A little before 11 Saturday morning, Hania called her friend Kasia in Warsaw and a few minutes later we listened on speaker phone as air raid sirens went off all over the city, marking the 82nd anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. We were in Warsaw two years ago, for the 80th anniversary, which I found to be an impressive commemoration, and each year it seems to get bigger than the last, as the new generation remembers the (mostly) young men and women who rose up against their Nazi occupiers. It was a failed revolt, in part because the Soviet army, sitting on the other side of the Vistula river, failed to come to the aid of the Poles. They knew that a destroyed city, with a depleted population, would be easier to occupy.
Later on social media I saw footage of crowds, not just on Plac Zamkowy, where I had stood two years ago, but downtown, where smoke from flares momentarily clouded their numbers. Many cities have events that define them: Boston has its marathon; New Orleans its Mardi Gras. Warsaw has its Uprising commemoration, and every time I see it, even from afar, my love and admiration for the city and its people is rekindled.
