The Warsaw Uprising | The W Hour | One Minute for Warsaw

Once a year, on 1st August, the people of Warsaw pay a special tribute to the fallen Heroes that fought for freedom in 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising. The biggest heroic rebellion against German occupation during WWII cost over 200 000 lives and the destruction of the capital.

What the “W” Hour is

On August 1, 1944, at 5:00 pm (the “W” Hour) The Warsaw Uprising started. Hundreds of people went out to the street to fight against the Germans. The Uprising began in the capital with simultaneous coordinated attacks, and the idea was that this movement would last a few days until Soviet forces arrived and they could help Poland. However, this didn’t happened, and the Polish people had to fight almost without any outside assistance.

Many of those coordinated attacks lasted just few days, and the Uprising started moving to the west districts of Warsaw. Some areas fought for around 60 days.

A lot of Polish people, including kids and women, died in this uprising while trying to defend their country. The losses on the Polish side were approximately: 18,000 soldiers dead, 25,000 wounded and over 200,000 civilians killed. On the German side the number of victims were: 17,000 soldiers killed and 9,000 wounded.

Warsaw Uprising Batalion Zośka (1944)

On October 2nd, sixty three days after the Warsaw Uprising started, the General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski signed the capitulation of remaining Polish forces in Warsaw. This capitulation treaty stated that the Polish soldiers were to be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention, and the rest of the civilian population was to be treated humanely.

The Warsaw Uprising is still considered by the Polish people as the greatest and biggest rebellion against the Germans.

How Warsaw Remembers Those Heroes Nowadays

Every year in Warsaw, on the 1st of August, at exactly 5pm an amazing moment happens in this city.

Warsaw is ready to remember those Heroes that gave their life for Poland, and an alarm interrupts the activities in the city, and all the people in Warsaw (but really, ALL the people) stop for 1 minute.

Warsaw Uprising Memorial Day

For example: if at 5pm you are going by bus, it will stop completely in the middle of the street for 1 minute; the same if you are walking somewhere in Warsaw, you will see that Polish people will stop when hearing the alarms of the memorial of the Warsaw Uprising.

The greatest thing about this day is that no one organises it and no one promotes it, people in Warsaw just know that they need to stop for one minute to pay their respects to those who died for their country.
After this minutes, everything in the city comes back to normal life, people keep doing their things and life goes on.

 

WE REMEMBER! PAMIĘTAMY!

Author: Chido-Fajny. Original link: https://www.chido-fajny.com

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