Warsaw - Warsaw's busiest intersection came to a standstill at 5 pm Friday as sirens commemorated the exact time Polish soldiers 64 years ago rose against the Nazi occupation in World War II. Officials had encouraged Varsovians to stop all activity and for one minute remember the Warsaw Uprising, the 63-day struggle for an independent Poland free of Nazi and Soviet occupation.
Buses, trams and metro trains halted along their route when the sirens blared, as did cars in Warsaw's hectic roundabout and pedestrians in the capital's Old Town.
A ceremony at Warsaw's military cemetery, with many Uprising veterans in attendance, observed the silence along with Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donal Tusk.
The tribute was part of day-long, nationwide ceremonies marking the battle that claimed some 18,000 Polish soldiers and ended in defeat when the Red Army marched into the ruined capital in 1945.
Although the odds were heavily against the Poles, who were poorly armed and outnumbered, the battle is seen as an heroic struggle for an independent Poland against impossible odds.
"It was a battle fought very heroically," Kaczynski told TVN Info. "It was extraordinarily fierce and was at first led by what was really an unequipped army."
He and Tusk had earlier laid wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and other events paid tribute to the leader of the Polish Home Army and the commander of the armed forces during the failed attempt to liberate Warsaw.
But the Uprising's anniversary did not pass without some people questioning how well its veterans were being treated today, and how strongly its memory was being observed.
Polish officials recently asked war-crimes prosecutors in Germany to track down survivors of a Nazi unit that was exceptionally brutal in clamping down on the Uprising.
They wanted to find if the survivors could be prosecuted, Der Spiegel reported, but so far none of those tracked down have admitted to committing war crimes.
The unit conducted mass rapes and massacres by putting people in barns and lighting them on fire, and "cleared" mines by making civilians walk on them, the weekly reported.
Critical reports on Friday also spoke about Poland's booming trade in Nazi memorabilia, which often attracts neo-Nazi tourists from Germany and Scandinavia who are forbidden to buy the relics at home.
It was ironic, the daily commented, that the country that suffered most at the hands of the Nazis should now be the main exporter of Nazi relics.
Other reports pointed out how those who fought for Poland's freedom were now receiving 1,000 zloty (480 dollars) a month from its government. Or how bullet holes at the spot where Nazis shot some 500 Poles were now used by handlers to prop up clothes hangers.
But the overall mood was reflective, and many officials were optimistic that the youth-geared events of the anniversary would instill patriotism into the next generation.
The Warsaw Rising Museum - which organized many of the events for the anniversary - is Poland's most modern museum, aiming to bring history to today's generation with interactive exhibits.
More recently, it sponsored a comic book contest where young people competed for the best, or most imaginative, illustration of the events of 1944.
And veterans taking part in the ceremonies had similar hopes that their stories would reach today's youth.
"We'd simply like young people to love Poland," veteran Maria Stypulkowski-Chojecka told the Rzeczpospolita daily.
"Not to die for her. But to be here, developing and enriching this country, and at the same time sustain the remembrance of history."
