Officials, World War II veterans and residents visited sites around the city to mark the anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, a heroic act of resistance in which poorly equipped Polish fighters took up arms against the country’s Nazi German invaders.
Every year on August 1, people in Warsaw and across much of Poland stop at exactly 5 p.m.—known as "W Hour"—to the sound of sirens, remembering the moment the insurgency began in the dark days of German occupation.
Ceremonies included roll calls of honour, wreath-laying, speeches, prayers, poetry readings and the singing of patriotic songs.
In a special tribute, the Polish air force marked the anniversary with a flypast over the city centre.
Officials noted that the revolt more than eight decades ago was among the bloodiest insurgencies in Polish history.
The 1944 Warsaw Uprising was one of the most heroic and tragic Polish battles of World War II and the largest military operation by any underground resistance movement in German-occupied Europe. Photo: NAC/Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe/Public domain
President, president-elect honour victims
Poland's outgoing President Andrzej Duda commemorated the anniversary together with President-elect Karol Nawrocki, who will take office next week.
The two paid tribute to victims of a Nazi massacre in Warsaw's western Wola district during the uprising's first days.
Duda highlighted the civilian toll, saying that the Germans "went about exterminating Warsaw’s population" in the first days of the uprising.
Nawrocki vowed to continue honouring the memory of those events, saying: “Memory has the virtue of transcending the boundaries of life and death. People die, but memory endures."
He added that remembrance is "the essence of being a community."
In the evening, both Duda and Nawrocki attended a concert featuring songs about Warsaw and its wartime heroes.
Speaking ahead of the anniversary, Duda praised the insurgents, who "attacked tanks with bottles of gasoline ... without professional training, often without combat experience, but with an unwavering belief that Poland could and must be free."
He has previously said the uprising showed “that the Polish people are unvanquished, that they cannot be easily subjugated or suppressed without resistance—that they are proud and strong, and that they are no strangers to heroism and bravery, even at the price of death.”
'Profound love for the country and a yearning for freedom': deputy PM
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said the fighters were driven by "profound love for the country and a yearning for freedom" and "fought for a free homeland with hope and faith."
"It is our duty is to remember the fallen and the deceased, but also to care on a daily basis for those who are still among us," he added.
Polish lawmakers last year passed a special resolution saluting "the heroes of this great uprising, both the soldiers of the Home Army and other formations who took up arms against the German occupiers, and the civilian inhabitants of Warsaw who died, were wounded or lost their possessions."
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last year that "no other historical event and no other hero from our history unites Poles more" than the Warsaw Uprising.
Officials have called the insurgency one of the most heroic and tragic chapters of World War II, and the largest military operation by any underground resistance movement in German-occupied Europe.
The uprising lasted 63 days before being crushed by better-equipped and more numerous German forces.
It left Warsaw in ruins and resulted in the deaths of about 18,000 Polish fighters and 200,000 civilians.
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Source: Polish Radio, IAR, PAP, TVP Info