Today is an important anniversary. At 1700 hours (4pm UK time), Warsaw will fall silent. Sirens will sound and the Polish capital will grind to a halt, as it has on this day, at this hour, for the past 74 years. Today, people will remember the hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who died as a result of the Warsaw Uprising. But 75 years ago, it had just begun.
The Uprising was only supposed to last a few days. Soviet help was presumed on its way.
But for whatever reason – did Stalin hold back on purpose? – it never arrived, and the Poles were on their own. And alone, they could never win. Somehow, they held out for 63 days, until 2nd October, then the Warsaw Uprising was officially declared over.
It’s a history not many people outside of Poland know, but you sense it if you go there. I’ve been, I’ve seen it. People ask why the city is so new. They can’t understand why they don’t see castles and churches, cobblestones and monuments, spread out before them. Warsaw is a city which has seen more than 1400 years of history, so where has it all gone? Well, what wasn’t already ruined by the invasion of Poland in 1939 was systematically torched in 1944 following the Warsaw Uprising. More than 85 per cent of the city was destroyed.
Source: Eurogamer The upcoming RPG Warsaw taught me an important piece of Polish history