The description in Życie Warszawy is somewhat unreliable, however. First, we read about Praga in the morning, but a few sentences later, we learn that only around noon, ‘people, numb with shock, started to come out from cellars, nooks, dungeons, attics and lockers after a long period of tyranny’.
Unfortunately, the sounds of joy prompted by the retreat of the Nazi Germans were not the only ones that could be heard in liberated Warsaw. Until the beginning of 1945, Nazi soldiers attacked the right bank of Warsaw, but they acted randomly and irregularly, never aiming at specific buildings. The enemy's cannonade was accompanied by the sounds of the work of sappers, as the retreating Nazi Germans left behind explosives in many buildings. For many months, sappers added even more sounds to the audio sphere of Warsaw; they also worked on the left bank, which would be disarmed over the next few months.
Praga was slowly coming back to life. The Polish Red Cross organised an infirmary and pharmacy at 2 Kawęczyńska Street. Other, similar places were soon created in the area. The medical staff was always busy, as the sanitary conditions of the district were catastrophic: clean water was a rarity, and sewers weren’t installed yet. Every day, the infirmaries helped dozens of wounded people. Typically, they had either been shot by German soldiers or trapped under collapsed buildings.
Targowa Street, the main street of Northern Praga, was called ‘the street of death’, as most of the wartime victims were transported down that route. On the other hand, Stalowa Street was known as ‘the street of life’ or ‘the street of consumption’, as it was home to an impromptu marketplace. There, clients could find tablecloths made by the elderly, as well as gold, religious objects, stolen canned goods and sweets. Trade also flourished on Radzymińska Street, Brzeska Street and Szembek Square.
Stanisława Mrozińska, an art historian, could vividly recall the market at Stalowa Street:
