Simons Passage - Pasaż Simonsa Memorial,Krasinski Park,

03/11/2025

03/10/2025

Hail to the heroes

🇵🇱 Today is the 81st anniversary of the fall of the Warsaw Uprising. We remember the thousands of thousands of innocently murdered Poles, the Polish youth who, believing in the highest values, gave their lives. As modern Poles and Europeans, and simply people of freedom, we have a duty to remember these brave people who said no to German tyranny.

🕯 Warsaw was almost completely destroyed by the Germans. No compensation was ever paid to Poland. The rebuilding of the city continues to this day, an example of which is the Saxon Palace under construction, which is the last act of the rebirth of Warsaw. It is worth knowing that the main reconstruction took place thanks to the social work of Poles, who believed that the city would still be great. Today Warsaw remembers its heroes.

📷 Reginald Kenny

11/09/2025

W ubiegłą sobotę 6 września wzięliśmy udział w inscenizacji epizodów Bitwy nad Wartą, która odbyła się w Beleniu. 🇵🇱🫡 Dziękujemy kolegom z Gloria Victis oraz Projekt Brygada za wspólny udział w tym wydarzeniu. 😌

A w tle lekki schron nr 1 pozycji Beleń-Strońsko. W dniach 3-5 września okolicy schronu bronił pluton podporucznika rezerwy Karola Bischoffa z warszawskiego 30 Pułku Strzelców Kaniowskich. 🇵🇱

05/09/2025

The reason for this page

21/03/2025

"Kotwica," the Fighting Poland symbol, was one anchor that really caught on.

➡ It was selected in a competition held by Polish resistance in German-occupied country. The entries needed to be simple beause the symbol would be painted in the streets patrolled by German Schutzpolizei. A few strokes in a few seconds. The prizes were nothing like in today’s contests – no big money, exotic holiday, toasters or steak knives. All you could win was a handshake and pride.

➡ Still, it was the kind of pride that designers of modern-day famous logos hardly ever feel. Of course part of it was the satisfaction of seeing your design reproduced in thousands of copies all around the city, but most of it was the belief that you chipped in with something important to help in something even more important. You gave popular expression to defiance.

➡ The winning entry conflated two letters: its upper part was P for "Poland, and the lower W for "Walcząca," "Fighting." Together, they resembled an anchor, and that’s how they came to be called. The winner was Anna Smoleńska, Polish Girl Scout and messenger in the Home Army Bureau of Information and Propaganda. Her sign beat 26 other designs.

➡ Some people say that the symbol was a pre-war logo of a publishing house from Poznań, and Smoleńska was only inspired by something she’d already seen. Possible but irrelevant: wherever she got her inspiration, the anchor was officially adopted by the underground, first time appearing in the heart of Warsaw on 20 March 1942. After that, it caught on and spread like fire.

➡ That first sign painted on the wall of a Warsaw confectionery was the handiwork of Polish Scout, member of the Grey Ranks resistance and master of small sabotage Alek Dawidowski – who would soon graduate to the Home Army assault squads, and one year after painting Anchor no. 1 get killed in action in a Warsaw street, attempting to spring a friend out of the Gestapo grasp.

➡ Coming back to Anna Smoleńska: wherever she got her inspiration doesn’t matter for one more reason: in late 1942, the girl and her family were arrested and put in the infamous Pawiak prison. Anna underwent torture but said nothing, and the Gestapo finally sent her to KL Auschwitz, where she perished within weeks. At 23, she became a defiance symbol herself.

➡ So, who cares where a defiance symbol got an idea for a defiance symbol?

04/09/2024

As mentioned in a previous post, a wreath-laying ceremony took place, on Saturday 31 August 2024 at 10:30 AM, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the destruction of Simons Passage and remember the 300 people who died there.

My brother Jan and sister Bronia attended along with their respective partners, Elaine and Alistair.

Jan and Bronia are the ones wearing the broad-rimmed hats.

31/08/2024

Drone show commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. 🤍❤️ It was the largest show of its kind in Poland and one of the largest in Europe.

In the sky, there were as many as 615 drones, which formed 12 symbolic figures. Additionally, the real voices and statements of the insurgents: Wanda Traczyk-Stawska "Pączek", Tymoteusz Duchowski "Motek", Tomasz Łaszkiewicz "Konrad" and "Brat", Jadwiga Bielesz "Waligóra", Eugeniusz Jan Wlaź "Gabi", Eugenia Adamiak - liaison, Edmund Baranowski "Jur" were heard. These were made available thanks to the Warsaw Uprising Museum from the Oral History Archive.

The musical setting was provided by the symphonic piece "Drones Over the City" dedicated to the Warsaw Uprising, composed by Karim Martusewicz, the son of an insurgent.

Thanks Jan Szczygiel Snr

30/08/2024

If you're visiting Warsaw this weekend, head down to Krasinski Park on Saturday 31 August 2024.

A wreath-laying ceremony will take place, usually at 11:30 AM, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the destruction of Simons Passage and remember the 300 people who died there.

It's on the side of the park nearest Długa street.

29/08/2024

Again, thank you Michael Edwards

On 19th April 1943, smoke covered the skies over central Warsaw. The N**i German occupying forces attempted to enter the Warsaw Ghetto to deport the last surviving members of the city’s Jewish population to the Majdanek and Treblinka death camps. But instead of surrendering to their will, the peop...

29/08/2024

Thank you Michael Edwards

An address where the Jewish and Polish worlds met and intermingled.