Polish amateur actors re-enact a typical scene of the first moments of war in front of the Westerplatte monument marking the 71st anniversary of the beginning of WWII at the Monument of Westerplatte Defenders. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Published : Wednesday, 01 Sep 2010, 11:58 AM EDT
Poland is marking the 71st anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion, which started World War II.
A Polish navy corvette fired blank shots off the Westerplatte peninsula on the Baltic coast at 4:40 a.m. (0240GMT) Wednesday.
That was when the German warship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on a Polish military post on Sept. 1, 1939, opening one of the first battles of the more than five-year war.
A narrator at the ceremony attended by President Bronislaw Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk told the story of Polish forces' failed weeklong defense of the outpost.
The Nazis subjected Poland to a brutal occupation — killing 6 million residents, half of them Jewish.
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