%0 Journal Article
%T Traces of the second world war in European cities
%A Racoń-Leja, Kinga
%J Technical Transactions
%V 2013
%R 10.4467/2353737XCT.14.006.1984
%N Architecture Zeszyt 1-A (3) 2013
%P 101-118
%K World War II, war devastation in European cities, bombing raids on cities, city rebuilding and reconstructing
%@ 0011-4561
%D 2014
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/czasopismo-techniczne/article/traces-of-the-second-world-war-in-european-cities
%X 
	This paper presents the diverse typology of devastation in European cities during the Second World War. In practice, total war meant ruthless destruction of cities – those situated on the frontline defended as strongholds and those blown up on purpose. The bombing raids which destroyed Warsaw, Rotterdam, Coventry and other cities wrote a separate and unusually tragic chapter in the history of atrocities. Carpet and precise bombings organized by the Allies in retaliation within the adopted tactic of weakening the enemy’s morale ruined a number of German cities – Dresden makes a particularly drastic example in the descendants’ memory. In the years of World War II, a huge part of Europe’s urban heritage was lost irretrievably.