Warsaw Rising exhibition opened in Berlin

Presidents Komorowski and Gauck with veterans at the opening of the Warsaw Rising exhibition in Berlin, 29.07.2014 Photo: PAP/Paweł Supernak

The exhibition places the Warsaw Rising in a broad context, showing not only the 63 days of fighting in Warsaw but also Poland’s pre-war capital, the life of its inhabitants during the German occupation, the city’s post-war revival and the consequences of the Second World War for Poland.

In his remarks, President Komorowski described the Warsaw Rising as an insurrection of a free people, organised in an underground Polish state. He stressed that the insurgents paid the highest price for their longing for freedom, adding that in 1944 two criminal totalitarian systems – Nazism and communism – joined forces in crushing the Polish nation’s fight for freedom.

President Gauck said the exhibition about the Warsaw Rising serves not only to recall the horrible actions of the German nation but also as an opportunity “to meet with you and your suffering, to create a sense of empathy and to understand the suffering of others”.

Recalling his visit to the Warsaw Rising Museum ten years ago shortly after its opening, Gauck said that he then realised that “for many Poles the victory over Germans was far more important than the failure of the Warsaw Rising.”

“It is an incredibly important feature of the nation to be able to pluck up the fighting spirit in such a tragic situation, and fight, even though a victory seemed almost impossible,” Gauck added.

The exhibition in Berlin was organised by the Warsaw Rising Museum in conjunction with the Topography of Terror Foundation in Berlin.

Deputy director of the Warsaw Rising Museum, Dariusz Gawin told Polish Radio that the location of the exhibition at the Topography of Terror Museum is of great significance as it is located in the former headquarters of the Third Reich’s Security Office. It was from there that Hitler and Himmler, having received the news of the outbreak of the Warsaw Rising, issued orders to turn the Polish capital into ruins.

On his visit to Berlin, the Polish President was accompanied by a group of former Warsaw insurgents, with whom he met for lunch with German President Joachim Gauck. (mk/jb)

Presidents Komorowski and Gauck with veterans at the opening of the Warsaw Rising exhibition in Berlin, 29.07.2014 Photo: PAP/Paweł Supernak