Warsaw Uprising 1944

Service Description

In summer of 1944, Warsaw rose up against Nazi occupation in a desperate attempt to free itself before the Soviets arrived. But what followed wasn’t just resistance, it was the systematic annihilation of a city and its people. This tour walks you through that truth. You’ll hear what most guides won’t say: the rape camps, the mass executions, the destruction of hospitals, and the betrayal that followed. It wasn’t just any Wehrmacht or SS, these were the worst SS units in the entire Reich, the ones Hitler’s generals and even the Waffen SS despised. These are the scars beneath the cobblestones and paved streets of modern day Warsaw. Stop 1: The Uprising Begins Location: Uprising Monument, Old Town We will start at the iconic Warsaw Uprising Monument and set the stage: Nazi occupation, Soviet betrayal, and the desperate hope that ignited the resistance. Stop 2: Field Hospital Massacre Site Across from the popular, peaceful Oki Doki Hostel is a building where the beasts of SS sonderkommando Dirlewanger entered a field hospital and murdered everyone: nurses, wounded soldiers, and civilians. There was no mercy, only slaughter. Stop 3: Kilińskiego Street - The Booby-Trapped Tank Here, a fake captured tank was left as bait by the SS. When crowds surrounded it, it exploded killing hundreds of civilians. It was not war, it was psychological terrorism designed to break a population’s soul. Stop 4: Hala Mirowska & St Augustine Church: We will explore one of the last surviving buildings in the district after the destruction of the city, the nearby church, one of the only structures left standing, became a tomb for the living and the dead. During this 2-part stop we will be at Hala Mirowska market place, where SS men beat, raped, and shot civilians inside a bustling market. Stop 5: Final Reflection at Świętokrzyski Pedestrian Bridge We end our journey at a peaceful viewpoint over the river. But nothing about this view is peaceful when you know the truth. You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of what Warsaw lost and what it still carries in silence and a deeper respect and sympathy for Warsawians, Poles, and Slavs as a whole. We honor their families' memory