Zbigniew Rau, Poland's foreign minister, thanked German counterpart Annalena Baerbock for remembering the German aggression against Poland
Mateusz Marek/PAP

Poland’s minister of foreign affairs on Friday thanked German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock for her remembrance message on the 84th anniversary of the outbreak of WWII regarding Germany’s aggression against Poland and its people starting in 1939.

Zbigniew Rau, in a post on X, wrote: “I would like to thank Minister Annalena Baerbock for remembering the German aggression against Poland, citing the victims of the war, one-fifth of Polish citizens, as well as the material losses suffered by Poland as a result of the German occupation.”

Rau noted that “this topic is still insufficiently addressed in the German public discourse.”

“I am convinced that next year’s 85th anniversary of the German aggression against Poland will allow us to make a breakthrough in the matter of German responsibility and redress,” he added.

Earlier on Friday, Baerbock wrote on X that “the attack on Poland started a war against humanity.” 

“Starting in Poland, the German perpetrators expanded the area of destruction, stretching from the Baltic States, through Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Greece and beyond,” she said.

Baerbock concluded her post by saying that “one-fifth of Poland’s population died. It is our duty to recognise the suffering of our Polish neighbours and, with this awareness, shape our common European future.”