The city center, as with every year, will be filled with crowds holding white and red flags. Sirens will wail at maximum power. Torch fires and black smoke will obscure the blue summer sky. At 5 pm today, Warsaw, the capital of Poland, will pause for a long moment to commemorate the Warsaw Uprising – the most tragic event in its history, which ended with a severe death toll and almost the entire city area leveled to the ground
On this day, 75 years ago, on August 1, 1944, the Polish underground army rose against the Nazi Germans occupying the city. The street fights lasted for 63 days and ended in a tragic defeat. The resistance fighters were poorly equipped compared to the German forces, and the expected support from the Allied forces, particularly through air drops and a Soviet advance from the east, was insufficient. Thousands died or were injured. The Soviet Russian forces, already pushing the Nazi German forces back to German territory, stood quite close to the city but did not intervene. Warsaw was left to fend for itself. The Soviets allowed the Germans to concentrate their efforts on quashing the uprising.
The consequences of the Warsaw Uprising were devastating. The Germans retaliated with extreme brutality, resulting in the deaths of approximately 200,000 civilians and the destruction of large parts of Warsaw. Following the suppression of the uprising, Hitler ordered the complete demolition of the city. The aftermath saw Warsaw’s surviving population being expelled from the city, which was systematically razed to the ground by German troops.
After World War II ended and Poland was assigned to the Soviet bloc, the soldiers of the underground army faced brutal repression from the new communist authorities. Many of those who had fought in the Warsaw Uprising were hunted down, tortured, and killed. Even several years after the war had ended for most of Europe, those who survived the uprising endured severe persecution. The new regime viewed the members of the Home Army and other resistance groups as threats to their power, considering them loyal to the pre-war government and the Western Allies. This period marked a tragic continuation of suffering for many Poles, as the hope for freedom and independence was replaced by another form of oppression. The heroism and sacrifices of the resistance fighters were officially silenced and marginalized for decades until the fall of communism in Poland allowed for a reevaluation and commemoration of their efforts and sufferings.