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WORLD NEWS Friday 20 april 2018

Poland marks 75th anniversary of uprising in Warsaw Ghetto

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA seeking an inclusive soci-
and VANESSA GERA ety. This year a record 2,000
Associated Press volunteers were handing
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — out the paper daffodils,
Sirens wailed, church bells which have become a
tolled and yellow paper moving symbol of a mostly
daffodils of remembrance Catholic society express-
dotted the crowd as Pol- ing its sorrow at the loss of a
ish and Jewish leaders ex- Jewish community that was
tolled the heroism and de- Europe's largest before the
termination of the Warsaw Holocaust.
Ghetto Uprising fighters on There were also scattered
the 75th anniversary of their private observances, in-
ill-fated rebellion. cluding by American Jews
Polish President Andrzej returning to the soil where
Duda and World Jewish their parents and grand-
Congress President Ronald parents lived and died.
Lauder said the hundreds Some 40 members of the
of young Jews who took Workmen's Circle, a group
up arms in Warsaw in 1943 from New York City that
against the overwhelming promotes social justice,
might of the Nazi German honored the resistance
army fought for their dignity fighters at the remains of a
but also to liberate Poland bunker in 18 Mila Street.
from the occupying Ger- The son of an uprising sur-
mans. vivor read personal recol-
The revolt ended in death lections from the diary of
for most of the fighters, yet his mother, Vladka Meed,
left behind an enduring while the group's director,
symbol of resistance. Ann Toback, vowed on
"We bow our heads low to what she called "hallowed
their heroism, their bravery, ground" that the uprising
their determination and would continue to inspire
courage," Duda told the Poland's President Andrzej Duda speaks during state ceremonies in homage to the victims and modern resistance to op-
fighters of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, on the 75th anniversary of the start of the revolt, in
hundreds of officials, Holo- front of the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes, in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, April 19, 2018. pression.
caust survivors and Warsaw Associated Press The Warsaw Ghetto upris-
residents who gathered ing broke out April 19, 1943,
Thursday at the city's Monu- street and officials stood memoration that was, in ing and daffodils placed at when about 750 young
ment to the Warsaw Ghet- at attention as sirens and essence, a boycott of the the monument to a Jew- Jewish fighters armed with
to Heroes. church bells sounded at official state observances. ish envoy in London, Szmul just pistols and fuel bottles
"Most of them died ... as noon to mourn the Jews Many people there ex- Zygielbojm, who commit- attacked a much larger
they fought for dignity, who died in the uprising, as pressed anger at Poland's ted suicide after the revolt and heavily armed Ger-
freedom and also for Po- well as the millions of others conservative government, was crushed to protest the man force that was putting
land, because they were murdered in the Holocaust. which seems to tolerate world's indifference to the an end to the ghetto's exis-
Polish citizens," Duda said. The daffodil tradition comes anti-Semitism despite its of- Holocaust. tence.
Lauder said although the from Marek Edelman, the ficial denunciations of anti- Participants then paid In their last testaments, the
Nazis were defeated and last surviving commander Semitism. homage to the victims fighters said they knew they
crushed 73 years ago, "op- of the uprising, who on ev- "I am not attending the of- at several memorial sites were doomed but wanted
pression and oppressors ery anniversary used to lay ficial ceremonies this year in the area of the former to die at a time and place
have not gone away and the spring flowers at the because the government is ghetto, including at Um- of their own choosing. They
we need each other today monument to the fighters. supporting the rise of a dan- schlagplatz, the spot where held out nearly a month,
like never before." He died in 2009. gerous nationalism," said Jews were assembled be- longer than some German-
"Jews, Catholics, Poles, At a separate ceremony at Tanna Jakubowicz-Mount, fore being transported to invaded countries did.
Americans. All free people Warsaw's Town Hall, three a 72-year-old psychothera- the Treblinka death camp. The Germans razed the
should stand together now Holocaust survivors — Hel- pist who carried photos of There, one by one, people Warsaw Ghetto and killed
to make sure that our chil- ena Birenbaum, Krystyna a grandmother and aunt spoke Thursday about their most of the fighters, except
dren and grandchildren Budnicka and Marian Turski who were executed by family members killed by for a few dozen who man-
never know the true horrors — were given honorary citi- the Germans. "We cannot Hitler's regime. aged to escape through
that took place right here," zenship of the city. agree to this." Signs of rising nationalism in sewage canals to the "Ary-
he said. Hundreds of people also at- The alternative observanc- Poland have also strength- an" side of the city, Edel-
People stopped in the tended a grassroots com- es began with Yiddish sing- ened the resolve of those man among them.q