The Polish capital on Tuesday commenced observances marking the 79th anniversary of the city’s revolt against Nazi-German occupiers during WWII.

Every year on August 1, Warsaw and most Polish cities stop for a minute’s silence to the sound of sirens at exactly 5 p.m., the so-called „W hour”, when the uprising started, to commemorate its heroes.

(fot. PAP)

The main celebrations, attended by the Polish president, top government officials and insurgents who fought in the uprising, take place in Warsaw.

Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, laid flowers at the memorial plaque dedicated to Lech Kaczynski, a former Polish president who initiated the construction of the Warsaw Uprising Museum when he was Warsaw mayor, and at the „Monter” Bell commemorating the commander of the Warsaw District of the Polish underground Home Army and the commander of the uprising, general Antoni Chrusciel, nom-de-guerre „Monter”.

The prime minister said that the insurgents fought for the future of united Poland and „for national unification to be our sign, also a sign of our times.”

Morawiecki said that the insurgents „fought for the white and red, for the eagle (representing the colours of the Polish flag and national emblem - PAP)”, but above all it was a fight „between good and evil.”

„Evil that wanted to destroy not only life, but to turn the entire hierarchy of values upside down.”

He went on to say 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”.

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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