Polish Atlantis (pre-war Warsaw, Poland in pictures).

Poland as it no longer exists, destroyed by Germans and Russians within a violent 5 years period, its traditions forgotten during half a century of enforced communism,Polish Atlantis preserved on pictures.

Pictures of Polish pre-war cities and life, first a taste of pre-war Warsaw.

Palace of Zamoyski family.

Lubelska Union square.

Hotel Polonia Palace.

Lord Saviors Square.

Rymarska street, the ministry of treasure and chamber of treasury buildings.

Świętokrzyska street.

Apelation court.

I have to split pictures into 10-15 picture posts or less otherwise it just wont load.

Marszałkowska (Marshalls street).

And here we have Marshalls street clogged by cars and trams, seems we were driving like true Poles do even before the war :)

Polish Bank on Bielańska Street.

Świętokrzyska Street (for some reason reminds me of New York in the early 20s).

Main Post office in Warsaw.

Catedhral Sobór in Warsaw.

Warsaw University library.

is the building on the far right of picture Prudential?

Indeed it is.

A different view on Marszałkowska street.

Ogród Saski (Saxon garden).

Plac Teatralny (Theatre Square.)

Ulica Długa (Long Street).

Krakowskie Przedmieście (krakowian subburb).

Entrance to the Warsaw University.

Speaking of prudential, one of the first skyscrapers in Poland (it was considered as such at the time though nowdays it would be classified only as a highrise).

Built in art deco early modern style the prudential was a sign of the city modernizing.

Prudential in 1938.

Prudential in 1945 after Germans moonscaped Warsaw.

Zielna Street.

The back streets and alleys behind the hustle and bustle of the city.

Saxon Garden entrance from the Iron Gate.

Krakovian Suburb.

Warsaw Old Town - market day.

A young boy selling newspapers.

Cars parked on a Warsaw street.

Waiting for a tram on a tram stop.

Warsaw Town Hall.

There were many ways to get around in pre war Warsaw, one of them was to take a Riksza.

And visit one of the many shopping centres.

And before i go, New World Street in the 30s.

Judging by amount of comments from English speaking commentators who are more interesting in other things to comment at the moment WHO CARES

I've posted this link on these forums before, but i'll post it again as it is relevent to the topic:

stalus.iq.pl

This is a neat website where you can see before/after pics of different parts of Warszawa.

Great Pics Sok. Thanks.

Common Del lots of people.
Most dont feel they can contribute positively so they say nothing. I was going to ask about the degree of damage in smaller towns and did larger places get better treatment in rebuilding.

Here are some great photos of some buidings in Warsaw, Before and After, from the poster Pawian.
Polish architecture


I would imagine the bigger cities got the most attention because of the population.
But Warsaw was totalled, so it needed more attention than most, I think.

Hala Mirowska?

I wonder if there were "seks szopy" nearby in those days as well :)


Love that photo! It looks to me like people would say "Hey Paulie, let's get some cawfee", not "cześć, idziemy na kawę?" on the streets. Or maybe I've been watching too much Sopranos. haha

Thanks Sean I dont know how I missed that thread I'll have a good look later.

But some details are astounding I didnt read it all closely but the Spiders web on the raised gable and the door, I wonder if are they the same building?

Pawian's dry humour on display again I see oh plus


Quote of the day.

Good pictures Sokrates and thanks for posting them.

I agree that Świętokrzyska Street has the look of 20's New York, probably because of the Prudential building.

Enjoyed look at the pics. :)

Warsaw taxis (non-motorised type)

Dorożka carriage.

Warsaw riksza.

Two guys carrying that fellow who critisized this thread.

St Alexanders church on the Three Crosses square.

John the Baptists catedral.

Karowa street.

Warsaw night life, the lady is hot but needs a push up, cant do a belly dance without proper boobs IMHO.

No idea which street is that, the building with the eagles is a corner of the now gone bank.

Warsaw Philharmonia (or is it spelled Philharmony?)

Moniuszki street, balcony view.

Thanks for the ride in the time machine Sok, Pawi has some good pics too.

When I see the people I wonder how they fared in the days that soon came.

Most of them did not, Warsaw before the war numbered some 1.300000 people, directly after the war it was less then half a milion, out of every three people on these pictures two were killed by Germans.

Just wondering: did they ever rebuild any of the buildings in these pics back into their former glory or did they just demolish the ruins and put some gross and grey Soviet block instead?

I'm asking this because in Ypres, Belgium, a larger city that was completely flattened in 1918, they completely rebuild the entire city centre to it's pre-WW1 glory in the 1920's.

>^..^<

M-G (such a waste)

Many were rebuilt but without the unique external decor so although they appeared similar to the original they were missing the decor and looked more like communist era buildings.

No, some were rebuilt but very few to their exact former looks.


Ypres had 35.000 inhabitants, Warsaw had 1.300000 inhabitants, we're talking about a city thats something like 35 times bigger then Ypres.

There were several reasons why Warsaw was not rebuilt to its former splendor, one was that virtually all major cities in Poland were destroyed to a great degree, there was not enough building material, the priority was to shelter people not to rebuild structures.

Second we had a communist goverment enforced on us by Russians, said goverment was doing everything to distance itself from the anti-communist pre-war Poland, this included not rebuilding the city in the pre-war fashion, only major landmarks were rebuilt and even then not brick for brick.

