Today is an important anniversary. At 1700 hours (4pm UK time), Warsaw will fall silent. Sirens will sound and the Polish capital will grind to a halt, as it has on this day, at this hour, for the past 74 years. Today, people will remember the hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who died as a result of the Warsaw Uprising. But 75 years ago, it had just begun.
The Uprising was only supposed to last a few days. Soviet help was presumed on its way. But for whatever reason – did Stalin hold back on purpose? – it never arrived, and the Poles were on their own. And alone, they could never win. Somehow, they held out for 63 days, until 2nd October, then the Warsaw Uprising was officially declared over.
WarsawDeveloper: Pixelated MilkPublisher: Gaming companyPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Due 4th September on PC.
It’s a history not many people outside of Poland know, but you sense it if you go there. I’ve been, I’ve seen it. People ask why the city is so new. They can’t understand why they don’t see castles and churches, cobblestones and monuments, spread out before them. Warsaw is a city which has seen more than 1400 years of history, so where has it all gone? Well, what wasn’t already ruined by the invasion of Poland in 1939 was systematically torched in 1944 following the Warsaw Uprising. More than 85 per cent of the city was destroyed.
“No one really knows the history of other countries. I don’t assume anyone should,” Krzysztof Paplinski, producer of a new game about the Warsaw Uprising – called Warsaw, confusingly – tells me. “Everyone is interested in what’s happening on their doorstep, and sometimes they don’t even go that far. We know this is a powerful moment in Polish history, a really tragic one, a very profound one, and one which influenced not only the history of Warsaw but the whole of Poland.”