The monument commemorating the heroes of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944

One of the most heroic and admirable episodes of World War II began on August 1, 1944 in the capital of Poland.

Christ the King in Świebodzin, a huge monument to Jesus in western Poland
A visit to the hidden tunnels and chambers of the famous Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland

That day, Warsaw witnessed the beginning of the largest armed uprising of that war. For two months, the Polish insurgents of the Armia Krajowa (AK, Home Army, loyal to the Polish government in exile and the largest resistance organization in a country occupied by Germany in World War II) fought against the German Army with hardly any resources, using the sewers to move between the different areas controlled by the resistance and waiting, in vain, for the Soviets to cross the Vistula River.

Stalin decided to do nothing and let the Germans crush the Polish resistance, thus ridding himself of a movement that could have caused problems for the communist dictatorship he was going to establish in Poland. After those two months of heroic resistance, without ammunition, without food, and already exhausted, the insurgents capitulated on October 2, after the Germans pledged to respect the Geneva Convention by taking them as prisoners of war.

On July 31, 1984, one day before the 40th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, the foundation stone of a large monument was laid in Krasiński Square, where on August 6, 1944, Polish insurgents held the only parade of the armed uprising. This square was part of the front line during those days, until the Germans captured it on September 2.

The monument was designed by the sculptor Wincenty Kućma, who also created the monument to the defenders of the Polish postal service in Gdańsk, the monument to those who died defending the homeland in Częstochowa, and the monument to John Paul II in Sochaczew. The monument was inaugurated on August 1, 1989, the year of the fall of communism in Poland.

The monument shows a group of AK insurgents, some of them very young and wearing German helmets (many Polish resistance fighters used material taken from the enemy during the Uprising), as if they were coming out of a ruined building.

Elsewhere on the monument, we can see a soldier emerging from a manhole, alongside two other soldiers and a priest. This part of the monument depicts a real scene that took place in that very square, as at its intersection with Długa Street there was a manhole cover through which thousands of people were evacuated before the surrender on October 2nd.

This monument has witnessed historic events. In this place, the President of Germany, Roman Herzog, became the first German head of state to apologize to Poland for the crimes of the Third Reich against the Polish people, in a solemn ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Uprising: "We Germans are filled with shame that the name of our country and our people will forever be linked to the pain and suffering inflicted on millions of Poles. We mourn the loss of those who died in the Warsaw Uprising and of all those who lost their lives in the Second World War," Herzog stated in his speech that day.

Today, this monument is one of the most important and well-known in Warsaw. Every year on August 1st, the Polish Army and the residents of Warsaw commemorate the heroes who took up arms against Nazi Germany, in one of the bravest and most admirable chapters of the already heroic history of Polish resistance in that bloody war. You can see this monument in more detail in a video published by Walking Warsaw three years ago:

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Main photo: Kyle Taylor.