WROCŁAW - In Your Pocket

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FESTUNG BRESLAU
One of the biggest events to ever rock Wrocław, the epic
80-day siege of 1945 cost tens of thousands of lives and
left the town a smouldering heap of ruins. One of the most
savage sieges in modern history, the ‘Battle for Breslau’ rates
as one of the biggest human tragedies of WWII.
Prelude
Prior to WWII Wrocław, or ‘Breslau’ as it was then known, was
something of a model Nazi city, with a staggering 200,000 of
its citizens voting for Hitler’s NSDAP party in the 1933 elections.
From that moment on the Nazis cemented their grip on the city
launching a campaign of terror, and eventually murder, against
Jews and numerous other enemies of the state. Synagogues
were burnt to the ground on Kristallnacht - November 9, 1938
- and the guillotine at Kleczkowska prison saw plenty of action,
with the decapitated bodies of political prisoners donated to
Wrocław’s medical schools. Yet in spite of this sinister background
and strict rationing the citizens of wartime Wrocław
fared better than their compatriots elsewhere in the Reich. Out
of range from Allied air raids local denizens were spared the
aerial nightmare of British carpet bombings, and the city came
to be considered something of a safe haven, its population
swelling to over a million people towards the end of the conflict.
However, by the second half of 1944 the doomsday reality
of war started to dawn on the local population. Truckloads
of mangled German wounded flooded the hospitals, and with
the Red Army creeping closer the rumble of artillery could be
heard in the distance. On August 24 the city was declared a
closed stronghold, ‘Festung Breslau’, and the citizens braced
themselves for the inevitable bloodbath that was to come.
General Johann Krause was appointed commander, and set
about the daunting task of turning a picture-book city into
a fortress. Two defensive rings were constructed around
the city (with some fortifications 20km outside the centre),
supplies were stockpiled and troops mobilised. A garrison of
some 80,000 men was hurriedly raised in what was projected
to become the key defensive element on ‘The Eastern Wall’. In
reality, however, the troops were a chaotic rabble consisting
of Hitler Youth, WWI veterans, police officers and retreating
regiments. This mixed bag of men and boys were ludicrously
ill-equipped to face the full force of the looming Soviet fury.
As countdown to the impending siege began the governor
of the region, Gauleiter Karl Hanke, noted he only had two
tanks at his disposal, and weaponry that was either outdated
or captured from previous campaigns in Poland, Russia and
Yugoslavia. Even so, Hanke stubbornly refused to order an
evacuation of civilians until January 19, 1945. By this time
the majority of transport links had been smashed by Soviet
shelling, forcing many evacuees to leave the city on foot.
With temperatures sinking to -15˚C, an estimated 100,000
The Soviet Cemetery on Skowronia Góra A. Webber
A bunker near Partisan Hill used temporarily as Nazi
headquarters during the Siege A. Webber
people froze to death during this ill-fated evacuation, with
other reports of children trampled to death in the chaos
that ensued at the train station. Wrocław was in a state of
full-blown panic. Defeatism was punished by death and on
January 28 the deputy mayor, Dr. Wolfgang Spielhagen, was
executed in the main square for this very reason. Execution
squads roamed the city, murdering pessimists, looters and
anyone found shirking their duty to the Fatherland. Finally,
following a rapid advance, the advancing Soviets encircled
the city on February 15, 1945. Wrocław’s fate was sealed.
Siege
On February 16, 1945 months of waiting finally came to an
end. The Red Army launched a ferocious attack on the city,
throwing hundreds of tanks into the fray. But hopes for a quick
victory proved optimistic, and the battle soon turned into a
brutal slaughter, with both sides sustaining heavy casualties.
In the first three days alone the Soviets lost well over 70 tanks
as the conflict descended into savage street fighting. In his
excellent book, Microcosm, author Norman Davies suggests
that as a last resort measure chemical weapons produced in
Silesia were used to repel Soviet troops in the early stages of
combat, though this theory is largely open to debate. Civilians
and slave labour were called up to build fortifications, and vast
stretches of the city were demolished so bricks could be used
to strengthen defences. In a growing sign of desperation even
the University Library found itself stripped of thousands of
books, all destined for the barricades. In March the residential
area between the Szczytnicki and Grunwaldzki bridges was
levelled in order to build an improvised airstrip that would, in
theory, be Breslau’s connection to the outside world. The enormous
project was a disaster. With rations only issued to those
working, civilians were forced to work under fierce fire and as
a result over 13,000 died when the Soviets shelled the area.
But worse was to come. April 1 saw the Soviets launch a new
offensive to seize the city. A heavy bombardment saw much of
the city engulfed in flames, and hostilities were resumed once
more. With the noose tightening, Nazi HQ relocated from the
bunker on Partisan Hill to the University Library, while fighting
continued to rage in the sewers and houses on the fringes of
the city. Even with the end in sight, the Nazis fought bitterly to
the last man, crushing an ill-fated uprising by the remaining
civilians. A full five days after the Battle for Berlin had ended,
Breslau finally capitulated on May 6, the peace deal signed at
the villa on ul. Rapackiego 14. The day before Karl Hanke, the
very man who had ordered the execution of anyone caught
fleeing the city, escaped the city in a plane apparently bound for
the Czech Republic. What became of him remains a mystery.
