President Andrzej Duda addressed a letter to participants in Thursday’s commemoration of the 83rd anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in Wieluń.
During the ceremony, the words of the head of state were read by Presidential Minister Lukasz Rzepecki.
In the letter, the Polish leader stressed that the crime committed by the Germans in Wieluń “will never be forgotten.”
“The act of Nazi terror deserves absolute condemnation. The Free Republic will always honor the memory of the citizens of Wieluń, who were decimated and their hometown – mostly annihilated,” Andrzej Duda said. The president noted that before the dawn of September 1, 1939, the Third German Reich invaded the Republic of Poland, attacking in many places. Recall that exactly 83 years ago, at 04:45 a.m., the battleship “Schleswig-Holstein” fired on an outpost at Westerplatte. Moments earlier, at 04:40, German aircraft dropped the first bombs on Wieluń. Before World War II, the 15,000-strong town had no strategic or military significance. Nevertheless, the Germans decided to attack this very place. As a result of several air raids in the first hours of hostilities, about 1,200 people were killed. The exact number of those killed cannot be determined, as the German administration, fearing an outbreak, had the corpses of the victims removed.
“Today, on the 83rd anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, we pay tribute to national heroes, defenders of the homeland and victims of German crimes committed in the very first days of the war. We pay tribute to those who went down in the book of glory of the Polish Armed Forces.” – President Andrzej Duda announced in the letter. “Free Poland fulfills the duty of remembrance,” he added.
Anniversary celebrations
While the main ceremonies commemorating the German attack on Poland are being held at Westerplatte on Thursday, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki took part in celebrations held in Wieluń. The event was also attended by Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz and EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Janusz Wojciechowski, among others.
During the speech, the head of the Polish government spoke about the barbaric plan of Adolf Hitler and German military commanders. As he stated, “Poland was to be destroyed almost completely, and Poles were to be slaughtered 85 percent of the time. The rest were to become slaves of the ‘nation of masters’.
Source: TVP Info / DoRzeczy
