Warsaw Marks 65 Years Since Revolt Against Nazis

People attend Holy Mass at the Warsaw Uprising Memorial to commemorate the Warsaw 1944 Uprising on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the revolt, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, July 31, 2009. The fight of Warsaw residents against the occupying Nazis started on August 1, 1944. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

By Marta Kucharska (AP)

To the sounds of the national anthem, Poland's leaders and World War II veterans paid silent honor Saturday to the fighters of Warsaw's 1944 uprising against the city's Nazi occupiers.

President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, flanked by veterans,laid wreaths at the monument to the fallen insurgents — most of them young people — at their mass grave in Warsaw's historic Powazki cemetery.

There were no speeches by politicians, to stress the solemn and historic character of the open-air ceremony. A military band played the national anthem and guards of honor fired three rounds into the air.

The doomed struggle to liberate Warsaw from the Germans remains a source of national pride.

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