Today marks the 79th anniversary of the fall of the Warsaw Uprising. After sixty-three days of heroic, uneven fighting against the overwhelming German forces, the Home Army Headquarters decided to end the struggle.
On 1 August 1944, at 5 p.m., the so-called “W” hour struck, at which, on the orders of General Tadeusz Komorowski a.k.a. “Bór”, the soldiers of the Home Army proceeded to liberate the Polish capital from German occupation, demonstrating their desire to regain independence. In addition to retaliating against the Germans, the authorities of the Polish Underground State decided to act as hosts of the liberated city against the advancing Red Army.
Historians estimate that between 25,000 and up to 37,000 people took part in the Uprising, the vast majority of whom were poorly armed Home Army soldiers. Initially, the insurgents achieved some spectacular successes: among others, they seized German military warehouses in Stawki Street, captured the Main Post Office building, liberated the Jewish concentration camp in Gęsia Street in Wola (the so-called Gęsiówka), and captured the building of the Polish Joint Stock Telephone Company (the so-called PASTa), on the roof of which they placed a white and red flag.
Unfortunately, very soon the Germans moved on to the systematic pacification of the uprising, particularly exterminating the civilian population. Under Adolf Hitler’s order for the total destruction of Warsaw, German police and military units committed rape, looting, destruction of property and, above all, public executions. During the extermination of the inhabitants of the Wola district alone (the so-called Wola massacre), at least 40,000 people were murdered in an extremely brutal manner (although many historians claim that the number of killed people may have reached 65,000), not sparing children, women and the hospitalised persons.
During the two-month fighting for Warsaw, at least 18,000 insurgents died, 180,000 civilians were killed, and more than 500,000 inhabitants were expelled from the city. After the fighting ended, the Germans looted and completely destroyed the Polish capital.