...soaring Gothic architecture it charms and beguiles the visitor. The city is a must-visit when in Poland.

Most people know Wrocław by one of its last incarnations and its former German name: Breslau. In actual fact, its Polish name pre-dates the German one, but besides this generally-accepted piece of information, concrete dates are hard to verify, and depending on which side of the fence you were sitting on, documents used different names at the same time. But there is no mistaking what happened to the city in 1945, during the 'Battle for Breslau’; that 80 day siege has been called by many one of the largest tragedies in battle, in terms of the toll on human life, of WWII.

The Flame

Prior to WWII, Wrocław (known at that time as Breslau, it was part of Germany), was firmly in the grip of a love affair with all things German in general and Hitler in particular. Some sources claim that in 1933, more than 200,000 of the city's citizens voted for Hitler and gave him financial and political support that went far beyond the ballot box. It was at this point that the Nazis turned their steely gaze on Breslau and decided that it was the perfect city in which to create a Nazi utopia; this meant, of course, that the city's 'undesirables' (non-Germans, Jews and other religious and ethnic minorities) had to be disposed of. They wasted no time: in 1944 widespread campaigns of terror were launched, which used murder, torture, looting, burning and rationing with impunity and resulted in those who could do so fleeing the city. Those who could not had no choice but to remain with what was coming...namely the Red Army.

On August 24, 1944 the city was declared by Germany to be a closed stronghold, ('Festung Breslau') and roughly 85,000 'soldiers' were quickly rounded up to become the most critical defensive element on ‘The Eastern Wall’. In reality, this group was nothing more than a mix of young boys and old men and they were all that stood between their city and the oncoming Soviet army, which was rampaging wildly as it approached, destroying all the city's transport links. Breslau's remaining civilian population had no choice but to flee on foot, but as it was the end of January by this point, over 100,000 people froze to death. Finally, on February 15, 1945, the Soviets surrounded the city and there was no choice left but to fight.

The very next day, the Red Army launched an incredibly brutal attack on Breslau, and despite the Red Army having tanks and many well-fed men, the Nazis rose up and fought back. For 80 days, they managed to hold off the Soviets – and the city degenerated into nothing more than open battle, with the Russians and Germans going at it hammer and tongs, and the city's civilians darting helplessly around the city, trying to avoid getting killed. Since the Nazis refused to feed any civilian who was not actively fighting the Soviets, civilian combatants got thrown into the mix as well, despite the fact that what they wanted more than anything was to see the back of the Nazis.

What Breslau saw over that 80 days was nothing less than a bloodbath. When the dust settled and the city surrendered, the number of dead stood as follows: 170,000 civilians, 6,000 German soldiers and 7,000 Russian. 70% of the city was completely destroyed; of the more than 30,000 registered and historical buildings, 21,632 sustained severe damage, with an estimated 18.5 million cubic meters of rubble strewn from one end of the city to the other – this was such an enormous and daunting task that it took until well into the 1960's before the last of the war debris was removed.

After the war ended, Breslau was declared a part of Poland under the Yalta agreement; accordingly, it was renamed Wrocław and became determined to be as 'Polish' (meaning, as 'non-German') as possible. Although the Germans had historically had a major influence on everything from architecture to food, post-WWII Wrocław wanted none of that as it re-invented itself. Poles were brought into the city en masse, German street names were changed and monuments honoring German heroes fell hard in the face of anti-German sentiment. By early 1946, it was decided that the city's remaining 300,000 German citizens had to be removed, and so they were forcibly relocated; by early 1948, Wrocław was in the middle of a Communist mis-information feeding frenzy, with the Soviets claiming that not a single German remained in the city. This was not strictly true, but when dealing with propaganda, truth is not as relevant as the larger message aimed at stirring and inspiring the masses. And so began the next part of this city's saga: that of Soviet Communist rule until 1989.

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