Ceremonies mark the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Rising at the Monument to the Underground State and Home Army in downtown Warsaw, 1 August 2014 Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański
“There are events which time does not tend to forget and whose emotions never fade away,” Parliamentary Speaker Ewa Kopacz said. “[The Rising] remains a vivid memory, and is strong in our hearts,” she added.
Earlier, speaking at a tree-planting ceremony in the capital’s Saski Gardens, Gronkiewicz-Waltz said that the Warsaw Rising should be saved from oblivion “so that further generations will know whom to thank for their quiet lives in an independent homeland”.
The Underground State existed between 1939-1945 in the Nazi-German and Soviet occupied territories of Poland. The State was formed of a anumber of organisations which encompassed military resistance as well as a number civilian functions.
From 1940, the Underground State was controlled by the Polish government-in-exile, and following a move to Paris was based in London.
Ceremonies mark the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Rising at the Monument to the Underground State and Home Army in downtown Warsaw, 1 August 2014 Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański
Meanwhile, at 1.30 pm a wreath was laid at the memorial to General Stefan Rowiecki “Grot”, a leader of the Home Army and major saboteur of the Nazi war effort.
A veteran of World War I and the Polish-Soivet war of 1919-1920. In the months leading up to the outbreak of World War II, Rowecki was placed in charge of a motorised armoured brigade.
Throughout the first years of the war, Rowecki took part in numerous sabotage missions as part of the “Wachlarz” resistance organisation.
Rowecki was considered an enemy of the Third Reich and was placed first on a list of most-wanted Poles by the Nazis.
On 30 June 1943, Rowecki was arrested in Warsaw, betrayed by three Polish double agents who were also working for the Gestapo. He was taken to Berlin and then interned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
After the outbreak of the Warsaw Rising, Rowecki was executed under the direct orders of SS chief Heinrich Himmler. (jb)
More on the 70th anniversary commemorations of the Warsaw Rising can be found here.
Source: PAP
Head of the Warsaw Uprising Veterans' Association, General Zbigniew Scibor-Rylski (centre) with the head of the Global Association of Home Army Veterans Leszek Zukowski (second left) and Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz during the tree-planting ceremony on 1 August, 2014 Photo: PAP/Jakub Kamiński