Pałac Prezydencki (Presidential Palace) in Warsaw

Pałac Prezydencki (Presidential Palace) in Warsaw, 1940. It is the elegant classicist latest version of a building that has stood on the Krakowskie Przedmieście site since 1643. Over the years, it has been rebuilt and remodeled many times. For its first 175 years, the palace was the private property of several aristocratic families. In 1791 it hosted the authors and advocates of the Constitution of May 3, 1791. It was in 1818 that the palace began its ongoing career as a governmental structure, when it became the seat of the Viceroy of the Polish (Congress) Kingdom under Russian occupation (Namiestnik of the Kingdom of Poland). Following Poland's resurrection after World War I, in 1918, the building was taken over by the newly reconstituted Polish authorities and became the seat of the Council of Ministers. During World War II, it served the country's German occupiers as a Deutsches Haus and survived intact the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. After the war, it resumed its function as seat of the Polish Council of Ministers. This picture depict Warsaw some time after the invasion in 1939, while the buildings in the background are heavily damaged the streets have been cleared and life appears to be continuing as normal. It is part of the photo series that was taken by the German photographer Robert Bothner during the Second World War, and depict Smolensk, Warsaw and Ghent under occupation by Nazi Germany. As time goes on it seems there are more and more sets of original colour photographs turning up, and while the quality on some is not brilliant, they truly help the Second World War come alive. It were scanned from Afgacolor slides. Unfortunately the photographs are undated.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Palace,_Warsaw
http://ww2incolour.blogspot.com/2013/05/occupied-warsaw-smolensk-and-ghent-in.html#more