July 13, 2012 One of the things that sets Warsaw apart from
every other European capital is the noticeable lack of an old
city center. Athens, Paris, London, Rome, Prague, Kiev– these
cities are thousands of years old, and it shows. One of Europe’s
delights, in fact, is the continent’s well-preserved
architecture. Yet despite being founded over 1,000 years ago,
Warsaw is largely devoid of such splendor. Most of the city was
completely demolished by the Nazis after several years of
invasion, occupation, and insurrection. It was right around this
time 73-years ago, in fact, that Nazi forces began to mass at
the Polish border in preparation for invasion. A few people here
saw the obvious writing on the wall and got the hell out. Others
put faith in government to resolve the problems. Others presumed
there would be conflict but completely underestimated its
severity. Many of those who left ended up in South America where
they watched the war unfold in newspaper headlines rather than
out their front window… or fro