ENRS marks the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Rising.
This year, August 1, the world will mark the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Rising – the single largest military effort undertaken by resistance forces, the Polish Home Army, to oppose Nazi occupation during the World War II. Planned as a short military revolt, the Warsaw Rising lasted for 63 days. The Rising became an everlasting testament to the importance of courage and determination in the face of adversity.
The Warsaw Rising was not just a symbolic act of defiance, but a brutal conflict that claimed the lives of over 200,000 people, mostly civilians. The insurgents had to fight with improvised weapons and limited resources against a well-equipped and ruthless enemy.
Warsaw continues to honour the memory of these valiant soldiers. Every year on August 1, people in Warsaw, and much of Poland, stop to the sound of sirens exactly at 5 p.m. to remember ‘W Hour’, the time when the insurgency began in the dark days of Nazi occupation. It is a reminder that the bravery of insurgents has left a lasting legacy that still resonates in the hearts of the Polish people today.
Read more about the Remembrance Campaign at the organiser’s website: The 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Rising Commemoration programme.
Dicover the lesson about the Warsaw Uprising
The topic of the Warsaw Rising has recurred more than once in ENRS initiatives:
▪️ Sound in the Silence 2018. In 2018, the Warsaw Rising was one of the leading themes of Sound in the Silence project. Four selected groups from four European countries spent eight days visiting Warsaw in order to explore different dimensions of resistance, as well as the history of the two Warsaw uprisings – Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 and Warsaw Rising of 1944. Together with artists representing different disciplines, they explored the concept of fight for identity and dignity.
▪️ Władysław Bartoszewski, a Polish historian, journalist, writer, politician, former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner, the Wordl War Second resistance fighter, participant in the Warsaw Rising, political prisoner during the communist era, Righteous among the Nations of the World, is one of the heroes of the education campaign ‘Remember. August 23’.