The #BohaterOn campaign aims to commemorate the heroes of the Polish capital’s bloody World War II revolt, which started 80 years ago, and to educate the public about the significance of the event.
The annual initiative, now in its ninth year, also aims to help surviving insurgents, most of whom are now well into their 90s, by raising funds for their everyday needs.
As every year, the campaign encourages the public to send thank-you messages and donations to veterans, among other initiatives.
On Thursday morning, the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, the oldest surviving participant in the revolt, Barbara Sowa, also known by her nom de guerre Basia, died at the age of 106, the campaign's organizers said.
Thursday marks exactly 80 years since the Warsaw Uprising broke out on August 1, 1944.
The bloody insurgency, also known as the Warsaw Rising, lasted 63 days before it was put down by better equipped and more numerous German forces.
The heroic act of resistance left the city razed to the ground and resulted in the death of some 18,000 Polish fighters and 200,000 civilians.
Polish lawmakers last week passed a special resolution in which they saluted "the heroes of this great uprising, both the soldiers of the Home Army and other military formations who took up arms against the German occupiers, and the civilian inhabitants of Warsaw who died, were wounded, and lost their possessions."
Officials have said that the insurgency was one of the most heroic and tragic Polish battles of World War II and the largest military operation by any underground resistance movement in German-occupied Europe.
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Source: bohateron.pl, radio.lublin.pl