Just as August will always be remembered as “Polish August” or the month of the Warsaw Uprising, as well as the month when Solidarity was born, the month of September will be associated sadly with the beginning of World War II in Poland.

Some may say that since it is more than 70 years after the war, it is time to forget. I agree, at least in part. We should not point fingers at Germany again and again. I also agree that we Poles have a tendency to remember and re-analyze the past over and over again. But to remember the anniversary of World War II is not just to evoke the past, it is also to make sure that the past will not be repeated in the future. Germany is a different country now than it was 70 years ago.

I believe that the war experience of my grandparents’ generation gave me as well as many other Europeans a total disgust for war as a tool to solve any problems. I used to sit with my grandfather every night, listening to all his stories from the time he was a soldier during the war. I couldn’t believe some of them. And in his words everything was so real…so scary.

WWII started on September 1, 1939. September 1 is also the day when children in Poland officially inaugurate a new school year. For the kids of 1939 this day was not a beginning of school though….And that is what they probably remember every year on September 1st.

In the ceremony at the Westerplatte peninsula, the site of Nazi Germany’s opening assault on Poland, on the 70th anniversary of the war, late president Kaczyński said:

“Westerplatte is a symbol, a symbol of the heroic fight of the weaker against the stronger. It is proof of patriotism and an unbreakable spirit. Glory to the heroes of those days, glory to the heroes of Westerplatte, glory to all of the soldiers who fought in world war two against German Nazism, and against Bolshevik totalitarianism.”

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)