For decades, it was just a wild, overgrown hill — a dumping ground of rubble where kids from Czerniaków district played Robin Hood. But the locals always knew what lay beneath. Today, on the 81st anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, the Warsaw Uprising Hill is more than a memorial site. It is a symbolic monument to a destroyed city, a green sanctuary, and a living museum.

4% of Rubble — and the Whole of Warsaw

In the Czerniaków district of Warsaw stands a massive and still surprisingly little-known site of remembrance. The Warsaw Uprising Hill — raised from the rubble of a destroyed capital — holds roughly 4 percent of all the debris that once buried the city in the aftermath of World War II. For decades, it was labeled as „Czerniakowski Hill,” treated as a landfill or just another hill. But for the local community, it was something far more meaningful.

„It was a part of my childhood,” recalls Radosław Sosnowski, a Warsaw city councilor from the Mokotów district (Law and Justice party) and long-time resident of Czerniaków.

„As a kid, I played Indian or Robin Hood up there. But as I learned more about history, the hill became a place of remembrance. There are human remains in that rubble — of those who fought in the Uprising and those murdered by the Germans. These are relics.”

From Debris Heap to Site of Memory

After the war, the hill stood neglected and overgrown for nearly half a century. During the communist era, the Warsaw Uprising was marginalized — its memory suppressed, its symbols removed from public life. It wasn’t until 1994 that the first symbolic monument appeared: a 15-meter-tall steel anchor of the Polish Underground State, installed at the summit thanks to the efforts of the World Association of Home Army Soldiers.

Since 2004, every year on August 1st — the anniversary of the Uprising’s outbreak — a ceremonial flame is lit atop the hill, carried in a generational relay from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It burns for 63 days, the exact duration of the 1944 uprising.

That same year, the Warsaw City Council formally named the site the Warsaw Uprising Hill. Over time, a surrounding park was created, known as the „Operation Tempest Park.” On the 80th anniversary of the Uprising, the entire area underwent major revitalization. Paths, open-air exhibits, and commemorative installations transformed the old rubble hill into a green oasis and open-air museum.

The Crosses Return to the Hill

„Today, on Sunday, a group of Varsovians brought back the crosses to the Hill,” says Sosnowski. „It’s a powerful sign. These crosses reflect our tradition and values. They remind us who we are.”

For years, simple wooden crosses — brought by Polish scouts — lined the „W-Hour Avenue,” the main path leading up to the summit. These were removed during the recent modernization but were reinstated just before the 81st anniversary of the Uprising. Each cross now bears the name of a Home Army unit, subunit, or civilian group that participated in the Warsaw Uprising.

A City Meant to Be Erased

Warsaw was the only European capital deliberately and methodically destroyed during World War II. After suppressing the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, German occupying forces launched a campaign of total annihilation — demolishing buildings, detonating landmarks, and setting the city ablaze. By January 1945, Warsaw had been reduced to a vast field of ruins. It is estimated that approximately 84% of buildings on the city’s left bank were destroyed. The human toll was equally devastating: about 52% of the prewar population — roughly 1.3 million residents — perished as a result of war, German occupation, and Nazi terror.

Today, the Warsaw Uprising Hill stands not only as a geographical landmark but as a testament to the city that was meant to disappear — and yet rose again. In its soil lies the memory of defiance, sacrifice, and the will to endure.

Monument of a Ruined City – The Warsaw Uprising Hill, photo: Sr. Amata J. Nowaszewska / Family News Service

Family News Service