Warsaw Rising from the Rubble

In January 1945, when Soviet forces entered Warsaw, they found a graveyard. The Nazis had systematically demolished the city block by block after the 1944 uprising, reducing 85 percent of Poland's capital to ash and broken stone. Entire neighborhoods lay in heaps. The Royal Castle was gutted. Streets where families had lived for generations were unrecognizable corridors of debris. Military analysts declared Warsaw beyond rebuilding.…