Proclamation 5228

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Forty years ago, one of the most heroic battles of World War II, the Warsaw Uprising, occurred. Polish resistance to aggression throughout World War II had been courageous and uncompromising. As the Nazi forces retreated before advancing Soviet armies, the Polish Home Army that led the resistance seized its chance to throw off the Nazi yoke. For sixty-three days, the people of Warsaw fought against insurmountable odds, endured unimaginable suffering, and made countless sacrifices to regain their independence. Nevertheless, the lightly-armed resistance fighters were overwhelmed by the full weight of Hitler's war machine. The Nazis mercilessly crushed the uprising while Soviet forces passively looked on from across the Vistula River. Warsaw lay in rubble. Two hundred-fifty thousand Poles were killed, wounded, or missing. Yet the victims of the Warsaw Uprising did not die in vain.

The example of those who fought for freedom during the Warsaw Uprising is a stirring chapter in history, as vivid today as it was then. The ongoing struggle of the faithful, the shipyard workers of Gdansk, the miners of Silesia, and farmers throughout the countryside is but a continuation of the proud history of the Polish quest for freedom.

It is right that we pay tribute to those who sacrificed all for independence and freedom. All of us who share their passion for freedom owe the heroic people of Warsaw and all of the valiant people of Poland a profound debt.

The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 272, has resolved that the United States should join in recognizing the Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim August 1, 1984, as the Fortieth Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and ninth.

RONALD REAGAN

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 4:33 p.m., August 17, 1984]