| Nazi German Soldaten Victory Parade in Warsaw “Original caption: “German troops parade through Warsaw, Poland.” Soldiers of the Heer march past the podium of honor on Aleje Ujazdowskie near Pałacyk Śleszyńskich oraz Józefa Foxa (“The Śleszyński and Józef Fox Palace”), where Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reich Chancellor”) Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) and other high-ranking Wehrmacht officers were during the Siegesparade (Victory parade) of the German troops of the 8th Army held in Warsaw, Poland, on October 5, 1939. This photo is 1 of a series of stereo photo cards featured in “Die Soldaten des Führers im Felde – der Feldzug in Polen” (The Soldiers of the Führer in the Field – The Military Campaign in Poland), a 3D photo book, or raumbild, published in 1940 by Raumbild-Verlag Otto Schönstein on the orders of Oberst im Generalstab Hasso von Wedel (Abteilungschef im Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) and Reichsamtsleiter Henrich Hansen (Reichspressestelle der NSDAP). In this photo we can clearly see the typical Wehrmacht marching style known as “Stechschritt” or “Goose Step” (swinging step without bending the knees). This style was 1st introduced by the Prussian Marshal Leopold I, Fürst von Anhalt-Dessau (July 3, 1676 – April 7, 1747), a top field commander during the time of Friedrich II der Große (January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786), who is especially known for modernizing the Prussian infantry to become the best of its time. General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski (January 5, 1893 – May 22, 1964) and other members of the Polish Army, just formed on September 27, 1939, into Służba Zwycięstwu Polski; (SZP – “Service for Poland’s Victory”), the 1st resistance movement in Poland, attempted to detonate hidden explosives during Hitler’s victory parade in Warsaw. 500 kilograms of Trinitrotoluene (TNT) were concealed in a ditch, ready to be detonated by Polish sappers. However, at the last moment, the parade was diverted, and the saboteurs missed their target. The New York Times reported on October 2, 1939: “Warsaw Cleans Up for German Parade – By Cable to the New York Times.” Berlin, October 1. — German troops are to march into Warsaw tomorrow. Warsaw today was the scene of feverish cleanup activity. Polish troops throughout the city were removing road barriers, leveling earthworks, clearing out fallen trees, telephone poles, and overturned streetcars. Shell holes in roads were being filled in with debris from destroyed houses. The city was being prepared not only for the German parade, but also for the resumption of normal civilian activity. The greatest danger is mine fields of dud shells, which are being dug up or exploded by rifle or artillery fire all around town. They are now designated by white taps or signs as far as they have been dis-covered, but Warsaw, like the fields of France, will be a dangerous place to dig gardens, for hundreds of thousands of shells poured into the city in the course of the long siege, and there are many duds which will not be discovered for a long time. Food stores in the city partially reopened on Sunday, with long lines of people waiting outside. German field kitchen units and relief trains were also operating. 1st attempts to resume normal life have begun, and it is reported that more refugees have returned to what is left of their homes. Many of these, German reports state, have been wholly or partly destroyed, but preliminary stages of reconstruction are underway. The Los Angeles Daily News reported on October 6, 1939: “Hitler views Warsaw victory parade – Nazi chief expresses ‘regret’ at necessity to ruin capital.” By Joseph W. Grigg Junior [(August 23, 1910 – October 27, 2000)] “With the German Army in Warsaw, October 5. – (United Press) – The Führer today reviewed fifteen thousand of his goosestepping troops marching in a victory parade through the ruins and wreckage of Warsaw, but not a single Pole saw the Führer.” “Sentries with fixed bayonets kept every Pole at least a block from the route of the two-hour parade of conquest.” “Hitler told me and a group of other correspondents in a brief conversation that Germany’s enemies in the west who want to continue the war should see Warsaw’s shambles to know ‘the real meaning of war.’” “We talked with him at the Okęcie airport just before he flew back to Berlin after celebrating the triumph of his three-week ‘lightning war’ that conquered a nation of nearly forty million people.” “In an order of the day to his troops, Hitler said that after the conquest of Poland, ‘we stand together more firmly than ever and tighten our steel helmets’ strap.’” “In his flying visit to Warsaw, Hitler saw a once proud and magnificent city three-fourths in ruins after a twenty-day siege by the big guns and bombing planes of the German war machine.” “Only the tortured skeleton of a great city remains. Its two main thoroughfares are completely devastated and apparently beyond hope of repair.” “More than seventy-five per cent of Warsaw’s buildings are partly or completely wrecked. Barely a window remains intact.” “That was the grim setting for Hitler’s triumphal entry, although swastikas fluttered over the wreckage in an attempt to provide a little pageantry.” “Termed Object Lesson” “With a group of other newspapermen, I arrived in Warsaw at noon, at the same time as Hitler and his group of military and government aides, and watched him as he rode through rutted streets from which everyone but German soldiers was barred.” “Hitler, after shaking hands with me and the other newspaper correspondents at the airport as he prepared to hurry back to Berlin for his Reichstag speech tomorrow, said that ‘shattered Warsaw should be a warning to the nations who want to carry on the war.’ He meant Great Britain and France.” “‘Gentlemen,’ he told us, ‘you have seen for yourselves what criminal folly St was to try to defend this city militarily and how its defense collapsed after only two days.” “‘I only wish those men in other countries who seem to want to turn the whole of western Europe Into such shambles as Warsaw could have the opportunity of seeing as you have the real meaning of war.’” “The United States, Belgium, the Netherlands, and most of the other embassies and legations I found to be almost untouched, but the Swedish legation was half wrecked.” “Reviews Parade” “The reviewing stand where Hitler stood to watch the two-hour victory parade was on the avenue Ujazdowski in a comparatively undamaged part of the diplomatic sector of the city.” “Behind the Führer and his generals, the Reich War Flag formed a backdrop with swastikas fluttering all around in bright sunshine and a light breeze.” “The parade began at 1230 Hours, and until 1430 Hours, detachments of every branch of the German Army, picked from the six divisions that stormed and finally took Warsaw, goosestepped past Hitler and Generaloberst Walther Von Brauchitsch [(October 4, 1881 – October 18, 1948)].” “After the victory parade, Hitler paid a brief visit to Belvedere house, where the late Marshal Jozef Pilsudski [(December 5, 1867 – May 12, 1935)], Poland’s hero, lived and died.” “It was Pilsudski who signed the German-Polish pact of nonaggression, which Hitler denounced before the Reichstag last April 28.” “Belvedere house, a picturesque chateau, had escaped the German siege, and as Hitler entered, German sentries at the gates and doors snapped smartly to attention.” “A German officer told me that Hitler had great respect for the memory of Pilsudski because he had tried to work in friendship with Germany but was betrayed by those who succeeded him in power.” “I toured what remains of Warsaw and found that the principal target of the German bombing planes had been the areas in the center of the city near the central railroad station, including the principal shopping streets.” “These areas are completely devastated. There are enormous bomb and shell craters in the streets. Trolley car tracks have been ripped up and twisted in agonizing shapes.” “The sides of some of the city’s largest buildings have been completely sheared olf. Some have a roof supported by a couple of walls.” “A German officer told me that these central streets had been subjected to particularly merciless shelling because they were used by Polish garrisons as their main line of communications through the city.” Hugo Jaeger (January 18, 1900 – January 1, 1970), a photographer, worked for Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reich Chancellor”) Adolf Hitler’s (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann (September 12, 1885 – December 16, 1957), from 1936 to 1945. This gave him direct access to the Führer and his entourage. He was a pioneer of color photography, working with Agfa film and developing chemicals. After the war, he managed to hide around 2,000 negatives near Munich, which he sold to LIFE magazine in the 1960s. In addition to private and public photographs of Adolf Hitler, there are surviving photographs of the German invasion of Poland, the destruction of Warsaw, the Jewish city of Kutno, and the Warsaw Ghetto. Jaeger is the uncredited author of the album Die Soldaten des Führers im Felde (“The Führer’s Soldiers at the Front”), which contains a series of propaganda 3-dimensional stereoscopic photographs depicting the war in Poland in September 1939 and the capitulation of Warsaw. The album was published by Raumbild-Verlag Otto Schonstein Kommanditgesellschaft.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii2417.jpg |
| Image Size | 2.11 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 5677 x 3995 |
| Photographer | Hugo Jaeger |
| Photographer Title | Propaganda Units of the German Armed Forces |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | October 5, 1939 |
| Location | Pałacyk Śleszyńskich oraz Józefa Foxa |
| City | Warsaw |
| State or Province | Warsaw |
| Country | Poland |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | 242-GAP-206Z-15 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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