State officials, diplomats and members of Poland’s Jewish community were among those who joined events to mark 79 years since the outbreak of the World War II-era revolt, in which Jewish fighters took up arms against Poland’s German invaders.
A day of ceremonies included wreath-laying and a symbolic march of remembrance.
Paper daffodils—a poignant echo of the yellow stars that Jews were made to wear during the Nazi German occupation—could be picked up from volunteers at subway stations as well as special vending machines.
Presidential minister Wojciech Kolarski took part in ceremonies in front of a monument in central Warsaw to honour the wartime fighters on behalf of the Polish head of state, Andrzej Duda.
Another presidential aide, Grażyna Ignaczak-Bandych, reflected in a tweet that the Jewish fighters 79 years ago fought for their "dignity, humanity and freedom."
"We remember and will always remember what happened in those days," she said.
The Polish Prime Minister's Office said in a Twitter post that the fighters in the Warsaw ghetto could have "no hope of victory" amid an overwhelming "advantage of the Germans," but they "chose to die holding a gun in their hands to save dignity after years of repression."
'Honour and glory to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising': PM
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a social media message that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising "demonstrated that a fight for a good cause is never hopeless or lost, and that barbarism and totalitarianism should be resisted firmly in all historical circumstances."
Morawiecki saluted the memory of the fighters, saying: "Honour and glory to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising."
'Heroism and dedication'
Poland’s parliamentarians in 2018 passed a special motion paying tribute to the Jewish fighters to mark the 75th anniversary of the uprising.
The Sejm, Poland’s lower house, said in the motion at the time that the fighters had shown "the highest heroism and dedication in defence of the universal values of human freedom and dignity."
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which broke out on April 19, 1943 and lasted until May 16, was the first uprising in German Nazi-occupied Europe and the largest act of armed resistance by Jews in World War II. It is estimated that about 13,000 insurgents died in the ghetto during the revolt.
Some surviving Jewish combatants later fought in the Warsaw Uprising, launched by Poland's underground Home Army (AK) on August 1, 1944.
The Warsaw ghetto, established in April 1940, was the largest of the many ghettos which the Germans set up across Poland to isolate the Jewish population after invading the country in September 1939.
The annual daffodil campaign is associated with noted ghetto fighter Marek Edelman, who before his death in 2009 placed daffodils at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw each year on the anniversary of the uprising.
The Polish president in December 2018 paid tribute to the last surviving Warsaw ghetto fighter who died in Israel at the age of 94.
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Source: PAP, IAR, TVP Info
Click on the audio player above for a report by Radio Poland's Agnieszka Bielawska.