Poland observes the 78th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.
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| Soviet soldier and Nazi soldiers fraternize after conquering Poland in 1939 |
On September 1, 1939 at 4:45 am
Nazi Germany invaded Poland and World War II started. Sixteen days later on September 17, 1939 the Soviet Union exercising its
secret agreement with the Nazis
invaded Poland from the East
and met their German allies in the middle of the occupied country. Despite being attacked from all sides the Polish army continued to fight for 37 days.
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| Rolling Soviet tanks and Nazi motorcyclists in Poland (September 1939). |
On September
22, 1939 the Nazi army joined with the Soviet Communist army in a
military parade in Brest-Litovsk and the
two sides celebrated and marched together. Today the
Embassy of Poland in the United States in a series of tweets remembered the start of World War II and their struggle against the combined military forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
22,000 Polish military officers who had resisted the Nazi invasion of their homeland were rounded up by the Soviets and
on Josef Stalin's orders executed in April-May of 1940 in a forest outside of the small town of
Katyn.
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| Nazi Germany and Soviet Union invaded and occupied Poland in 1939. |
Nazi Germany and Communist Russia were allied together from August 23, 1939
until June 22, 1941 when "under the codename Operation 'Barbarossa,' Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union." Western countries
downplayed Soviet collusion with the Nazis and war crimes preferring to focus on the task of defeating the Germans with Russian help.
Nevertheless the Polish people remembered and despite enduring decades of Soviet domination they continued to resist, remember and on August 31, 1980 the Polish Solidarity movement came into existence following an important victory when Polish workers had a number of their
demands met after a prolonged strike.
However now that World War II is long over the task of setting the historic record straight is of great importance and for the world to know what the Polish people have known for so long about how the Second World War started.
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