Kostrzyn nad Odra remains after total bombing

Description: At the outbreak of World War II Küstrin had 24,000 inhabitants. However, due to Allied air raids on the railway hub and local factories and especially during the Battle of the Oder-Neisse and Battle of the Seelow Heights, almost 95% of the buildings were destroyed (including all 32 of the city's factories) and the town was generally deserted. The suburb Alt-Drewitz (modern Drzewice, one of Kostrzyn's boroughs) contained the Nazi POW camp Stalag III-C Alt-Drewitz, used mostly for French, Soviet, and Italian prisoners of war. From 1943-45 the town also housed a number of German forced labour camps and a sub-camp of Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After the war the ruined town was placed under Polish administration by the Potsdam Conference; Germans remaining in the town were subsequently expelled westward and replaced with expelled Poles. The remnants of the old town within the fortress walls, including the castle in which the young Frederick the Great had been imprisoned, were razed after the war and the bricks used to rebuild Polish cities elsewhere. More recently, plans to rebuild some of the old town in a historical style were mooted, but this project appears to be on hold. The section of the town on the west bank of the Oder remained in Germany and is now called Küstrin-Kietz.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostrzyn_nad_Odr%C4%85

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