Exhibition on Warsaw Uprising launched in Munich

In addition to the presentation of various aspects of the Warsaw Uprising, photographs, documents and films also evoke pre-war Warsaw, the lives of the city's inhabitants under the Nazi occupation, the consequences of World War II for Poland and Warsaw’s post-war reconstruction.

Deputy Foreign Minister Artur Nowak-Far said during the opening ceremony on Wednesday that the Warsaw Uprising is of very special significance for Poles as one of the most important events in the nation’s recent history.

He stressed that “despite the persecutions of the communist period and lies in the presentation of historical facts, Poles did not forget about the Uprising”, adding that “despite its total destruction Warsaw raised like a phoenix from the ashes to become one of Europe’s major capitals.”

The exhibition was put together with the Warsaw Uprising Museum in the Polish capital and is held under the honorary patronage of the Presidents of Poland and Germany, Andrzej Duda and Joachim Gauck. Last year it was shown for three months at Berlin’s Topography of Terror, attracting 280, 000 people.

The 63-day insurgency began on 1 August 1944, ending in capitulation. Up to 200,000 people died during the uprising, mostly civilians, and historians remain divided about whether the insurgency should have been launched. (mk/nh/rk)