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GDANSK, Poland (AP) -- On a wind-swept peninsula where shells lobbed from a German battleship ignited World War II 70 years ago, European leaders vowed Tuesday never to forget the lessons of the 20th century's bloodiest conflict.
He said that Poland has a right to "access the truth" about its history - including the murder of some 22,000 Polish officers by the Soviets in the Katyn forest during the war.
Many historians see the signing of the Nazi-Soviet pact a week before the hostilities began as a critical development in Berlin's march to war.
The pact, formally a treaty of nonaggression, was signed Aug. 23, 1939, in Moscow by Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop, the foreign ministers of the two countries.
In addition, the treaty included secret protocols that divided eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. The Soviet Union attacked Poland from the east sixteen days after the Nazis invaded from the west.
Putin sought to downplay the treaty's importance, saying it was only one factor to be considered in the context of the western powers' appeasement of Hitler, along with agreements signed by other countries with the Nazis, including a Polish-German nonaggression pact.
"Remembering the cruelty, remembering the extermination of peoples and nations, is perhaps the most important and most effective shield against the danger of another war," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a solemn afternoon ceremony with European and American officials along the waterfront on Westerplatte.
"Nobody in the world who will remember the events here in Gdansk in 1939 and the horrible events around the world in the years that followed ... will ever do anything to allow that nightmare to return."
Originally posted by KSPigpen
...
I didn't know that the Soviet Union is thought by Poland to have contributed to the aggression against its people. I've thought all of my life that Russia was part of the 'good guys' in WWII.
I didn't want to quote the whole article, but I think it's an important read. There is still a lot of animosity between the Polish people and the Soviets, apparently.
The important thing for me in this one is that 70 years ago, a lot of people started dying and they kept on dying for a long time.
1939.
[edit on 1-9-2009 by KSPigpen]
Happy to see you are polishing your knowledge and offering others the same
a lot of countries played a opportunistuc role during that era. Russia realed Poland in and Latvia and Estonia and Lithuania. The Nazis were nasty:
"1943: six million Poles (including three million Jews) are killed in Nazist death camps at Maidanek, Birkenau, and Auschwitz
This is an very interesting list of what happens to both countries in a couple of hundred years.
Timeline Poland and Latvia
I didn't know this: "1648: 200,000 Jews are slaughtered during the Ukrainian Cossak rebellion in Poland-Lithuania
"
Or this:"1655: Sweden invades Poland-Lithuania ("First Northern War"), causing the death of millions, while Russia, Denmark, and the Empireside with Poland-Lithuania
"
The list goes on and on and this is only about these countries. Can you image all the slaughtering in the world going on and on and now we are making popular movies about all this crap and fighting more wars around the world. Which idiot (I am sorry soldiers among you) will still grab his arms after studying history. It is sickening.
"
Originally posted by Haunebu
Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, Über alles in der Welt, Wenn es stets zu Schutz und Trutze Brüderlich zusammenhält, Von der Maas bis an die Memel, Von der Etsch bis an den Belt – Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, Über alles in der Welt!
Deutschland, Deutschland over Everything,
Over everything in the entire World,
When its protection and proud brothership bonds together,
from the river Meuse until the river Memel From the Etsch to the Belt (Alps),
Germany, Germany over Everything,
Over Everything in the entire World!
Heil Hitler!!!
BTW, Poland provoked the German Invasion!!!
Originally posted by Haunebu
BTW, Poland provoked the German Invasion!!!
Originally posted by paraphi
It is interesting that the Soviets played such a role in both starting the WW2 and finishing it! Often forgotten is the atrocities committed by the Soviets.
Regards
Originally posted by paraphi
It is interesting that the Soviets played such a role in both starting the WW2 and finishing it! Often forgotten is the atrocities committed by the Soviets.
Regards