The Warsaw Uprising broke out on August 1, 1944, and on September 11 German soldiers attacked the City Hall and Blanka Palace as they emerged from Warsaw's Foča Street onto Teatralnyi Square. The bodies of male Warsaw citizens who had been shot and killed were scattered in front of the building.

 　The Warsaw Uprising broke out on August 1, 1944, and on September 11, German soldiers attacked the City Hall and the Blanka Palace as they emerged from Warsaw's Foča Street (now Moriera Street) onto Teatralnyi Square. In the foreground, the bodies of male Warsaw citizens who had been shot and killed were scattered. The new office building of Warsaw City Hall can be seen in the back. All life and traffic disappeared in the streets of Warsaw as the uprising was suppressed. The Polish insurgents, instigated by the British and the Soviet Union, brought misery to the previously peaceful residents of Warsaw. At the decisive moment, the Soviet Red Army betrayed the Poles, leaving behind rubble and ashes in which they did not intervene. During the Warsaw Uprising, the SS committed numerous brutal massacres.

　Beginning at 5 p.m. on August 1, 1944, first thousands of Warsaw citizens and Polish underground fighters rose up against the Germans, believing that the oncoming Soviet Red Army would soon liberate the city of Warsaw. However, the Soviet Red Army's relief efforts were largely unsuccessful, and the Warsaw residents held out for 63 days until October 2, when they were forced to surrender. Nearly 200,000 Warsaw citizens died during that time. The Polish rebels were outnumbered, but surprise attacks and familiarity with the city worked in their favor. During the first few days, Warsaw fighters in the resistance occupied strategic areas and forced the Germans to temporarily withdraw from the old city.

　Between 40,000 and 50,000 Polish insurgents participated in the Warsaw uprising, of whom about 18,000 were killed and 25,000 wounded. Civilian losses were enormous, with at least 180,000 people killed. About 500,000 of Warsaw's surviving residents were driven from the city, which was almost completely burned and demolished after the uprising. The Germans forced over half a million of the entire population into the transit camp of Pruszkow in the south, and many were deported to concentration camps.

　The citizens of Warsaw hoped that the Soviet Red Army would at least assist them with weapons and ammunition, but the Soviet Red Army ignored them. Stalin was not interested in the Polish insurgents, fearing that the Polish army would establish an anti-communist regime. The bitter urban war lasted 63 days and ended with the surrender of the Polish insurgents; when the Russians finally crossed the Vistula River to liberate Warsaw in January 1945, there were only about 1,000 survivors in the ruins.