Warsaw remembers Rising
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
01.08.2015 20:38
The Polish capital commemorated the brave men, women and children who fought in the Warsaw Rising against the Nazis on its 71st anniversary.
Many people gathered on Saturday around the statue of the Little Insurgent in Warsaw. Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara
At exactly 5:00 pm, sirens around the capital marked the “W Hour”, the time when on 1 August, 1944 the Polish resistance attempted to overthrow the Nazi occupiers.
Modern-day Poles stood in silence for one minute, with even the cars stopping to a standstill.
Thousands marched the streets of the Polish capital on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the Warsaw Rising. Photo: PAP/Bartłomiej Zborowski
Thousands walked the streets of Warsaw with red and white flags emblazoned with the “PW” emblem of the Polish Underground State.
Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said that the Varsovians who took part in the Rising showed that the “fatherland is holy”.
On Saturday, PM Kopacz met with Rising veterans during a ceremony at the foot of the Fighting Mokotów 1944 monument.
PM Ewa Kopacz (C) met Rising veterans on Saturday. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański
“We are here today in order to pay tribute to the heroic soldiers of the Home Army and the inhabitants of Warsaw.
"We give tribute to the insurgents who fought, because we know that our generation would not have experienced freedom, were it not for their determination and the price they paid,” the head of government said.
“They paid with their lives for this struggle for freedom, and wanted to show that the reasons for their fighting were of the utmost importance for themselves and for the nation.”
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