| Soldiers help another soldier from Mokotow exit a manhole on Wilcza Street by the Ujazdowskie Alley. Initially the Polish Home Army didn’t plan to use the sewers, which dated from the 19th century, because they were 3 1/2 feet high (110 centimeters) in some places and filled with sewage water to the ankles or waist. When the Warsaw Uprising was planned for 3 to 4 days, contact between isolated insurgents was not considered. The need for supplies and communications forced the formation of special sewer patrols, initially comprised of women, and later boys, who could fit through the narrow sewer tunnels. When the Nazis realized the sewers were being used by the insurgents, SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski (March 1, 1899 – March 8, 1972) ordered barbed wire entanglements, poison gas, and mines into the tunnels. When they heard people in the sewers, they threw down grenades and tins filled with tear and poisonous gas. They machine-gunned from above. They built dams using metal girders, logs and sand bags with the intention of raising the water level and so impeding movement. The fortitude and constitution of the special sewer patrols had to be tremendous; they had to pass through pockets of ammonia, wade through faeces up to their chin, and squeeze through small spaces. Signs were posted to keep from getting lost, which often happened. As thousands of civilians fled into the tunnels to avoid the fighting, many lost composure and went insane. German forces stormed Mokotow on September 24, 1944. The Polish Home Army began to evacuate through the sewers 2 days later. The Luftwaffe bombed sewer exits, seeding panic. Thousands of Poles were trapped in the sewer; some surfaced at Jerozolimskie Alley after 11 hours in the tunnels. Others refused to move through the fetid water, in some places up to their shoulders. The evacuation was blocked. Germans blocked the route in other places with barbed wire. Only 1 person at a time could squeeze past the obstruction. Some returned to Mokotow, preferring to fight it out with the Nazis rather than face the horrors of the sewers. Those who exited the manhole on Wilcza Street by the Ujazdowskie Alley were physically and mentally at the end of their tether. Some could not even see. The last group reached the manhole after blundering for 23 hours in the sewers. Some never made it out. They committed suicide in the darkness, ensnared by wire, overcome by gas, wounded by Nazi grenades or machine gun fire, alone or in groups. Others exited the sewers into the hands of the Shutzstaffel (SS) and were shot on the spot. | |
| Image Filename | wwii2131.jpg |
| Image Size | 137.87 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 711 x 1024 |
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| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | September 26, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Warsaw |
| State or Province | Warsaw |
| Country | Poland |
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| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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