President of the City of Ełk Tomasz Andrukiewicz and Director of the Ełk Cultural Centre Aneta Werla invite you to the celebration of the 85th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.

Program Celebrations

1 September (Sunday)

• 10.00 a.m. - Holy Mass in the Church of the Sacred Heart Jesus
• 11.00 a.m. - official ceremonies at the Heroic Monument To the soldiers of September with the participation of the Military Honorary Company issued by Missile Squadron 1. Rocket Brigade from the Orzysz Garrison
• 7.00 p.m. – as part of the XVI Ełk Organ Music Concert and Chamber Chamber Ensemble will be performed by Joanna Klisowska (soprano) and Katarzyna Makal-Żmuda (piano), ECC Auditorium

Moreover to commemorate the anniversary of the explosion, on September 1 at 12.00, in the area of Ełk City Alarm sirens will be activated. It will be an acoustic signal, continuous lasting one minute.

1 September 1939 - German attack on Poland and the beginning of World War II. About At 4.45 a.m., the German training battleship "Schleswig-Holstein" began to shelling of Westerplatte, the Military Transit Depot in the Free City Gdańsk, defended by a crew (about 200 soldiers) under the command of Maj. Henryk Sucharski and Captain Franciszek Dąbrowski.

Through For 7 days it heroically repelled repeated German attacks from the sea, the land and the and air, becoming a symbol of Polish resistance.

II The world war lasted six years and claimed 72 million lives. Into At the end of the war, 61 countries took part in it, out of 67 existing at that time.