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 was a heroic and tragic 63-day struggle to liberate World War 2 Warsaw from German occupation. The Uprising began on 1 August 1944 as part of a nationwide Operation Tempest, launched at the time of the Soviet Lublin–Brest Offensi…
By the outbreak of the Second World War, Poland’s Military Aviation, quite commonly and incorrectly called the Polish Air Force, was inferior in every aspect. From having the world’s first all-metal built and fastest fighter plane in the mid-1930s to fl…
Amidst a tangle of wires, Dr. Zbigniew Religa anxiously watches a screen to see how his patient responds after a heart transplant. In the lower right corner, you can see one of his colleagues who helped him with the surgery fallen asleep. The surgery laste…
On September 1, 1939, the world was shocked as Nazi troops invaded Poland. Tensions soared in Europe, and world leaders recognized that this invasion could be the final straw that would lead to war. German military leaders had begun planning for war with P…
Czeslawa Kwoka, age 14, appears in a prisoner identity photo provided by the Auschwitz Museum, taken by Wilhelm Brasse while working in the photography department at Auschwitz, the Nazi-run death camp where some 1.5 million people died during World War II.…
On 2 October 1940, Ludwig Fischer, Governor of the Warsaw District in the occupied General Government of Poland, signed the order to officially create a Jewish district (ghetto) in Warsaw. It was to become the largest ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe. All…
Following the Soviet invasion of Poland at the onset of World War II in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet Pact against Poland, the Soviet Union acquired over half of the territory of the Second Polish Republic. Within months, in order to de-Polonize annex…
Chased by youth armed with clubs, this woman is fleeing from a "death dealer" whose left leg can be seen at the left-hand edge of the photograph. The Lviv pogroms were the consecutive massacres of Jews living in the city of Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine), per…
By the late 1970s, it was clear that Russians were no longer particularly liked in Poland. The reverse was also probably true. Władysław Kozakiewicz felt this in person as he ran up to take his jump at the 1980 Summer Olympics. The 1980 Summer Olympic G…
This extraordinary picture taken in 1948 by David Seymour, one of Magnum Photos’ co-founders, has since been seen by millions. First, it was published in LIFE magazine where the caption read in part “Children’s wounds are not all outward. Those made in the…
Rudolf Hoess (Rudolf Höss) was the architect and commandant of the largest killing center ever created, the death camp Auschwitz, whose name has come to symbolize humanity's ultimate descent into evil. On 1 May 1940, Hoess was appointed commandant of a …
It’s interesting to see the range of emotions displayed by these men: anguish, defiance, stoicism, acceptance, and fear, the third one from the left is even smiling. The execution took place during the Bloody Sunday in Bydgoszcz, Poland, 1939. Bloody Su…
The head of Poland Józef Piłsudski died on May 12, 1935. His funeral was made a few days later in Warsaw. But in Berlin, there was a service for Piłsudski ordered by Adolf Hitler. In the picture, you can see Adolf Hilter during the service for Piłsudski…
On the left – Soviet officer, on the right – German officer, in the middle – German unteroffizier and probably translator. USSR and Nazi Germany worked together in conquering Eastern Europe of which this picture is a testimony. This photo was taken duri…