Throughout the day on 1 August, ceremonies will be held in Warsaw to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising. They will be attended by representatives of state and local authorities, residents of the capital, but above all the last living heroes of the 1944 Uprising.

Before the sirens are sounded in Warsaw at 5 p.m. and the city stops for a few dozen seconds to pay tribute to the insurgents, ceremonies will already be taking place in the morning at various locations in the capital associated with those events.

At 10 a.m., a fire of remembrance will be lit in Gen. Orlicz-Dreszer Park at the ‘Mokotow Fighting – 1944’ monument, which will continue to burn for 63 days; as many as the Uprising lasted.

Also at 10.00 a.m., under Sigismund’s Column in Warsaw’s Old Town, the “Song for the Little Insurgent” will be performed. This is an event aimed at children, who will have the opportunity to listen to uprising songs and in this way pay tribute to the youngest participants in the 1944 Uprising.

Polish President Andrzej Duda will commemorate the civilian victims of the Warsaw Uprising at 11.30 am in Warsaw’s Wola district. Half an hour later, at Piłsudski Square, in front of the Warsaw Garrison Command building, the President will visit the exhibition ‘Warsaw-Mariupol – cities of ruins, cities of struggle, cities of hope’.

At 2 p.m., a ceremony will take place at the Monument to the Polish Underground State and the Home with the participation of insurgents as well as state authorities, including representatives of the Sejm and the Senate and local authorities.

A quarter of an hour before ‘W’ Hour, at 4.45 pm, President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Sejm Speaker Elżbieta Witek will lay a wreath on the grave of General Antoni Chruściel ‘Monter’, commander of the Warsaw District of the Home Army, at Powązki Military Park.

At 5 p.m., insurgents and representatives of state authorities will assemble at the Gloria Victis monument at the Powązki Military Cemetery to say a prayer for the fallen, the dead and the living participants of the Warsaw Uprising.

Adrian Andrzejewski