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On August 1, 1944, the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK), a non-Communist underground resistance movement, initiated the Warsaw uprising to liberate the city from the German occupation and reclaim Polish independence. The impetus for the military action was the ongoing retreat of the German forces from Poland, followed by the appearance of the Soviet Red Army along the east bank of the Vistula River. By October 2, 1944, the Germans had suppressed the uprising, deporting civilians to concentration and forced-labor camps and reducing Warsaw to ruins.
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![Illustration from an antisemitic children's primer. [LCID: 10640c]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/4c6348d1-d3e6-4be3-aae5-b12761f4f20a.jpg.pagespeed.ce.ZYVA_641w6.jpg)
![Adolf Hitler stands with an SA unit during a Nazi parade in Weimar [LCID: 02286]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/1e5a14c5-9521-4637-845a-55f423097328.jpg.pagespeed.ce.nXwncuV_1R.jpg)
![American Olympic runner Jesse Owens and other Olympic athletes compete in the twelfth heat of the first trial of the 100m dash. [LCID: 14523a]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/0623da87-2aa7-4e7b-bec6-b2285030315e.jpg.pagespeed.ce.d8RMmEuUBW.jpg)
![Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop (left), Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (center), and Soviet foreign minister Viacheslav ... [LCID: 91391]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/7e60e917-99fa-4279-bc6b-07a63e679f9f.jpg.pagespeed.ce.aYqt_q0zpf.jpg)
![Stretcher bearers carry a wounded soldier during the Battle of the Somme. [LCID: 2453747]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/647ba4e2-8fc6-4340-9d0c-21dd535eaf42.jpg.pagespeed.ce.UQQg9xvh9e.jpg)
