WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Solemn ceremonies marking the 85th anniversary of the Sabbath began early Sunday morning in Poland. birthday of German Nazi troops who invaded and bombed Polish territory at the beginning of World War II.
President Andrzej Duda attended the commemoration in Wielun, the first civilian town to be targeted by German bombing in the early morning of September 1, 1939.
Meanwhile, at a memorial on the Baltic Sea’s Westerplatte peninsula, where a military outpost was shelled by a German warship just minutes after Wielun was attacked, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz laid wreaths and attended a roll call for fallen soldiers. At the time, the outpost’s outnumbered troops fought for seven days before surrendering to the Germans, becoming a symbol of heroism and patriotism.
In more than five years of war and brutal German occupation, Poland lost 6 million citizens, or one-sixth of its population, of whom 3 million were Jewish. The country also suffered enormous losses to its infrastructure, industry and agriculture.
Poland’s previous right-wing government demanded $1.3 trillion in damages from Germany, while Tusk’s current government has watered down the demand to a form of compensation that could strengthen ties between the two neighbors.
