Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising

Today was the anniversary of the Warsaw uprising. It was the blackest moment in Warsaw's history, which was fought over 63 days during 1944. Throughout the uprising around 200,000 Polish civilians were killed mostly from mass murders by retreating German troops. The uprising was only planned to last for a few days until the Soviet forces arrived. But instead the Poles were left to fight with little outside assistance until both they and their city were destroyed.

Warsaw (and now the whole of Poland) commemorates the uprising on 1 August at 5pm (W - hour) which signified the start of the battle.

There is a rather eerie horn sounded throughout the city and absolutely everybody stops in silence to remember. People leave flowers, wreaths and candles on the numerous monuments throughout the city. I was at the Little Insurgent, just outside of Warsaw's medieval walls.