The Polish people who fought heroically during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, and the bravery of the South African aircrews who undertook to resupply the Polish resistance during the 63-day airlift in World War Two, have been remembered at the Katyn Memorial in Johannesburg.
Polish Ambassador to South Africa Jacek Chodorowicz, said this was an opportunity to salute the bravery and heroism of the South African pilots as well as those who took part in the uprising. He stressed it was thanks to them that we can fully exercise our freedoms and make our own choices today.
Chodorowicz, himself from Warsaw, summed up the situation facing his compatriots in August 1944: "The entire city was ablaze. The Poles fought the enemy in the basements and sewers and from floor to floor of the buildings. They were eventually overwhelmed. Tens of thousands of civilians and underground soldiers were killed-.their sacrifice did not change the fate of the uprising-the support was too little and arrived too late.. but the air drops were a real help, a hope, especially the one, the only one September 8, 1944, made during the daylight hours."
