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Wieluń – Poland's Guernica

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 01.09.2014 14:57
A new exhibition in Krakow tells the story of when the Luftwaffe bombed Wieluń, central Poland, killing 1300 civilians and destroying 90 percent of the town, in what was the first mass bombing of WWII.

wielun,
wielun, September 1939: photo - Wikipedia/domena publiczna

'Wieluń – the Polish Guernica' is the title of an exhibition at the Arts Palace in Kraków, documenting the history of the Polish town of Wieluń, which, like the Basque town of Guernica in 1937, was almost completely destroyed in bombing by Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe in the first hours of World War Two.

Curated by the regional museum in Wieluń, the exhibition has earlier been presented in many Polish towns and in Germany.

The latest addition to the display shows the town’s initiatives to foster peace and reconciliation among nations.

Luftwaffe bombs fell on the town at 4.40 am on 1 September 1939, five minutes before the battleship Schleswig-Holstein warship opened fire at a Polish garrison in Gdansk, triggering six years of war.

Further raids hit Wielun around 7.00 am, 10.00 am and 2.00 pm, destroying over three-quarters of the town.

Half of the 1300 who died were Jews, who accounted for a third of the population of the town.

The squadron that attacked Wieluń included veterans of the notorious Condor Legion, which bombed Guernica during the Spanish civil war. (mk/pg)

tags: World War 2
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