Warsaw, April 18 (IANS) Two days before the 71st anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a ceremony honouring the memory of Jews and Poles murdered during the World War II was held Thursday in Warsaw.

“The anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is an opportunity to honour the memory of Jewish fighters, victims of the Holocaust, and also those who helped their Jewish fellow citizens survive, often paying with their own lives and those of their families,” Xinhua quoted Deputy Defence Minister Maciej Jankowski as saying at the ceremony.

The ceremony was organised by the defence ministry and the Nissenbaum Family Foundation, an organisation whose aims include preserving historical Jewish cultural sites in Poland and commemorating sites of Jewish struggle and martyrdom.

“Poles, Christians, Jews from Poland lie here, but first and foremost it is people who lie here. It is our duty to make sure something like this never happens again, regardless of what corner of the world we are talking about,” the foundation’s Gideon Nissenbaum said.

The foundation helped build the monument commemorating Polish and Jewish martyrdom where the ceremony took place. The monument stands on the site of the collective grave of an estimated 7,000 Jews and Poles murdered during World War II.