A project of www.warsawreborn.com
Filmed in Warsaw, August 1st, 2015 during the public commemoration of the Warsaw Uprising start in 1.08.1944, 17 o'clock.
Every year on the 1st of August at 17 o'clock the people of Warsaw stop for a minute in the mourning sound of the sirens, in honoring remembrance of those who fought and died during the Warsaw Uprising, the biggest resistance movement in WWII, meant to liberate the capital from the Germans and to empower The Polish Underground State before the advancing Soviet troops could take control of it.
The fights, that were supposed to last less than a week, continued for 63 days. Warsaw's insurgents, an estimated 40,000, including 4,000 women, had only enough weapons for 2,500 fighters and were facing a 15,000-strong German garrison which will grow to a 30,000 force armed with tanks, planes, and artillery. After the first days of fighting, Himmler gives the order to kill all of the city's inhabitants, not take prisoners, and to level Warsaw down, as an example for the rest of Europe. 65.000 civilians are murdered in mass executions. Poorly armed, under constant bombardments, with little help from the allies, with food and water resources growing scarce, the insurgents will capitulate on October 2nd, the terms stipulating that all remaining inhabitants were to leave the city through transit camps towards POW’s or forced labor camps or to be relocated throughout the General Government.
After the capitulation, the Germans continue with the looting and burning of all material and cultural goods and begin the planned systematic destruction of the city. "The city must completely disappear from the surface of the earth and serve only as a transport station for the Wehrmacht. No stone can remain standing. Every building must be razed to its foundation" - Himmler's order on 17th October.
Almost 200.000 fighters and civilians lost their lives during the Uprising.
The city was slowly rebuilt in the years following the war, in a huge effort and with the large support in money and volunteer work of the Polish population. And it is today a very alive and beautiful city.
Pamiętamy! We remember!
Find out more about the photo project Warsaw reborn on www.warsawreborn.com and follow it on warsawreborn
Camera: Raluca B. - Romanian photographer
Music:
Mark Petrie - Fired Earth Music - Black Angel Rise
Mark Petrie - Enoch (Itunes)
Sonic Symphony - Rise Of a Hero
Mark Petrie - Lexicon (Itunes)
All music rights reserved by the authors.