This mixed bag of men and boys were ludicrously ill-equipped to face the full force of the looming Soviet onslaught. In reality, however, the troops were a chaotic rabble consisting of Hitler Youth, WWI veterans, police officers and retreating regiments. A garrison of some 80,000 men was hurriedly raised in what was projected to become the key defensive element on ‘The Eastern Wall.’ Two defensive rings were constructed around the city (with some fortifications 20km outside the centre), supplies were stockpiled and troops mobilised. Silesian Gauleiter Karl Hanke was appointed commander, and set about the daunting task of turning a picture-book city into a fortress. On August 24th the city was declared a closed stronghold - ‘ Festung Breslau’ - and the citizens braced themselves for the inevitable bloodbath that was to come. Truckloads of the German wounded flooded the city's hospitals, and with the Red Army creeping closer the rumble of artillery could be heard in the distance. However, by the second half of 1944 the doomsday reality of war started to dawn on the local population. Out of range from Allied air raids, local denizens were spared the nightmare of British carpet bombings, and the city came to be considered something of a safe haven, its population swelling to over a million people as the conflict raged elsewhere. Yet in spite of this sinister backdrop and strict rationing, the citizens of wartime Breslau largely fared better than their compatriots elsewhere in the Reich. Synagogues were burnt to the ground on Kristallnacht - November 9th, 1938 - and the guillotine at Kleczkowska prison saw plenty of action, with the decapitated bodies of political prisoners donated to Breslau’s medical schools. From that moment on the Nazis cemented their grip on the city launching a campaign of terror, and eventually murder, against Jews and numerous other enemies of the state. Prior to WWII, Breslau was something of a model Nazi city with a staggering 200,000 of its citizens voting for Hitler’s NSDAP party in the 1933 elections. One of the most savage sieges in modern history, the ‘ Battle for Breslau’ ranks among the biggest human tragedies of WWII. With most of its civilian population trapped inside, ‘ Festung Breslau’ endured an epic 80-day siege that cost tens of thousands of lives and left the city a smouldering heap of ruins. It was a decision that would change the history and complexion of the city forever. On August 24th 1944, Adolf Hitler declared the city of Breslau (‘Wrocław’ today) a ‘ closed military fortress’ to be defended from the advancing Soviet army at all costs.
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