Commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
19.04.2023
On April 19, 2023, at the initiative of the Polish delegation, a symbolic commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was held at the 1464th meeting of the Committee of Ministers' Delegates of the Council of Europe.
The Polish representative gave a speech in which he referred to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising as the largest armed uprising of Jews during World War II and the first urban uprising in occupied Europe. He indicated the sources of the Daffodils social and educational campaign, its symbolism and importance for the young generation. In the speech, it was emphasized the fact that the action was approved by the chairman of the World Jewish Congress and thus, for the first time, it was propagated in Israel.
The representative underlined the fact that the memory of the sometimes difficult past is our common value and the basis of our European identity. The memory of the fallen and murdered as well as ensuring justice is also important in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine and is intended to ensure lasting peace. The punchline of the Polish speech was the statement that Warsaw, which used to be a city of ruins, is now a city of the living, aware of its past and carrying out the process of reconciliation, as evidenced by the visit of the presidents of Israel and Germany to Warsaw on the day of the anniversary.
After the speech of the PL delegation, two promotional films of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews were shown.
The meeting was attended by 46 representatives of Council of Europe member states and 3 representatives of states with observer status (USA, JPN, MEX).
An important anniversary for Poles was also celebrated on April 24 during the opening of the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Senator Aleksander Pociej, addressing the parliamentarians gathered at the session, said that “After decades of peace, Europe is again at war. The aggressor commits war crimes. Remembering the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto, we must also say to the current victims of the war: you are not alone, the perpetrators of these crimes will not go unpunished. Daffodils are a symbol of remembrance, respect and hope. They are associated with the figure of Mr. Marek Edelman, the last leader of the Jewish Combat Organization and the guardian of the memory of the uprising. Today, this memory flourishes in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe".
