WARSAW: Poland on Sunday marked 85 years since the outbreak of World War II during annual commemoration ceremony held at dawn to remember Nazi Germany’s first attacks that triggered the deadly conflict.

Nearly six million Poles died in the conflict that killed more than 50 million people overall, including the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust, half of them Polish.

The remembrance ceremony on Sunday was traditionally held in Westerplatte, on Poland’s Baltic coast, where a Nazi German battleship had opened fire on a Polish fort 85 years ago to the day.

Speaking at Wester­platte, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the lessons of WWII were “not an abstraction” and drew parallels with the war in neighbouring Ukraine. “This war is coming again from the east,” he said.

He urged Nato member states to be “fully devoted to defence... against the aggression that we are witnessing today on the battlefields of Ukraine”.

Polish President Andrzej Duda took part in commemorations in the western Polish city of Wielun where Germany’s first bombs fell 85 years ago. Duda said “sorry” from Germany was not enough and called for reparations, adding: “This issue is not settled”.

Although it has been 85 years since the war started, there are still unresolved matters according to Poland.

Poland’s current pro-European Union government led by Tusk has urged Germany to provide financial compensation over losses the country sustained at the hands of Nazi troops.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2024