[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 27 (Monday, July 11, 1994)]
[Pages 1434-1435]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Children's Memorial in Warsaw

July 7, 1994

    The President. Thank you very much, Ryszard Paclawski, Adam 
Bielaczki. And to Magda Kierszniewska, didn't she do a good job? Let's 
give her another hand. [Applause]
    We are gathered at the wall of an old city to honor a people whose 
love of freedom is forever young. Fifty years ago a heroic chapter of 
history was written here, a chapter stained with the blood of war but 
brightened by the enduring power of the human spirit. Next month you 
will honor that spirit by marking the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw 
Uprising. And I am pleased to say that the Vice President of the United 
States, Al Gore, will be here with you in August, just as I am today.
    The seeds of rebirth that are now flowering across this wonderful 
country were planted a half-century ago. When the brave Poles took up 
arms against Hitler's tyranny in the summer of 1944, Warsaw was on the 
verge of total destruction. For 63 days, Polish men, women, and children 
struggled against the Nazis. For 63 days they faced the tanks, machine 
guns, and bombers with courage and faith and solidarity. Two hundred 
thousand of them died. And this beloved city seemed beyond salvation.
    I have seen photographs of Warsaw at the end of the war. An 
exquisite city that took six centuries to build was razed to the ground 
in 2 monstrous months. The statue of King Zigmund was toppled from its 
base, an elegant column literally blown to bits. The majestic arches of 
St. John's Cathedral were battered until only a skeleton remained. The 
Old City marketplace was obliterated.
    No one sacrificed more than the children. The statue behind me 
honors the children of the Warsaw Uprising. The terror of war took their 
innocence. Their childhoods were buried in the rubble. Young girls 
braved sniper fire to deliver messages for the Resistance, and the Szare 
Szeregi, the Young Scouts, faced the frontlines of battle.
    Thousands of children witnessed the unimaginable. One boy was 8 
years old when the bombs began raining down, when the Nazi planes 
destroyed the building where he lived, when his family courtyard was 
turned into a graveyard for his neighbors. But that little boy survived. 
He never forgot Warsaw, and he never gave up trying to give meaning to 
the tragedy. Today, that little boy is the highest ranking military 
officer in the United States of America, General John Shalikashvili, 
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has dedicated his life to the 
fight for peace and freedom.
    His life, like the lives of so many other children of Warsaw, 
teaches us what Poland taught the world: out of the wreckage of 
oppression can grow the redeeming spirit of freedom. Some of those other 
children, now grown, are with us today. Let us thank them all for that 
profound lesson. [Applause]
    Sometimes in life, we do not realize the good we have done. Fifty 
years ago, the heroes of Warsaw seemed defeated. Fifty years later, we 
know the Polish spirit did not die in the ruins. Sometimes what seems to 
be the final chapter in history is but one sad page of an unfinished and 
triumphant story.
    The Polish people never gave in to the shadow of despair. They found 
strength through the light cast for the uprising, and after the war the 
survivors returned to the ruins. Brick by brick, with cold and tired 
hands, they rebuilt this city. Day by day, they

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revived a nation, even as new invader overwhelmed the homeland they 
loved. For five more decades, as Poles had done for centuries in the 
face of attack and invasion, they held fast to their dreams; they 
endured the darkness of domination; they prepared and fought for a new 
day to come.
    Just as the men, women, and children of the uprising won their 
fight, so you in this generation have won yours. Warsaw is not a city 
under siege but a city in peace. Poland is not a nation consigned to the 
darkness of tyranny but a nation inspiring the entire world in a season 
of renewal.
    This moment reminds all of us that darkness could always enshroud us 
again, that fear and intolerance do find new lives of their own. But let 
us remember the words of the Polish philosopher, Joachim Lelewel, a 
great Polish thinker who said, ``The last bastion of our nation is our 
people's heart, and that bastion will never be conquered.''
    That is the lesson of the Warsaw Uprising. That is the lesson of 
democracy's triumph in Poland today. And that is the lesson that we as 
free peoples, Polish and American, must embrace.
    Today we have no doubt that the children of the Warsaw Uprising won 
their larger war, for the hearts of the free can never be conquered.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 3:25 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
Ryszard Paclawski, Adam Bielaczki, and Magda Kierszniewska, children who 
participated in the ceremony.