The Home Army was an official resistance force that was created on February 14, 1942. It was loyal to the Polish government-in-exile in London.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said in a message on Sunday that Home Army soldiers "helped preserve the identity of our national community and its patriotic spirit during those difficult times when Poland was threatened by two hostile totalitarian empires," Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
He added that the legacy of the Home Army "became an inspiration and obligation for the next generations," which he said "continued to fight to regain full independence during decades of communist enslavement" after World War II.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak said during a ceremony in Warsaw that the Home Army was "the military arm of the Polish underground state" and "its soldiers were heroes who sacrificed their lives for a free Poland."
"It was an army whose task was to fight for a free Poland against the country's German occupiers," he said during the ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Polish capital.
Błaszczak told those at the ceremony that Home Army soldiers "became role models for Polish servicemen and women today."
The Home Army was "a great force formed by people who loved their country," Błaszczak also said. "This was a very great value, a very important value."
He added: "We are grateful for this. We are grateful for their sacrifice."
According to many historians, the Home Army was the largest and best organised underground army in German-occupied Europe during WWII, numbering about 380,000 soldiers at its peak in the summer of 1944, Poland's PAP news agency reported.
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Source: PAP