A staggering refugee burden evokes a haunting history in Polish capital

WARSAW, Poland — Eighty years ago, Adolf Hitler nearly wiped Warsaw off the map. Now, a city whose history is written in ash and blood, an age-old crossroads of wartime tragedy, is bursting with Ukrainian refugees.

Poland has taken in more people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine than all other countries combined, the United Nations says. Of the more than 5.3 million people who have sought shelter outside the country, almost 3 million crossed into Poland.

Some have moved on to other European countries; others have made the journey back, although the war is still raging and their homeland remains battered and dangerous.

But about a tenth of those arrivals — an estimated 300,000 people, almost all of them women and children — are in the Polish capital, straining a city where social services were already stretched. Day care and cancer treatment, classroom spots and affordable housing, counseling and physical therapy are now in short supply.

"We are full," said Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski. "We're at capacity."

With the war in Ukraine in its third month and no diplomatic solution in sight, some are wondering how long Polish hospitality for neighbors in desperate need will last before there's a backlash. In a matter of weeks, the city's population jumped by nearly one-fifth.