Poland commemorates 71st anniversary of Warsaw Uprising

On Saturday, Poland marked the 71st anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, the biggest underground action against the Nazi German in the occupied Europe.

At 5:00 p.m. local time, the sounds of sirens commemorated the so-called "W" hour, the exact time of the beginning of the uprising.

The whole city's traffic stopped for a minute of silence to pay tribute to the uprising's fighter and victims. Meanwhile, the commemorative ceremony was held at the Gloria Victis memorial at the Powazki military ceremony, with the participation of authorities and combatants.

Earlier this day, President Bronislaw Komorowski laid flowers at the Gloria Victis monument, while Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz took part in the celebrations by the "Fighting Mokotow 1994" monument.

"Our generation would not get freedom if it wasn't for the determination of Warsaw's uprising fighters," Kopacz said, "They paid with their lives for their fight for freedom."

Kopacz reminded that these values should be taught to the younger generation nowadays.

Warsaw Uprising Museum invited the still living insurgents to take part in the commemorative events. According to the museum, around 160 insurgents were supposed to come from abroad, including countries such as Australia, Israel, South Africa, the United States, Brazil and another 170 from Poland. The oldest still living insurgent is a hundred years old Kazimierz Klimczak.

The anniversary is accompanied with many events, such as singing of insurgents' songs, the displaying of "City 44" documentary film, concerts, exhibitions, city games, lightening of the symbolic "memory fire" which will blast for 63 days; Memory March and many others.

The Warsaw Uprising began on Sept. 1, 1944 and was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army to free Warsaw from the Nazis.

The insurgents held on for 63 days. As one of the results of uprising's failure, Nazis set the city ablaze causing more than 85 percent of it completely demolished. The exact loss is hard to estimate, however, around 180,000 civilians were killed, and another 500,000 banished from their homes.