German president invited to attend 80th anniversary of Warsaw Uprising

Warsaw: As Poland commemorates the 80th anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Warsaw on Wednesday to attend the ceremony.

Steinmeier is the second German president invited to this commemoration in Poland, following Roman Herzog in 1994. Together with Polish President Andrzej Duda, he paid tribute to the victims of the Wola Massacre, the mass murder of civilians in Warsaw's Wola district carried out by German forces from Aug. 5 to Aug. 12, 1944.

During the ceremony on Wednesday, Steinmeier asked for forgiveness for German atrocities committed in Poland during World War II, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Warsaw Uprising, which began on Aug. 1, 1944, was the largest underground military operation in German-occupied Europe. Approximately 40,000 to 50,000 insurgents fought for over two months, resulting in the deaths of about 18,000 insurgents and up to 180,000 civilians.

Following the suppression of the uprising, around 500,000 residents were expelled from the city, and Warsaw was almost entirely destroyed.