Poland marks 75th anniversary of uprising in Warsaw Ghetto

WARSAW, Poland — Sirens wailed, church bells tolled and yellow paper daffodils of remembrance dotted the crowd as Polish and Jewish leaders extolled the heroism and determination of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fighters on the 75th anniversary of their ill-fated rebellion.

Polish President Andrzej Duda and World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder said the hundreds of young Jews who took up arms in Warsaw in 1943 against the might of the Nazi German army fought for their dignity but also to liberate Poland from the occupying Germans.

Lauder said although the Nazis were defeated and crushed 73 years ago, “oppression and oppressors have not gone away and we need each other today like never before. Jews, Catholics, Poles, Americans. All free people should stand together now to make sure that our children and grandchildren never know the true horrors that took place right here.”

People stopped in the street and officials stood at attention as sirens and church bells sounded at noon to mourn the Jews who died in the uprising, as well as the millions of others murdered in the Holocaust.

The daffodil tradition comes from Marek Edelman, the last surviving commander of the uprising, who on every anniversary used to lay the spring flowers at the monument to the fighters. He died in 2009.

The Warsaw Ghetto uprising broke out April 19, 1943, when about 750 Jewish fighters armed with pistols and fuel bottles attacked a heavily armed German force that was putting an end to the ghetto’s existence.

The fighters said they knew they were doomed but wanted to die at a time and place of their own choosing. They held out nearly a month.

SEAN GALLUP/GETTY A woman lays daffodils Thursday at the Ghetto Heroes Monument after the main commemoration ceremony of the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Poland.