Poland at the beginning of World War II (1939.09)

A Warsaw street in early September 1939, with cars and trams moving.

Shop windows covered with strips of paper and filled with sacks of earth.

Patriotic posters calling for resistance to the enemy.

Young men and women who have joined voluntary civil defense units march along a Warsaw street.

A view of one of the city squares during an air raid siren.

A man watches aerial targets through binoculars.

A German plane approaches its target.

A view of a Warsaw street during an air raid siren, with stopped public transport and people taking cover.

Polish fighter planes intercept German bombers.

Residents of a Warsaw suburb examine the wreckage of a downed German plane.

A panorama of the plane wreckage.

German bombers approach their targets.

The faces of German pilots.

A panorama of the area (from above).

Anti-aircraft shells explode in the sky, a pilot in the cockpit.

German bombers approach their targets.

View of the area from the bomber's cockpit (top).

A German aircraft drops bombs.

Panorama of bomb explosions in a populated area along the road (top).

Panorama of a destroyed railway bridge (top).

Bridges destroyed by the Germans.

View of part of a wrecked Polish train (top).

German officers inspect the damage to the railway and pass by a wrecked carriage.

A damaged Polish aircraft at the airfield.

Part of a punctured plane with the insignia of the Polish Air Force.

Captured Polish militiamen and officials emerge from a bunker.

Faces of Polish citizens captured by the Germans (panorama).

SS men lead Polish citizens to execution.

Captured Polish soldiers pass by.

Photograph of the execution of Polish communists.

A column of young Polish men, driven to Germany, moves along the road.

The bodies of peaceful Polish peasants and children murdered by the Nazis.

A woman at a burning house.

A woman by the body of her murdered daughter.

A cart carrying refugees passes the remains of burned-out cars and a burned-out house; refugees drive cows.

German Ju-87 dive bombers approach their target.

Bombs explode.

A panorama of a burning Polish city.

German troops in a square in a Polish city.

A burning house.

The bodies of Polish civilians killed by the Germans at the entrance to the house.

A panorama and views of burning ruins.

German troops on the streets of a burning city, houses ablaze.