Warsaw remembers Rising 1944

Ceremony at Warsaw Rising Mound, Mokotow: photo - PAP/Jakub Kaminski

The sirens sounded at 17.00 CET, or 'W – Hour' as it is know, when 63 days of fighting by Poland's Home Army resistance began against overwhelming odds and with no outside support.

As Soviet troops observed the fighting from the safety of the east bank of the Rover Vistula, an estimated 16,000 members of the Polish resistance were killed and around 6,000 badly wounded.

Between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians also died in the Warsaw Rising.

Polish forces finally capitulated on 2 October 1944, after which Soviet troops closed in on the capital as Nazi Germans retreated and as they did, destroyed up to 85 percent of the Polish capital's buildings. Warsaw was left in ruin.

After ceremonies attended by President Bronislaw Komorowski and veterans of the uprising took place throughout Thursday, lanterns were lit at the Mound of the Warsaw Rising in the Mokotow district in the evening after the sirens had sounded.

Later, at a ceremony at the Warsaw Insurgents Cemetery, President Komorowski said that though “Warsaw is now healed its wounds, the wounds will stay long in the hearts of men and will live long in human memory […] which encourages us to remember, to reflect, to pray”. (pg)