Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz unveils plaque in memory of the late Lech Kaczynski; photo - PAPUPDATED - A plaque honouring the late president Lech Kaczynski has been unveiled today at the Warsaw Rising Museum, ahead of the Smolensk disaster anniversary on Sunday.
The gesture acknowledges Kaczynski's key role in creating the museum.
It was in 2003, whilst serving as mayor of Warsaw, that Kaczynski took the decision to build a state-of-the-art museum in tribute to the cataclysm that left the majority of the capital in ruins at the close of the Second World War.
The Warsaw Rising, orchestrated by the official underground army of the Polish government-in-exile, was a bid to overcome the Nazi occupiers whilst Poland's theoretical Soviet allies advanced on the capital.
The insurgency was launched on 1 August 1944. However, Stalin's forces stalled, controversially, allowing what was supposed to be a week-long action became a 63-day struggle that left over 200,000 dead, mostly civilians.
From the outset, the decision to launch the rising was highly controversial.
A touchy subject during the communist-era, the Uprising was able to be viewed afresh following the political changes of 1989.
Since opening on 31 July 2004, the museum has been visited by 2.7 million people.
The late president's brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, as well as current Warsaw mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, were among those who attended the unveiling of the plaque. (nh)
Source: IAR