Hundreds of people commemorated the 72nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The main ceremony was held April 19 in Warsaw at the monument to the ghetto heroes in front of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Authorities and visiting Israeli youth joined residents at the commemoration.
Speaking at the ceremony was Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, a Polish resistance fighter who took part in the 1944 Warsaw uprising, and later served as Poland’s Foreign Minister. Bartoszewski, 93, was an Auschwitz prisoner who was recognized by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel as Righteous Among Nations for his help in saving Jewish lives.
“This is not the speech of the representative of the government, but a man who was and is witness to historical events,” he said. “It is the fulfillment of my life that after 72 years since those events, I talk about it also in the name of those absent.”
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising broke out on April 19, 1943, and lasted for a month. It was the first military action of underground organizations against Germany and the first urban uprising in occupied Europe.
Before the main ceremony, the Jewish Military Union fighters were commemorated at the memorial plaque. — jta