On this Day - 1939 - one of the most iconic photographs of #WW2 was taken in #Warsaw. It was taken by American photojournalist Julien Bryan, and it shows a 10-year-old girl, Kazimiera Mika, bending over the body of her sister, who had just been killed in a German air raid. 
The sisters had been with a group of other woman, digging for potatoes near Powązki cemetery, when they were targeted in a strafing attack by Luftwaffe aircraft. Two of them were killed. Bryan arrived soon after and took out his camera. #Poland1939
According to Bryan, Mika cried: "What has happened?! What have they done to you?!" begging her sister to come to. "Please talk to me. Please..."
Bryan comforted her as best he could but, he wrote, "What could we, or anyone else, say to this child?" #Poland1939
Bryan comforted her as best he could but, he wrote, "What could we, or anyone else, say to this child?" #Poland1939
Bryan's photograph would become one of the most iconic images of #WW2, reproduced in a thousand history books and documentaries. But the story behind it was less well-known.
Kazimiera Mika survived the war. She died in 2020 at the age of 93. #Poland1939
Kazimiera Mika survived the war. She died in 2020 at the age of 93. #Poland1939
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