Poland celebrates WW II outbreak anniversary

President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz attended ceremonies marking the 76th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. They gathered before dawn at the Westerplatte Peninsula, where the first shots of the war were fired. “It must resound loudly from here that Poles were not a nation of perpetrators, but the first to fall victim,” Ewa Kopacz said. She added that Poland was left alone, but "today the situation is different." “We are an important part of the European Union and a very important partner in the North Atlantic Treaty," the prime minister said. President Andrzej Duda said that "we could be proud before our allies back then and we can be proud before our present allies. Poland has always stood on the right side, Poland has always stood on the side of the free world. In Poland, there was no collaborationist government, there were soldiers who fought on all fronts of World War II."