Warsaw Ghetto Heroes commemorated 80 years after the valorous insurgency

The main part of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was held at noon in front of the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw. The ceremony was commenced with the sound of sirens blaring across the city of Warsaw, followed shortly by the national anthem of Poland.

Leaders and ordinary citizens marked the heroism of those who took part in the largest Jewish uprising against Nazi Germany during World War II.

Polish President Andrzej Duda, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Israeli President Isaac Herzog paid tribute to the fallen heroes by bowing their heads and laying wreaths at the monument.

Among the gathered there were two presidential couples - German and Polish - Israel's President Isaac Herzog, Poland's PM Mateusz Morawiecki, Speaker of the Sejm Elżbieta Witek, Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak, Culture Minister Prof. Piotr Gliński, his deputy Jarosław Sellin, the Office for War Veterans and Victims of Oppression Head Jan Kasprzyk, President of the Institute of National Remembrance Karol Nawrocki, Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz, and Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich.

German Nazi occupiers in 1940 corralled over 400,000 Jews into a small section of the Polish capital Warsaw, most of whom were then sent to camps to be killed or died from the conditions in the Ghetto itself.

The uprising broke out on April 19, 1943, when Jewish fighters took on German troops in an attempt to prevent Jews being transported to death camps. It ended on May 16 the same year, when the Germans razed the ghetto to the ground. An estimated 13,000 Jews were killed.