Yesterday was an important day: Poland commemorated the 60th anniversary of the most important event in the common German and Polish history – the Warsaw uprising of August 1, 1944. This day regained its importance for the Poles only after 1989, whereas it was neglected in the communistic times because of political reasons.

One could have felt the because everywhere in the city the Polish flag (white-red) and the Warsaw flag (yellow-red) were visible, as well as thousands of scouts from all over Poland and abroad have intruded the city – they were the main participants in the uprising.

We also went out to participate in the commemoration and after looking at the Warsaw uprising memorial, we drove to Warsaw’s Wolski cemetery, where thousands of people mourned the over 200,000 killed Poles during the uprsing. Before exactly at 5pm the sirens brought Warsaw to a short standstill reminding of the beginning of the uprising.

At night the with tension expected speech of our Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder took place. Beside some loose shoutings against him, he met the feelings of the attendees when speaking about “Polish glory and German shame”, and people applauded after he declined clearly any claims of German refugees.

Nevertheless the emotions are mixed the day after, especially in Germany and among their refugess. But for Poles it was the day that the world finally has recognized Polish history. For the rest, in particular with regard to the expeceted claims of refugees, we have to see which actions will follow that day – from both sides.

See some pictures here.