A commemorative ceremony, attended by Polish Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak, was held at the Piłsudski Square in Warsaw on Monday afternoon.
High-ranking officials, military personnel, veterans and Warsaw residents gathered at the site to pay tribute to the country’s fallen soldiers, whose memory was honored with a 21-cannon salute and a military parade.
“The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a monument that is close to the heart of every Pole – one without which this country would be incomplete,” deputy prime minister Tomasz Siemoniak stated at the event.
The memorial site, which serves as a tribute to thousands of unsung heroes who sacrificed their lives for Poland’s independence, is one of the “most sacred places in Warsaw,” historian Andrzej Kunert, secretary of the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, told Polish Radio.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was unveiled on 2 November 1925. On that day, the remains of a young, unnamed defender who perished in the battle at Lwów (now Ukrainian city of Lviv) in 1918, were laid to rest at the site. At the time of the battle the boundaries of the Polish state were being drawn after the country regained independence in the aftermath of WW I. The city of Lwów/Lviv was contested by Poles and Ukrainians. The monument to the Unknown Soldier symbolizes all the soldiers who struggled for Poland’s freedom. (aba)
Ewa Malcher
