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Europe marks anniversary of WWII beginning
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-02 02:54 "All of these acts brought about this tragedy, the start of World War II, and naturally we need to admit such mistakes," Putin said. "Our country has done so. ... Our parliament has condemned the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and we are right to expect that other countries that made deals with the Nazis should do the same." Kaczynski defended Poland's nonaggression treaty, saying that it had also signed one with the Soviet Union, and that neither could be "compared in any way" to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. 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. "You cannot adopt the principle that only those who were defeated must speak of their darkest episodes, and the victors do not," he said. "There is one truth." Tusk, who met with Putin earlier in the day, took a softer approach, acknowledging the Red Army's defeat of the Nazis in Poland and vowing his nation and Russia would investigate together the "painful elements of our common history." "If, in the past, it was possible for the Poles and the Germans and the Russians and the Germans, for God's sake, why isn't it possible for the Poles and the Russians?" he said. At the height of the war, the European theater stretched from North Africa to the outskirts of Moscow, and pitted Germany and its allies, including Italy, against Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States, along with a host of other countries, including Polish forces in exile. The war in Europe ended May 8, 1945, with Germany's unconditional surrender. President Barack Obama, who was not at Tuesday's ceremonies, sent a message noting that today, as a NATO member, Poland is protected by a treaty that says an attack on one is an attack on all. "We celebrate together the determination of the people of Poland to fight authoritarianism and to choose democracy and freedom," Obama said in the message to Poland. "Today, we live in a different era in which the United States and Poland are close allies, partners in meeting global challenges to our security and prosperity, and in supporting fundamental human rights around the world."
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