The commemoration of the 83rd anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War took place at Westerplatte in the morning. The celebrations, attended by President Andrzej Duda, began with the sounding of alarm sirens just before 4.45am – at this time on 1 September 1939, the Germans attacked the Polish Military Transit Depot on the Gdańsk peninsula.

“We Poles and our guests, coming from, especially in recent years, distant parts of the world, meet to remember, commemorate, pay homage to the murdered and fallen, and once again warn the world never to repeat that the most terrible cataclysm of the 20th century”, said the President.

Andrzej Duda recalled that 83 years ago, Germany, overwhelmed by Hitler’s Nazi ideology, in coordination with its ally, the Soviet Union, gripped by communist ideology, started World War II without any warning, invading Poland, a reborn state with less than 21 years of once again independent and sovereign existence behind it.

“Yes, it was absolutely one of the most terrible tragedies in our history. Not only because it took away our freedom. Not only because it took away our state – because after the Soviet attack on Poland and after the Soviet and German soldiers shook hands, the Polish state disappeared from the map for another time in history. But also, because this war entailed millions of casualties among Polish citizens and incalculable, irreparable losses for our homeland and our nation”, he stressed.

The President also spoke of Russia returning to its imperialist desires to dominate other nations, to hold them “by the throat” and, if they do not want to surrender, to destroy them, as evidenced by the attack on Ukraine.

“That is why today we call on all our allies and the whole world, all the time uninterruptedly, to help Ukraine and stop Russian imperialism”, appealed Andrzej Duda.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński