The Hoxton Chronicle. 138. 5.00 p.m., 01 August 2026.

It was approaching 5.00 p.m. at Wilenska Station when we decided to walk outside to watch the traffic at the junction of Aleja Solidarnosci and Ul Targowa. To our surprise, we discovered that thousands of others had paused their Saturday routines to assemble and watch events unfold at the crossroads.

Crowds emerged from the Wilenska shopping centre clutching their shopping bags. Families gathered. Children were lifted onto shoulders to get a better view. The tallest and shortest in the crowd exchanged places on the steps to ensure everyone could see the junction. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, manning their evangelising stand by the underground train station entrance, stepped forward to view the scene. Some in the crowd carried Polish flags. Others wore armbands in the red and white national colours. Young women and girls wore hairbands decorated with red-and-white flower ornaments. Many people in the crowd wore T-shirts and badges emblazoned with the distinctive Powstanie logo, symbol of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising by the Polish resistance against Nazi occupation.

Every year on 1st of August at 5.00 p.m., all of Poland pauses to remember the day and hour on which the ill-fated uprising commenced in 1944.

At a few minutes to 5.00 p.m. all traffic, trams and buses stopped. Pedestrians stood still and silent. Sirens wailed across the city and in every town and village of the country. At some signal, the crowd surged forward to fill the vast, now empty, space of the highway junction. A team of at least twenty young men unfurled a huge Polish flag over the junction, holding it taut in the centre of the throng, filmed from a drone flying overhead. At a second signal, many dozens near the centre of the crowd ignited flares that burnt bright red, emitting thick white smoke. Patriotic songs were sung. Chanting was taken up particularly by the men. We did not understand the words; however, the resolute, implacable defiance against all comers was plain enough.

The distinctive onion domes of the Cathedral of St. Mary Magdalene on the opposite side of the junction appeared and were then obscured by the drifting smoke of flares. The Russian connections with Warsaw and particularly with this district of Praga have a long and complex history. A flock of pigeons flew in a curving arc above the crowd.

After fifteen minutes, the ceremony was over. A plane flew overhead, trailing a banner reading ‘we will remember 01.08.44’. Other planes trailing smoke streamers performed precisely choreographed turns to draw the Powstanie symbol in the sky over the city.

After 82 years, few, if any, in the crowd could carry living memories of the events being commemorated. They were there to remember past generations and express respect, admiration and solidarity.

The crowd dispersed. Shopping resumed. Traffic began to flow again. The Jehovah’s Witnesses returned to their quiet evangelising. We returned to the station to catch our train.

We had not witnessed some great event of European history. We had come to a place of particular historic poignancy in the city to witness one of many thousands of annual Powstanie commemorations. It recalled the heroic and tragic sacrifice of men and women determined to defeat a vile evil that had taken over much of Europe.

Those who fought in the uprising lost their battle at unimaginable personal cost. Their cause, however, prevailed and the war was finally won. We must remember and pray that we will never be called on to repeat their sacrifice.

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