Former President Lech Kaczynski has been posthumously awarded honorary citizenship of Warsaw at an exceptional session of the Warsaw City Council, held the day before the 66th anniversary of the Warsaw Rising.

Before becoming president, Lech Kaczynski, who died in the Smolensk plane crash on 10 April, was also Mayor of Warsaw and the initiator of the Warsaw Rising Museum.

At the Council's sessions, honorary titles and awards were also bestowed on other individuals who have made their mark on the city, including another former president, Aleksander Kwasniewski.

On the eve of the anniversary of the Warsaw Rising, the City Council also gave honorary citizenship to Ziuta Hartman, who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as well as Maria Stypulkowska-Chojecka, code-name “Kama”, who took part in the successful assassination of SS and Police Leader Frantz Kutschera in February, 1944.

Warsaw first bestowed the title of Honorary Citizen to Marshal Jozef Pilsudski in 1918. Other honorary citizens of Poland’s capital include Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Maria Sklodowska-Curie, Pope John Paul II, Norman Davies and the 14th Dalai Lama. (jb)

Source: IAR

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