Warsaw Uprising veterans, Defence Ministry agree on roll-call
PR dla Zagranicy
Alicja Baczyńska
25.07.2016 15:56
Veterans and the Polish defence ministry have agreed on a commemorative roll-call, listing the late President Lech Kaczyński, which is to be read out at the upcoming commemorations of the Warsaw Uprising.
Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz (R) and Leszek Żukowski, the president of the World Association of Home Army Soldiers (L) Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell
The decision came after Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz on Monday met with Polish insurgents who took part in the 1944 uprising against the city’s German occupiers in WWII.
The defence ministry had ordered that all state ceremonies attended by a military escort should include a roll call commemorating the victims of the 2010 Smolensk air crash which killed 96 people, including President Lech Kaczyński.
In a recent letter sent to the defence ministry in the run-up to the uprising anniversary on 1 August, a number of veterans opposed the idea of reading out the names of those who died in Smolensk.
Leszek Żukowski, the president of the World Association of Home Army Soldiers said after Monday's talks that the roll call “will also include a small group of individuals who helped preserve the memory of the Warsaw Uprising, including Poland’s last president-in-exile, Ryszard Kaczorowski, and President Lech Kaczyński.”
Following the meeting, Minister Macierewicz referred to what he called deliberately misleading information on the issue from some quarters, which he said was aimed at creating conflict.
“I would like to thank all those who throughout this time were aware that there is no difference of opinion between the ministry and the insurgents, WWII veterans and circles preserving the memory of the historic events,” he told journalists at Warsaw’s Veteran Centre on Monday.
Marta Kaczyńska, daughter of the late president, recently wrote in an opinion article for weekly wSieci that commemorating figures important to Poland’s recent history should not take place at observances that are not directly linked to these people.
A roll-call commemorating the Smolensk victims was read out at the recent anniversary of the Poznań 1956 protests, the first mass protests in communist Poland, as well as at the May anniversary of the Third Silesian Uprising of 1921, where ethnic Poles fought to incorporate Silesia into Poland.
The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 was the largest act of rebellion by any resistance movement in Europe during World War II. (aba/pk)
Source: IAR, PAP