The Lithuanian Prime Minister Together with Other European Leaders
Today Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius attended the ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the beginning of World War II in Gdansk. The solemn ceremony was held at the Defenders Memorial located in the territory of Westerplatte – the former Polish Military Transit Depot. This is the place where the first battle of World War II broke out as Nazi Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, following the Treaty of Non- Aggression with the Soviet Union.
The Lithuanian Prime Minister together with other heads of European governments lit candles at the Cemetery of Defenders of Westerplatte in commemoration of the defenders and other victims of the deadliest war in the human history and visited the exhibition “Westerplatte: Resort – Bastion – Symbol”.
The distinguished speakers in the solemn ceremony were Polish President Lech Kaczyński, President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, French Prime Minister François Fillon, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and Swedish Prime Minister (as currently Sweden holds the revolving European Union presidency) Fredrik Reinfeldt.
Speaking of the causes of World War II, Polish President L. Kaczyński said that the War was triggered by totalitarian regimes, nationalism and chauvinism. On the other hand, Russian Prime Minister V. Putin mentioned in his speech that the main reason of the War was the “humiliating” Treaty of Versailles and a cowardly stand of those who tried to stop Hitler’s aggression by peaceful means.
During the solemn commemoration, Prime Minister A. Kubilius gave an interview to the National Polish Television. Asked by the journalist to comment on Russia’s views regarding historical events of the 20th century and the causes of World War II, which differed significantly from the European understanding, Lithuanian Prime Minister said that, unfortunately, Russia had not yet realized the full scale of tragedies inflicted by Stalin’s totalitarian regime. “Nevertheless we must develop our relations with Russia further with a hope that sooner or later it will be ready to accept its own history”, A. Kubilius said.
World War II broke out after two dictators, Stalin and Hitler, concluded the Treaty of Non-Aggression between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany along with its secret protocols that established their division of Central Europe. Lithuania, which in 1939 found itself within the “zone of influence” of the two totalitarian regimes, was consistently holding a neutral stance. In pursuing its policy of neutrality, within the first weeks of World War II, Lithuania rejected the proposal of the Nazi Germany to launch a military assault and to recapture its historical capital Vilnius, which at that time was still under Polish occupation. Following the same policy, Lithuania interned on its territory thousands of retreating Polish soldiers and officers, thus saving them from death in Soviet or Nazi prisons.
