Dni powstania: kronika fotograficzna walczacej Warszawy
Warszawa (Warsaw): PAX, 1957. First edition. Hardcover. Folio. VII, [1], 319, [1]pp. Original photo-illustrated dust-jacket over grey cloth with black lettering on spine and front cover. Pictorial endpapers. Publisher's logo on title page. Remarkable photographic chronicle of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, a heroic and tragic 63-day struggle to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. The uprising was undertaken by the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK), the Polish resistance movement, at the time when Allied troops were breaking through the Normandy defenses and the Red Army was standing on the other side of the Vistula River. Although the exact number of casualties remains unknown, it is estimated that about 16,000 members of the Polish resistance were killed and about 6,000 badly wounded. In addition, between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians died, mostly from mass executions. Jews being harbored by Poles were exposed by German house-to-house clearances and mass evictions of entire neighborhoods. German casualties totalled over 8,000 soldiers killed and missing, and 9,000 wounded. During the urban combat approximately 25% of Warsaw's buildings were destroyed. Following the surrender of Polish forces, German troops systematically leveled another 35% of the city block by block. Together with earlier damage suffered in the 1939 invasion of Poland and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, over 85% of the city was destroyed by January 1945, when the course of the events in the Eastern Front forced the Germans to abandon the city. This work is profusely illustrated with numerous photogravures of street fighting, ruins, documents, as well as 5 color reproductions of Polish resistance posters. Some rubbing, creasing, and sporadic tiny chipping along edges of dust-jacket. Upper front corner bumped, thus slightly affecting pages throughout. Free front endpaper and very first pages slightly foxed. Text in Polish. DJ in overall fair to good-, binding in good, interior in good+ condition. g. Item #34643
Price: $250.00