Various formal and less formal celebrations commemorating the event are held in and outside the Polish capital.
Besides official celebrations, state and religious, scores of less formal and more cultural events commemorating Warsaw Rising heroes have already been launched all over Warsaw.
Click on the audio icon to listen to the report by Joanna Najfeld
Television and radio programs focus on the anniversary every year around the 1st of August. Concerts, performances, movie screenings, art exhibitions and urban games are just some of the forms of expression used to remember the heroic fight of Warsaw back in 1944, when Polish residents of the occupied Warsaw decided to rebel against Germans, counting on the support of Russians, which never came.
The uneven fight lasted 63 days, and resulted in the death of about 16 thousand insurgents plus an estimated 150 to 200 thousand civilians, mostly from mass murders by Germans. Although the controversy whether Warsaw Rising was a wise move under the circumstances continue until this day, the memory of undisputed heroes lives on and is remembered each year on the 1st of August, when at 17 hours sharp, traffic stops across Poland, sirens are sounded, pedestrians stop and drivers sound their horns in tribute to the victims.
JN