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Nazi plans for total destruction of Warsaw found on eBay

September 1939: Rubble and ruins after the German bombing of Warsaw - Archive Photos
September 1939: Rubble and ruins after the German bombing of Warsaw - Archive Photos

Historians in Poland have acquired Third Reich documents that they believe provide evidence of a Nazi "criminal plan" to obliterate Warsaw by aerial bombing during the Second World War.

Hospitals, water systems, traffic arteries and even a vodka factory are marked in the documents, suggesting the Nazis from the outset intended to inflict maximum civilian casualties and disrupt civil life in their new style of total war for the first time.

Jewish areas of the Polish capital also feature in the documents. The city as a whole seems to have been subjected to a meticulous plan of destruction rather than indiscriminate bombing.

Historians from the Warsaw Uprising museum describe the files as significant. "They are in a very good condition and we've never had anything like this in a museum," said Katarzyna Utracka.

From Sept 1 1939 to Warsaw's surrender 26 days later, German forces carried out a massive aerial bombardment that destroyed 25 per cent of the city and killed about 18,000 civilians.

A father and daughter share a stretcher at a Warsaw first aid station - Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A father and daughter share a stretcher at a Warsaw first aid station Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The two files of documents, both marked secret and packed with yellowing photographs and papers, appear to date back to October or November 1939.

The first contains plans and maps from before the war detailing potential targets even in some cases stating the thickness of walls. The second one has 100 pictures of destroyed buildings in what appears to be an assessment by the Germans of their plans.

"The documents are very important because if you see so many of them together in one place you can see that there was a plan," said Rafal Szczepanski, the owner of the files.

Operation Barbarossa: Unseen Second World War photographs by Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthofen
Operation Barbarossa: Unseen Second World War photographs by Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthofen

The files were found by Jaroslaw Zielinski, a Warsaw historian and friend of Mr Szczepanski, who set up the Foundation for the Remembrance of the Heroes of the Warsaw Uprising. Mr Zielinski had seen them for sale on eBay in German.

Who the seller was and where the files have been for close to 80 years remains a mystery.