German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Polish President Andrzej Duda laid wreaths together to commemorate the victims of the Warsaw Uprising 80 years ago.
They chose a memorial in Warsaw’s Wola district, where some 30,000 Polish civilians were systematically killed within the span of a few days in 1944.
“They were taken from their homes, their houses were burnt down, they themselves were shot in the streets and their bodies were burnt,” said Duda about the massacre.
Duda called Steinmeier’s presence at the ceremony an important symbolic moment for the two nations. Steinmeier stood quietly in front of the wreath he had placed.
On August 1, 1944, members of the Polish resistance led by the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) took up arms in Warsaw against the Nazi occupiers.
The military goal was to free Warsaw from German occupation ahead of the arrival of the Soviet Red Army in order to prevent the creation of a Soviet-controlled government in Poland.
However, the uprising fell after 63 days of fighting, costing the lives of nearly 200,000 Poles, most of them civilians. The remaining half a million Warsaw residents were deported and the city nearly completely destroyed.
