Poland marks 79th anniversary of WWII outbreak

Radio Poland ^ | Sep 1, 2018

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Observances commemorating the 79th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II were held in Poland at dawn on Saturday.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki attended observances held on Westerplatte in on the Baltic coast, where on September 1, 1939 at 4:45 am the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein began shelling a Polish military depot in the first battle between Polish and German soldiers of WWII.

Sirens wailed and the Polish national anthem was played at a monument honouring those who defended the Polish coast.

Observances were also held in central city of Wieluń, the first Polish town to be bombed by the Germans at 4:40 am on 1 September 1939.

In a letter read out at the ceremony President Andrzej Duda said: “Bombing a sleeping city, which had no Polish military garrison and was of no strategic importance, was a crime.”

“The destruction of houses, churches, a Protestant church, synagogue, hospital were barbaric and a dramatic harbinger of the character of World War II, which was symbolised by a mass annihilation of entire communities.”

Duda said this year’s ceremonies fell on the centenary of Poland’s independence, which Poland regained on November 11, 1918, the day World War I ended, after 123 years of partition by Russia, Austria and Prussia.

He said: “The dates 1 September and 17 September (marking the Soviet invasion from the east) are a bleak reminder in this year’s 100th anniversary of Poland’s independence as these dates remind (Poles) of the time they again lost their homeland and Poland was divided between its two major enemies, two totalitarian regimes: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.”

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Such a great honor. This is a nation more than one thousand years old. Your borders were erased for more than a century and only restored just one century ago.

In 1920, in the Miracle of Vistula, Poland stopped the Soviet army bent on European conquest. Then, 19 years later in 1939, you were invaded yet again, this time by Nazi Germany from the west and the Soviet Union from the east. That’s trouble. That’s tough.

The Polish martyr, Bishop Michael Kozal, said it well: “More horrifying than a defeat of arms is a collapse of the human spirit.”

Through four decades of communist rule, Poland and the other captive nations of Europe endured a brutal campaign to demolish freedom, your faith, your laws, your history, your identity — indeed the very essence of your culture and your humanity. Yet, through it all, you never lost that spirit. Your oppressors tried to break you, but Poland could not be broken.

- from President Trump's 'Western Civilization' speech in Warsaw last summer

[Slyfox]

Hitler had Poland in his plans, not just to eradicate the Jewish population but he wanted the entire country cleared of all Poles. The country was divided into sectors and each sector would be cleared. Children would be Germanized and sent to be adopted by German couples if they passed the test. All others were sent to concentration/death camps. As each sector was cleared Germans were to move there. By the end of the war an number of sections in the south west Poland had been nearly cleared. And these people were not all Jewish.

And do you know where he got this idea? From US President Andrew Jackson's work in removing Indians from one part of America and forcing them into reservations.

[BenLurkin]

[BenLurkin]

[BenLurkin]

[dfwgator]

When Hitler took power in 1934, he envisioned Poland as a potential ally, against the Soviet Union. He was an admirer of Josef Piłsudski, who saved Europe from Bolshevism in the 1920s, even attending a memorial to Piłsudski when he passed away.

When Poland allied with England and France, it angered Hitler and from that point on, he vowed to destroy the Polish race.

[xp38]

Famous photo of Ribbentrop Stalin and Molotov signing the Nazi Soviet non aggression pact.

[PAR35]

https://owlcation.com/humanities/World-War-2-History-1939-Battle-of-Westerplatte-Polands-Alamo

[Jack Black]

Thanks, great post

[JoeFromSidney]

I was all of eight years old then, but I still remember sitting by the radio and listening to the news of the invasion of Poland. I had no idea of what all the consequences would be.

[dfwgator]

[dfwgator]

[SunkenCiv]

“The dates 1 September and 17 September (marking the Soviet invasion from the east) are a bleak reminder in this year’s 100th anniversary of Poland’s independence as these dates remind (Poles) of the time they again lost their homeland and Poland was divided between its two major enemies, two totalitarian regimes: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.”

Thanks CondoleezzaProtege.

[ballplayer]

That was a great speech by President Trump

[CondoleezzaProtege]

That was a great speech by President Trump

It will be looked at later as the speech that defined his presidency. I revisit it frequently. So all encompassing! :)

And when the day came on June 2nd, 1979, and one million Poles gathered around Victory Square for their very first mass with their Polish Pope, that day, every communist in Warsaw must have known that their oppressive system would soon come crashing down. They must have known it at the exact moment during Pope John Paul II’s sermon when a million Polish men, women, and children suddenly raised their voices in a single prayer. A million Polish people did not ask for wealth. They did not ask for privilege. Instead, one million Poles sang three simple words:

“We. Want. GOD.”