“Who ordered the removal of the insurgent mural?”, “who painted over the mural on Patelnia?!”, “the mural in the center of Warsaw painted over just before August 1!” – Internet users are outraged, commenting on photos of an empty wall in the center of the capital shown on the Internet. Not everyone believes that the mural commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising was painted over just before the anniversary. But it's true.
Today, August 1, marks the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising. Official celebrations in the capital have been ongoing for several days now, and the culminating moment will be a ceremony at the Gloria Victis monument at Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery. In the evening, a fire will be lit on the Warsaw Uprising Mound, which will burn for 63 days – as long as the Warsaw Uprising lasted.
Every year on the anniversary of the outbreak of the uprising, at 5 p.m. in the center of Warsaw, at Rondo Dmowskiego, participants of the Warsaw Uprising march gather. Next to it is the so-called “Patelnia”, a square in front of the entrance to the Centrum metro station. It was the wall at this square that stirred up huge emotions on the web on August 1st – or rather what disappeared from it. Its permanent element is murals (recently related to, among others, the Tadeusz Mazowiecki Award, the anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto, the civic budget in Warsaw or the involvement of Warsaw volunteers in helping Ukrainians) – and since mid-July this wall decorated with a mural commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. On July 19, it was boasted about on the profile of the Union of Polish Metropolises.
Meanwhile, on August 1, Internet users began reporting that the mural had been painted over. They don't knowwhy it disappeared just on the anniversary. “Who ordered the removal of the insurgent mural???”; “Who painted over the mural on Patelnia?!” – They asked. Commenters on this information and photos of the empty wall did not hide their indignation – often linking the fact of the mural's disappearance with Polish politics.
“Can you believe it? A few weeks ago, at the place where Poles meet on August 1st at the 'W' hour, at the Centrum metro station in Warsaw, a mural was created to mark the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. It was created, but it is no longer there. The 'Für Deutschland' course adopted on December 13th is still in force!”; “Well, we can see how 'memory is incredibly important'! How Arkadiusz Gołębiewski reports the mural at Metro Centrum which was created for the 80th anniversary of the #WarsawUprising has just been PAINTBACKED! @trzaskowski – W for shame! Great shame!”; “The beautiful mural commemorating the 80th anniversary of the #WarsawUprising unfortunately did not survive until August 1st, because someone decided to paint over it just before such an important day for all Poles. I really don't know what you have to have in your head to do something like that” – they wrote (we will keep the original spelling of the entries).
Internet users showed a painted mural on the Warsaw “frying pan”x.com
The case was publicized by opposition politicians. Rafał Trzaskowski, a member of parliament for Sovereign Poland (PiS club), accused the mayor of the capital of painting over the mural “exactly on the day of the anniversary.” Darius Matecki. His post had over 200 thousand views in a few hours. “The communists seized power ..”; “So as not to upset the Germans. Fur Deutchland”, “Trzaskowski's shameful act! Who did the people of Warsaw make the mayor of the city? Shame, they really don't get it?” – the recipients of the MP's post commented under the post.
We contacted the Warsaw City Hall with questions about the reason for painting over the mural. In the meantime, however, the city hall spokeswoman Monika Beuth apologized for the situation in an interview with the Polish Press Agency. “The operator selected in a tender procedure is responsible for the murals on the wall near the Centrum metro station. As part of the agreement with the city, new content appears every two weeks. Unfortunately, the mural commemorating the anniversary of the outbreak of the Uprising disappeared at the end of July. This is an error for which we apologize. In agreement with the operator, the insurgent symbols will appear on the currently white wall before 5 p.m. today,” she said.
And so it happened. As we checked, before 2 p.m., the new mural was already being painted.
The information that the mural was painted over – as suggested by MP Matecki – on the day of the anniversary celebrations is untrue in this case. It happened last Monday.
A new graphic was already being painted on the wall of the Warsaw “Patelnia” before 2 p.m. on the anniversary of the outbreak of the uprising.Concrete24
The Warsaw Uprising broke out on August 1, 1944 at 5 p.m. It was the largest armed action of the underground in German-occupied Europe and the largest independence uprising in occupied Poland. Around 40-50 thousand insurgents joined the fight in the capital. Planned for a few days, it lasted over two months. During the fighting in Warsaw, around 18 thousand insurgents died, 25 thousand were wounded. Losses among the civilian population amounted to around 180 thousand killed. The surviving residents of Warsaw, around 500 thousand people, were expelled from the city.
Main image source: tvn24.pl, facebook.com