Poland marked today the 85th anniversary of its outbreak World War IIwith a commemoration ceremony held at dawn, the same hours that on September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany launched its first attacks by invading Poland, effectively marking the start of World War II.

The ceremony took place, as it does every year, at Westerplatte, on the Polish shores in the Baltic, where a Nazi German battleship bombarded a Polish fort that day.

The prime minister Donald Tusk in his speech at the ceremony he said the lessons of World War II are not an “abstract concept” and drew a parallel with the war in neighboring Ukraine, “coming again from the East.”

Tusk urged his member states NATO “to devote themselves fully to the defense … against the aggression we see today on the battlefields of Ukraine.”

Its president Poland Andrei Duda took part in commemorations in the western city of Vielun, where the first German bombs fell 85 years ago.

Duda emphasized that Germany’s “apologies” are not enough, asking for reparations, underlining that: “This issue has not been resolved.”

The current pro-European Polish government led by Tusk is demanding financial compensation from Berlin for the losses and damages suffered by the country.

According to the Polish press, discussions are taking place between Warsaw and Berlin on the payment of financial compensation to victims of the Nazi invasion and occupation, victims who are still living. Poland estimates that up to 70,000 people may receive compensation.

Nearly six million Poles died during World War II which claimed over 50 million lives, including six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, half of whom were Poles.