Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw

In August 1944, the beleaguered people of Warsaw believed that liberation was at hand. Determined to drive the Germans out, the Polish Resistance poured thousands of armed fighters into the streets, where for sixty-three days The Battle of Warsaw raged in the cellars and the sewers. Yet Stalin condemned the uprising as a criminal adventure and refused to come to the Poles' aid, while Poland's Western Allies regretfully decided there was little to be done. Once the occupiers regrouped, they set about reducing the city to rubble. Rising '44 examines events that have been suppressed and misrepresented for more than half a century to reveal the true scale of a sacrifice that saw one of Europe's ancient capitals razed to the ground. Pivotal to the outcome of the Second World War and in the origins of the Cold War, the tragedy of the Warsaw Uprising occupies a unique place in twentieth century history.