Sokrates

Nice photos, thanks for posting. Do you happen to have images of small towns and villages in the countryside from the pre-war era as well, or do you know a good source by any chance? I'm especially interested in the greater Poznan area.

We should always remember Warsaw was destroyed on purpose.
Not because of street fights but with some blind nonsensical madness wasting explosives, fuel and ammo Germans needed dramatically for front.
Street after street, block after block, house after house...

I'm Warsaw born, it's my city so I'm really missing any comment from our German friend BB.

Yes they are.


It was a crazy thing to do.

@TheOther
I have some pictures of pre-war Poznań, i've asked a few friends to send me over their family photos from the country around it, once i'll get the i'll post them in bulk with pre-war Poznań pics.

Now for some more more pictures, Lwów.

The ironic tragedy of Lwów was that it was, apart from Kraków the only two great old Polish cities surviving the war intact and as the hostilities ended it was given away to the Ukrainians, by American president and Stalin no less.

Lwów, Hetmans Walls, the great theatre and statue of king Sobieski.

Lwów - Town hall.

Lwów - Ossolińscy Library, one of the oldest and largest book collection in Poland.

A rather sad picture, Akademicka street in Lwów 1937, above it a sign on the picture saying "tu mieszkam" which translates "i live here" after the war Soviets would exile the woman who sent this card along with most Polish citizens.

Dominican Church in Lwów.

University in Lwów.

Scottish Cafe - a cafe in Lwów where some of the greatest Polish matematicians and simoultenously some of the greatest minds of pre-war Europe would meet they discussed and argued over mathematical problems by beer or coffee, writing them down in what would later become known as a Scottish Book, a document of significant mathematical value , more then half of them would be murdered by Germans a few years after this picture was taken.

A few random ones.

Poznań Town hall.

Philharmonia - £ódż.

Town square in Zamość.

Have you ever been to Warsaw? The vast majority of the buildings you show are either still here or have been rebuilt. The street you don't know is called Jasna and it's blindingly obvious you have never been there: if you had, you'd know that the building with the eagles is still there ("house under the eagles" is its name) and that it's still a bank!

Harry
I was many times, they don't look like from pre '39 era definitely at least most of them.

Pre-war Warsaw Catedral.
"rebuilt"

Most of Warsaw as it was, no longer exists,russian installed communist government avoided rebuilding what represented anti-communist church or elites which meant the rebuilt structures were often nothing like the old ones.

How nice photos.Poland was a romantic land,cities look between east and west and peoples' faces are the same like today.

Lwów - king Sobieski statue.

Humble beginings of the Polish private bus lines (that by 1939 were not so humble).

A facility of the Ossolińscy library in Lwów.

Lwów university, front entrance.

A rowing club in Warsaw, Vistula river.

St Andrews church in Warsaw.

Ministry palace in Warsaw.

A tram passing across Kierbedzia bridge in Warsaw.

Nice set of pictures that all of you have posted. Your efforts and passion have lent people of foreign origin rare sights of a forgotten poland. I would sure like ot have some of htese pictures. By the way are some of those buildings derivved from the Byzantine architecture or some probably from the same era? Please excuse my ignorance as i have very little idea in the way of Poland and its history.

Cheers,
Keshav.

You're welcome to all of them, i've got permission from sites or private owners to show or distribute them as long as its non commercial.


Some of them were influenced by Russian architectonic styles of the XIX century thats where the similarity comes from.


Greater Poznań aka Wielkopolska, the city of Poznań and a few towns around it (more tomorrow).

Ostrówek, a town/subburb of Poznań.

Chwaliszewo another Poznań subburb town.

River harbor on the Warta river - Poznań.

Działyński's palace.

Poznań - main market entrance.

Marcinkowskiego Alley - Poznań.

Poznań - view from the Summer Square.

Poznań - old and new townhalls.

Old townhall interior - Poznań.

Main post office - Poznań.

And my personal favourite, you can feel there's something unique about it and i've actually contacted the fellow who claims to be the owner of the picture to get its history.

4 Brothers, from left to right, an artist, a post worker, a soldier and a student, picture taken on the street of a Polish city in 1937.

All of them would fight in 1939 in the defence of Poland, the youngest one (far right) will be awarded a medal for his bravery at the Battle of Bzura (one of the largest battles of WW2 fought in the Polish campaign).

One vanished without a trace in the war years, the other will be murdered by Germans, only the eldest and the youngest (far right and far left) will be alive when the war ends.

Thats it for tonight, more tomorrow.

A mix of pictures.

Cafe on Freedom Square in Poznań - 1927.

Poznań panoramic view - 1930.

Mountain riflemen parading 1935.

Warsaw ballet 1936.

Botanic garden in Poznań

Greater Poland town.

Generations of a single family.

Raczyńscy library - Poznań.

re "No idea which street is that, the building with the eagles is a corner of the now gone bank"

The bank built in 1912 - 17 as an example of Poland's early Modernist architecture is near Ulicza Sienkiewicza (off Marszalkowska) close'ish to Wedel's patisserie and chocolate shop.

The stone eagles were designed by Zygmunt Otto and from my last visit to Warsaw are still there at 'the bank under the eagles'.

Actually you're right the bank has been rebuilt, the fellow who sent me the particular picture attached a comment but afterwards it turned out the bank indeed survived and was repaired.