September 1st marked the 85th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland that began World War II. I was in Warsaw on August 1st, when the city commemorated the 80th anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Uprising. The Old Town was alive with musicians singing old war songs and actors reenacting street battles. At five o’clock, the official start time of the uprising, a huge crowd filled the square in front of the Royal Castle. After a moment of silence, sirens wailed and flares were lit. Then everyone sang the national anthem: “Poland is not yet lost,” it begins, “as long as we are living.”