Wrocław In Your Pocket wroclaw.inyourpocket.com
Aftermath
For the survivors the end of the war unleashed a new enemy.
It’s estimated that approximately two million German women
were raped by Red Army soldiers, and Breslau proved no
exception as marauding packs of drunken troops sought to
celebrate the victory. With all hospitals destroyed, and the
city waterworks a pile of ruins, epidemics raged unchecked
as the city descended further into a hellish chaos. Historical
figures suggest that in total the Battle for Breslau cost the
lives of 170,000 civilians: 6,000 German troops, and 7,000
Russian. 70% of the city lay in total ruin (about 75% of that
directly attributed to Nazi efforts to fortify the city), 10km of
sewers had been dynamited and nearly 70% of electricity cut
off. Of the 30,000 registered buildings in Wrocław, 21,600
sustained damage, with an estimated 18 million cubic metres
of smashed rubble covering the city – the removal of this
war debris was to last until the 1960s. Although several
bunkers still lie scattered around the city (Park Zachodni,
Park Południowy, etc.) there is no official memorial for the
thousands of innocent victims of war. Two Soviet cemeteries
stand in the suburbs: one for officers on ul. Karkonoska,
and one for the rank and file on Skowronia Góra. Both find
themselves in state of disrepair, littered with broken glass
and graffiti. A German military cemetery and Garden of Peace
can be found 15 kilometres from Wrocław, the final resting
place of approximately 18,000 soldiers.
Declared a part of Poland under the terms of the Yalta
Agreement the new rulers of Wrocław arrived three days
after the peace deal. A new chapter in Wrocław’s history
was about to be written. Poles from the east flocked to
repopulate Wrocław, swayed by rumours of jobs, wealth
and undamaged townhouses. Over ten per cent of these
new settlers hailed from the eastern city of Lwow (now
Ukrainian L’viv) and this mass migration was to irrevocably
change Wrocław’s demographic makeup. Others hailed
from impoverished villages, with their peasant mentality
frequently blamed for harming surviving city structures:
‘heaps of coal in a bathtub, hens in an expensive piano
and a pig kept on the fourth floor of an apartment were
not rare exceptions’, so writes Beata Maciejewska in her
excellent book ‘Wrocław: History of the City’. But farm
Further Reading
Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City
By Norman Davies & Roger Moorehouse
An excellent, encyclopaedic and engrossing book by
Davies, the guru of Polish history writing. With Wrocław
as the central character, Davies demonstrates how the
city both affects and is effected by the whirlwind events
of European history, resulting in it changing ownership,
name and size more times than any other city on the
continent. In Davies’ view, no city is better suited to
represent the Central European experience as its
unique geographical position has conspired to make it
a ‘microcosm’ and melting pot of the myriad European
concerns and conditions throughout the centuries. It’s
a convincingly made argument, as over an exhaustive
600-some pages Davies details the history of Central
Europe without ever taking the action out of Wrocław.
Starting with a horrific description of the annihilation of
Fortress Breslau in the prologue, and including plenty of
gory details of medieval urban life, if you want to read one
book about Wrocław other than the one in your hands,
make it this one.
[ISBN 0-224-06243-3, price approx. 100zł.]
wroclaw.inyourpocket.com
FESTUNG BRESLAU
Memorial in the Soviet Cemetery on Skowronia Góra
A. Webber
animals eating sofas were the least of the city’s worries.
Wrocław was on the brink of anarchy, with armed gangs of
Russians, Germans and Poles roaming the streets at night,
looting, shooting and boozing. Fortunes were made from
theft, with most goods ending up in the open air bazaar
that had sprung up on Pl. Grunwaldzki; Maciejewska’s
research reveals this was the source of everything from
railway wagons loaded with bricks, to priceless paintings
dating from the 17th century. Black market trading thrived,
and the money that was flying round led to a slew of bars
and ballrooms opening, many with colourful names: Kiosk
Pod Bombą (Kiosk Under the Bomb) and Wstąp Kolego na
Jednego (Drop In For a Drink, Mate) being a couple of note.
The end of the war also signalled an active campaign to
de-Germanize the city. Newspapers launched competitions
to eliminate all traces of Wrocław’s German heritage
with monuments and street signs all falling victim to this
iconoclastic fury. By the end of 1945 as many as 300,000
Germans were still in the city, many of whom had been
temporarily relocated from Poznań, and this was a pressing
concern for the Polish authorities. Forced transports
began in July, and by January 1948 Wrocław was officially
declared to be free of German habitants (there were, in fact,
still 3,000 in the city, essentially kept on to do jobs Poles
were unqualified for).
Wrocław was chosen to host the Exhibition of Recovered Territories,
a propaganda stunt aimed at highlighting the glories
of Polish socialism. Attracting over 1.5 million visitors the
exhibition finally closed in 1948, and with that investment and
national interest in Wrocław died. For the next few years the
city was to become a feeder city for Warsaw, with priceless
works of art ferried to the capital. In 1949 approximately
200,000 bricks were sent daily up to Warsaw, with several
undamaged buildings falling victim to the demolition teams
hell-bent on rebuilding the Polish capital. Wrocław’s recovery
was still a long way away.
September - December 2012
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