Two days before the 71st anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a ceremony honoring the memory of Jews and Poles murdered during the war was held on Thursday at the monument commemorating Polish and Jewish martyrdom in Warsaw.

"The anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is an opportunity to honor 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," deputy Defense Minister Maciej Jankowski said at the ceremony.

The ceremony was organized by the Defense Ministry and the Nissenbaum Family Foundation, an organization 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.