The Jan Karski Institute of War Losses presented an extraordinary discovery: a collection of nearly three thousand previously unpublished photographs of post-war Warsaw. Collected by architect Andrzej Leonard Nitsch, the photographs show the devastated city immediately after the end of the Second World War. They document places that often no longer exist on the map of the capital, as well as previously unknown details connected with its reconstruction.

“Andrzej Nitsch’s photographic collection is not merely a record of the destruction of Warsaw. It is also an exceptional testimony to the nation’s determination to rebuild its capital. It is a source of knowledge about the past that helps us understand the scale of the sacrifice and courage shown by those generations.”
– emphasised Dr Bartosz Gondek, Director of the Institute of War Losses.

“This is a collection of exceptional documentary and emotional value: a chronicle of Warsaw’s rebirth, whose spirit survived the rubble and death,” added Aldona Machnowska-Góra, Deputy Mayor of Warsaw.

Nitsch, an architect and employee of the Capital Reconstruction Office, captured the birth of a new Warsaw. During his work at the Office, he created a collection of more than four thousand photographs documenting both the wartime ruins and the first stages of the city’s reconstruction. The Institute of War Losses currently holds 2,868 of these photographs, while approximately another 1,200 are preserved by the National Institute of Cultural Heritage.

“The collection is distinguished by the authenticity and scale of its images. It is not only an invaluable historical source, but also a visual chronicle of the dramatic fate of the capital, from ruins to the first signs of hope,” said Jerzy Majewski, a well-known historian of Warsaw, during the conference.
The photographs show, among other things, destroyed tenement houses, insurgent barricades, execution sites, and models and drawings by Professor Jan Zachwatowicz documenting the reconstruction of Warsaw’s Old Town. A unique part of the collection consists of photographs of buildings that were ultimately demolished by decision of the Capital Reconstruction Office and the municipal authorities.

Andrzej Leonard Nitsch (1911–2002) was an architect, a graduate of Lviv Polytechnic and a member of the Warsaw branch of the Association of Polish Architects. After the war, he worked for the Capital Reconstruction Office, documenting the transformation of the city with extraordinary precision and sensitivity to detail.