Proclamation 6709—50th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising

On this day of remembrance, we pause together to recall the brutal path that has led to the triumph of freedom in Poland. We remember the brave men and women of the Polish Home Army who stood on the front lines of combat as their city was destroyed. We recall the children of Warsaw who braved sniper fire to deliver messages for the Resistance. We hold in our hearts the spirits of those who lost their lives. We grieve with their survivors. We speak to one another of those bloody days so that we may never know that sorrow again.

A half-century ago, the residents of Warsaw, Poland, could scarcely imagine that their city would restore its playgrounds for children or its gardens for flowers. For 63 monstrous days of Nazi aggression, it seemed impossible that a Polish arsenal stockpiled with courage, faith, and solidarity could prevail against the tanks, machine guns, and bombers of Hitler's tyranny. But since that time, when it seemed unfathomable to the valiant citizens of Warsaw that they would ever recapture freedom's light, the people of Poland have emerged victorious. Fifty years later, the weapons of Nazi terror are lost to history. Solidarity inspires us still.

Warsaw has earned the flowers that grace it today. Though battered by the chaos of the second World War and stifled by the strictures of the Cold War, the people of Poland have continued to rebuild their beloved capital. Brick by brick, building by building, the beauty and majesty that defined Warsaw for centuries are being reborn to a generation of Poles who have just recently discovered the blessings of freedom.

The courage and hope that carried their parents and grandparents through the darkest days of the 1944 uprising remain. The legacy of that battle stirs today's residents to embrace the challenges of liberty. And on the strength of that tradition, democracy now thrives in Warsaw.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim August 1, 1994, as the 50th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

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

WILLIAM J. CLINTON