Polish President Andrzej Duda and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier commemorated the first victims of World War Two in Wieluń, the southern Polish city on Sunday (September 1), which was bombed minutes ahead of shots being fired from German battleship SMS Schleswig-Holstein on September 1, 1939.
Ceremonies began at 4.30 a.m. in the small town, with speeches by Duda and his German counterpart, Steinmeier.
"The world suffered this hecatomb to learn a terrifying lesson, a lesson that cost tens of millions of human lives all over the world, lesson that cost tens of millions of lives of ordinary people, civilians, people not involved in fighting, unarmed people. The biggest hecatomb in human history," President Duda said in his speech.
"I stand before you, those who have survived, before the descendants of the victims, the old and the young residents of Wieluń, I am humbled and grateful. I bow to the victims of the attack in Wieluń, I pay tribute to the Polish victims of German tyranny and I ask for forgiveness," said the German President.
"I bow to the victims of the attack in Wieluń, I pay tribute to the Polish victims of German tyranny and I ask for forgiveness," Steinmeier added.
Parallel events, attended by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and European Commission deputy chief Frans Timmermans, were held in the coastal city of Gdańsk, site of one of the first battles of the war.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who is coming after President Donald Trump abruptly cancelled a planned trip due to a hurricane, will participate in events later in the day in Warsaw.
Few places saw death and destruction on the scale of Poland. It lost about a fifth of its population, including the vast majority of its 3 million Jewish citizens.
After the war, its shattered capital of Warsaw had to rise again from ruins and Poland remained under Soviet domination until 1989.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters