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Full-color map of the city center of Kraków, Poland, with suburban districts of Podgórze and Nowa Huta, and a detail inset of the Kraków old town, as it appeared during the German occupation of World War II (1939~1945).
By the morning of September 1, 1939, Hitler was already using the Gleiwitz incident to justify his invasion of Poland. The attack at Westerplatte followed shortly after, sealing Poland’s fate. Poland, Parade for Adolf Hitler, September 1939 Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-S55480 / CC-BY-SA 3.0.
The German Invasion of Poland. German-Italian Counterattack on Sicily. German Occupied Europe. German Offensive in Alsace-Lorraine. German Offensive into Southwest Russia. Invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece. Nazi Domination in Europe (1938-1942) France Under German Occupation. The Rhineland Campaign in Germany and the Low Countries.
- Occupied Kraków
- Red Army at The Gates
- Version One: The Red Army and Marshal Konev Saved Kraków.
- Version Two. Kraków Was Saved Because No One Planned to Destroy it.
- Konev. Not A Hero anymore.
Nevertheless, the Nazi occupation of Kraków was no different to anywhere else, including the imposition of harsh totalitarian rules, racial and national segregation with the systematic extermination of Jews and Poles of Jewish origin, erasing all remnants of Kraków’s Polish history, and mass theft of works of art. The Nazi occupiers did everything ...
In January 1945, however, with the Red Army approaching at full speed and the Germans retreating contumaciously, usually leaving nothing more than scorched earth behind them, Kraków seemed doomed… but eventually came through unscathed. How was that possible? There are two narratives to that story: the Communist one and the post-Communist.
Throughout the Communist period of Poland's history, the official binding dogma was that Kraków was saved by the strategic genius of Marshal Ivan Konev. An official Kraków city guide from 1967 says: Some scientific publications, the Polish Film Chronicle (a propaganda outlet of the Communist party), and school and university textbooks, as well as a...
After the fall of Communism in 1989, the story was revised. Analysis of the classified military documents of the previous regime revealed that the Red Army’s role in saving Kraków was a bit less heroic. The latest research shows that the German armed forces had little interest in defending Kraków, and that the risk of being encircled was substantia...
It seems that the legend of Marshal Ivan Konev heroically saving Kraków was very much needed for him personally, as an asset in his rivalry with Marshal Georgy Zhukov, and for Soviet plans of expansion. Poles accused the Red Army of passivity and of letting the Warsaw Uprising bleed out in 1944, and if these charges were proven by not taking proper...
In the early hours of the morning of September 1, 1939, Germany launched an invasionof Poland. The first target of the invasion was the Polish town of Wieluń, struck by Luftwaffe bombers at 4:40 AM, which was even before the official declaration of war was made. This was followed by a coordinated attack on the Polish city of Danzig (Gdańsk).
Sep 9, 2010 · 3 Apr 1939. Adolf Hitler, on his own authority, ordered the armed forces to prepare "Case White" for the invasion and occupation of the whole of Poland later in the summer. 7 May 1939. German Generals Rundstedt, Manstein, and other General Staff members presented to Hitler an invasion plan for Danzig and Poland.
Nov 7, 2023 · The exhibit culminates in a finale where we find ourselves standing between two walls. The first wall displays a virtual map of Kraków, a cityscape made alien through the imposition of German names onto streets, squares, and alleys, echoing an imposed narrative of dominance.
