An exhibition about the first years of Warsaw’s reconstruction has opened at the Berlin branch of the Pilecki Institute. “Warsaw Rebuilt” immediately attracted great interest among Berlin residents. Representatives of the media, museums, think tanks, and the political sphere attended the opening, including Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of the Christian Democratic Union.
The exhibition features a selection of several dozen photographs depicting post-war Warsaw from the late 1940s. Against the backdrop of near-total destruction, the images form a collective portrait of Warsaw’s residents rebuilding their city. It is also a moving story about the reconstruction of life itself. The photographs were taken by photographers and cameramen associated with agencies operating immediately after the war, including Jerzy Baranowski, Stanisław Dąbrowiecki, Zdzisław Wdowiński, Wojciech Kondracki, Jan Tymiński, Stanisław Urbanowicz, as well as cinematographers Wiktor Janik and Karol Szczeciński. The exhibition is a new edition of the display “Warsaw Rebuilt. Reportage Photography 1945-1949,” presented in Warsaw in 2025 by the Dom Spotkań z Historią. The photographs come from the archives of the Polish Press Agency, while the quotations are drawn from the Oral History Archive of DSH and the KARTA Center.
Warsaw is a city with a unique history – a history of the struggle for freedom, but also a history of reconstruction. Perhaps everyone says this about their own city, but for us, the people of Warsaw, it has a special meaning. We love Warsaw and always return to it, even when it is destroyed, when only ruins remain. This is exactly what this exhibition is about. Not only about ruins and destruction, but above all about the spirit of Warsaw and the strength that allows one to rise after catastrophe and start anew, “ said Hanna Radziejowska, head of the Berlin branch of the Pilecki Institute.
This story does not belong solely to the past. Looking today at what Russia is doing to Ukraine, at successive attacks, including recent drone strikes on Lviv and mass shelling, we can clearly see how relevant Warsaw’s experience remains. The fates of these cities are interconnected. Just as Warsaw once did, Ukraine today must wage its own struggle for freedom and democracy.
No other European capital experienced destruction on such a scale as Warsaw. In the left-bank part of the city, the urban fabric was almost completely annihilated. Around 84 percent of buildings disappeared, including as much as 90 percent of industrial and historical sites, and nearly three-quarters of residential buildings.
The photographs presented in the exhibition allow us to look at that time – and at Warsaw today – from a different perspective. The residents of the capital, with extraordinary vitality and energy, tamed an extremely difficult reality and tried to live normally in abnormal conditions. In the decision to rebuild the capital from ruins, there was a kind of positive madness – a collective enthusiasm in defiance of reality and the political situation. You can feel it when looking at these photographs, at people’s faces, at the rebirth of city life. This enthusiasm and energy are contagious, “ said Katarzyna Madoń-Mitzner, the exhibition’s curator.
Anna Brzezińska, another curator of the exhibition, emphasized that the authors of the photographs were professionals, deeply committed to their work. Their images are of the highest standard, both technically and substantively, perfectly framed and composed. They are not only documents, but also beautiful, emotionally rich examples of humanist photography. Thanks to their preservation, we can feel the remarkable spirit of the city and its inhabitants.
The Pilecki Institute has prepared a rich program of accompanying events for the exhibition. It includes a meeting with a witness to history, Janina Iwańska, devoted to the experience of the Holocaust, the return to a destroyed Warsaw, and its reconstruction. A debate is also planned on the role of infrastructure in times of war and rebuilding, comparing post-war Warsaw with the current situation in Ukraine. Historian Błażej Brzostek will present the process of the city’s reconstruction in its social and political dimensions. The series will conclude with an event dedicated to the losses of Warsaw’s private collections and art holdings between 1939 and 1945, led by Dr. Mariusz Klarecki.
The exhibition will be on display at the Berlin branch of the Pilecki Institute until the end of August.