The Civilian Population and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944

The Warsaw Uprising of 1944, always a topic of passionate discussion, has already been the subject of many books and other publications. These works, however, have dealt primarily with the political and military aspects of the insurrection, and hence there has been a tendency to forget that nearly one million people, mainly civilians, were caught in insurgent Warsaw and virtually entombed there. Nearly a quarter of them did not survive the ordeal. The battle continued for over two months under incessant German bombardment and fire, whilst diplomatic manoeuvres and intrigues taking place between the Big Three failed to be of any effective help to the fighting city. For sixty-three days the inhabitants of Warsaw lived in difficult, dangerous and desperate conditions. This book is a description of their plight, of their lives, of how they organised themselves and of their survival. It is an analysis of their reaction to the battle itself and to its political and diplomatic implications. It is a study, where possible, of public opinion. The first chapter of the book is a detailed description of life in occupied Warsaw from 1939 to 1944, as this forms an indispensable background to the work. There is also a section on Poland's political and international position during the war.