Polish capital pays tribute to 1944 heroic act of resistance
Sirens wailed throughout Warsaw at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the exact time of the August 1, 1944, outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising against the city's Nazi German occupiers, to mark the revolt's 79th anniversary.
As the sirens wailed, traffic and pedestrians stopped throughout the city for a minute of silence in tribute to the fighters and victims of the bloody WWII insurgency.
The Warsaw Uprising March, which started in downtown Warsaw shortly after the capital held a moment of silence, was planned to end with a concert of uprising-time songs in front of the Warsaw Uprising Memorial in Krasinskich Square.
At 5:00 p.m., Poland's top officials including President Adrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski as well as war veterans and Warsaw residents paid tribute to the heroic insurgents at the Gloria Victis (glory to the defeated - PAP) memorial in Warsaw's Powazki Military Cemetery, where 4,000-4,500 of them are buried.
They also laid flowers at the grave of General Antoni Chrusciel, the commander of the Warsaw District of the Home Army and the commander of all Polish forces fighting against the Germans in the uprising.
The tribute events at the Powazki Cemetery culminated the observances of the 79th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising that were held in the Polish capital throughout the whole day.
Earlier in the day, Mateusz Morawiecki also laid flowers at the memorial plaque dedicated to Lech Kaczynski, a former Polish president who initiated the construction of the Warsaw Uprising Museum when was Warsaw mayor, and at the 'Monter' Bell commemorating General Chrusciel.
Morawiecki said that the Warsaw Uprising was "an event that had its beginning but has no end" and which "in our history, is associated with consequences that were of great importance after the war and are of great importance today" and that the insurgents fought for the future of a united Poland and "for national unification to be our sign, also a sign of our times."
President Duda attended a commemoration for the victims of the German transit camp in Zieleniak in the Ochota district of Warsaw at mid-day. During his speech, he appealed for a worthy commemoration of the heroes of the Warsaw Uprising, who "were not only those who fought in the uprising with weapons in their hands" but also those who supported the insurgents and suffered for it.
"Throughout the whole of August, throughout September, the places of suffering of the people of Warsaw will be commemorated, the places of fighting where the insurgents defended themselves against the Nazi, against the German onslaught, the heroic resistance of Warsaw against the Nazi invader," he declared.
"We must never forget that over 180,000 inhabitants of the capital were killed and murdered during the Warsaw Uprising," Duda said.
The Warsaw Uprising was the largest underground military operation in German-occupied Europe. On August 1, 1944, around 40,000-50,000 insurgents took part in the fighting. Planned to last several days, the uprising eventually lasted over two months.
During the fighting in Warsaw, about 18,000 insurgents lost their lives and 25,000 were wounded. Losses among the civilian population were huge and amounted to approx. 180,000. After the Warsaw Uprising was crushed, about 500,000 surviving residents were forced to evacuate and Warsaw was almost completely razed to the ground. (PAP)
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