Daffodils commemorate 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Some 1,000 volunteers are handing out 60,000 paper daffodils to passers-by on the streets of Warsaw on Tuesday as a symbol of remembrance of the heroes of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Archiwum PAP © 2016 / Jakub Kamiński / Warszawa, 19.04.2015. Trzecia edycja akcji "Żonkile" upamiętniającej 72. rocznicę wybuchu powstania w getcie warszawskim. Przypinki w kształcie żonkili i ulotki informacyjne są 19 bm. rozdawane w różnych punktach stolicy. Akcja społeczno-edukacyjna "Żonkile" organizowana przez Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskim POLIN ma na celu propagowanie wiedzy na temat powstania w getcie warszawskim. (mr) PAP/Jakub Kamiński Archiwum PAP © 2016 / Jakub Kamiński

The project, known as Operation Daffodil, is coordinated by Warsaw's Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

This year marks the 73rd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which lasted from April 19 to May 16, 1943 and was an act of armed resistance by Jews against their German captors.

Now in its fourth year, Operation Daffodil is an educational project that aims to educate the Polish public about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The shape and colour of the daffodils represent the yellow stars that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust. The flower also symbolises remembrance, respect and hope.

The organisers say the project seeks to make the Polish public aware that the ghetto uprising is "part of a common historical awareness of Poles and Jews, and one of the elements that shape the identity of the residents of the Polish capital."

According to Dariusz Stola, director of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was an important event not only in the history of Polish Jews, but also "in the history of Jews worldwide" as well as "a very important event in the history of Warsaw ... and in the history of our country as a whole."

According to Stola, Jews accounted for a third of Warsaw's total population before World War II. "Nearly half a million people passed through the Warsaw Ghetto, not only Warsaw residents, the city's Jews, but also Jews from surrounding areas," Stola told a recent press conference. He added that Warsaw was the only city in Europe to have had two uprisings against the Third Reich, the 1943 ghetto uprising and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. (PAP)

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