Warsaw (dpa/d.de) – As a sign of remembrance of German crimes in the Second World War, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is taking part in the commemoration of the Warsaw Uprising 80 years ago in Poland. In Warsaw on Wednesday evening he will give a speech at the main ceremony to be held at the memorial to the insurgents. After Roman Herzog in 1994, Steinmeier is the second Federal President to be invited to speak on this important day of remembrance.
80 years ago on 1 August 1944, the Polish underground army attempted an uprising against the German occupation. The uprising was brutally crushed by the Wehrmacht and the SS over a period of 63 days, however, and the civilian population were subjected to massacres that were among the worst German war crimes. Around 200,000 people were killed, most of them civilians. The city of Warsaw was largely destroyed out of revenge.
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