"Warsaw insurgents want us to build a Poland which will not have to defend itself as it will be so strong that no one will dare attack it," the president said at the foot of the Warsaw Uprising Monument in Krasińskich Square.
Radek Pietruszka/PAP

Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, has said that the Warsaw Uprising should be seen as a lesson telling us how to take care of the homeland.

“The Warsaw Uprising, this extraordinary armed operation, the only one of its kind during World War Two…, is for us today, here, in a sovereign and independent Poland, an extremely important historical event but also a lesson teaching us how to take care of the homeland so that it could last and survive,” Duda said on the eve of the 79th anniversary of the uprising outbreak in Warsaw on Monday.

“Warsaw insurgents want us to build a Poland which will not have to defend itself as it will be so strong that no one will dare attack it,” the president said at the foot of the Warsaw Uprising Monument in Krasińskich Square.

“This is our huge task today,” Duda said.

The president also stated that Warsaw insurgents had been fighting for principles, for a free, sovereign and independent homeland, for an independent Poland as they wanted their country to return onto the map of the world.

According to Duda, the point is now, while building a secure Poland, to know how to draw conclusions from the blood shed during the uprising “so that this tragic sacrifice will never have to repeat itself.”

Rafał Trzaskowski, Warsaw mayor, said that that the message of the Warsaw Uprising would remain with us for generations to come.

“This message is the most important as it concerns freedom, sovereignty, courage and heroism,” Trzaskowski said, adding that all of us were convinced that there would be no independent Poland without them.

The Warsaw Uprising was the largest underground military operation in German-occupied Europe. On August 1, 1944, around 40,000-50,000 insurgents took part in the fighting. Planned to last several days, the uprising eventually lasted over two months.

During the fighting in Warsaw, about 18,000 insurgents lost their lives and 25,000 were wounded. Losses among the civilian population were huge and amounted to approx. 180,000. After the Warsaw Uprising was crushed, about 500,000 surviving residents were forced to evacuate and Warsaw was almost completely razed to the ground.