ABSTRACT
The possibility that Warsaw would be given an opportunity to hold out for long seemed slight. The Poles in Warsaw struggled from one day to the next on less food in confined and crowded quarters with little heat. More Jews fleeing from the violent persecution in the provinces arrived to seek Warsaw’s limited security. The leaders of the Home Army feared that the Jews would set off a chain-reaction rebellion in Warsaw which would prematurely reveal their whole secret army. In Warsaw the Germans began withdrawing administrative officials from the city. The Warsaw uprising had badly frightened the Germans. That the Warsaw rising should be considered a siege at all is open to question. Heavy Thor mortars, similar to those used in the Sevastopol siege, were brought into action. The civilian defense organizations, like all the basic services, began well, but soon the strain of the long siege lowered their efficiency.
