Duda hosts German President at Belweder Palace
President Andrzej Duda met with his German counterpart, Frank Walter Steinmeier, at the Belweder Palace in the capital, prior to Thursday's Warsaw Uprising 80th anniversary commemoration events.
The president's office reported that Duda was accompanied by Presidential Aide Wojciech Kolarski, International Policy Office Head Mieszko Pawlak, and Head of National Security Bureau Jacek Siewiera.
On the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, following the meeting at the Belweder Palace, Presidents Duda and Steinmeier will pay homage to the victims of the Wola Massacre, a brutal mass-murder of civilians of Warsaw's Wola district carried out by the Germans from Aug. 5 to Aug. 12, 1944.
The Warsaw Uprising was the largest underground military operation in German-occupied Europe. On August 1, 1944, around 40,000 to 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 approximately 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. (PAP)
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