Defence minister: Poland never collaborated with Nazi Germany
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
08.05.2017 15:11
Poland never collaborated with Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, said Poland’s defence minister at commemorations on Monday marking the 72nd anniversary of the end of WWII.
Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz on Monday. Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara
Monday marks 72 years since Victory in Europe Day. Nazi Germany unconditionally surrendered its armed forces on 8 May 1945.
Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz added that the end of WWII in Poland was not a day of joy and victory.
“Poland was the only nation, the only country that never collaborated with either the Soviet or the German invaders,” Macierewicz said. He added that the country “created a great underground state”.
At a ceremony on Monday at the site of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw, Macierewicz said that Poles “would have liked the [end of WWII] to be a day of victory, joy, great national pride.”
“This is what they thought, what they dreamed of … in May 1945,” Macierewicz said.
“But the Polish reality was different, the Polish reality meant murders by the NKVD [the Soviet-era secret police], being sent to labour camps, prisons, rape, the pseudo-courts in Moscow,” he said.
Macierewicz added that during World War II the Poles “opposed the two partitioners who in August 1939 had already opposed Poland and Europe, opposed world peace." (rg/pk)
Source: PAP