German Bundestag remembers Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

The German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, commemorated the fighters and victims of the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto 80 years ago with a speech on Thursday from its president Bärbel Bas, reported dpa.

"It was a hopeless struggle in which dignity and courage stood up against the deepest contempt for humanity and cruelty," she said at the start of the parliamentary session.

"Today we bow before the Jewish insurgents and all the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto. We bow to the murdered, deported, tortured, disenfranchised, humiliated and robbed Jews of Europe."

As a sign of remembrance, the delegates rose from their seats.

The Warsaw Ghetto was set up by the German occupiers in the autumn of 1940. Around 450,000 people were confined there in a very small space.

In 1942, the Nazis began deporting Jews to extermination and labour camps. Between July and September, 250,000 to 280,000 people were deported or murdered.

When the paramilitary Nazi SS units marched into the ghetto on April 19, 1943, the uprising of the poorly armed Jewish resistance began. Many thought the uprising would last only a few days, but the Jews fought for around three weeks until mid-May.

More than 56,000 Jews were killed or deported to concentration and extermination camps.

On Wednesday, the presidents of Poland, Israel and Germany - Andrzej Duda, Isaac Herzog and Frank-Walter Steinmeier - commemorated the beginning of the uprising together in Warsaw.