The commemorations marked 51 years since Poland’s former communist rulers in December 1970 ordered the army and police to open fire on protesting workers on the country’s Baltic coast, killing at least 45.
Government officials and local leaders have attended ceremonies to light candles and pay respects in front of memorials in the northern port cities of Gdynia and Gdańsk.
A commemorative event in the northern port city of Gdynia on Friday morning. Photo: PAP/Adam Warżawa
A remembrance ceremony in the Baltic city of Gdańsk on Thursday evening. Photo: PAP/Piotr Wittman
Polish President Andrzej Duda wrote in a letter to those attending the tribute in Gdynia that the events of December 1970 marked one of the most tragic chapters in the history of communist Poland.
"We must never forget those who died and were subjected to repression because they fought for dignity, freedom and justice," he said.
He added that under communism "Poland was oppressed by the hands of its own countrymen" and its citizens "were at the mercy of those who, in the name of maintaining power and privileges, were ready to sacrifice national sovereignty and submit to Soviet dictatorship without any objection."
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a Facebook post that striking Polish workers "were shot and killed because they had the courage to stand up against the evil of communist rule."
He added that protests against "the power of the totalitarian system" decades ago ended tragically for many, but were "also a step toward freedom."
"I bow my head to the victims of that system, and I honour their memory," Morawiecki wrote.
The state-run Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) has shared an archive video documenting the tragic events more than five decades ago.
In December 1970, drastic price rises led to massive, more than weeklong protests in Gdynia as well as Gdańsk and Szczecin in northern Poland, triggering one of the most brutal crackdowns of the communist era.
At least 45 people were killed and more than 1,100 injured after police and soldiers opened fire on protesters, who also demanded a change of government and freedom of speech.
December 17, 1970, so-called "Black Thursday," marked the worst day of the crackdown.
Solidarity, the first independent trade union in a Warsaw Pact country, was born in August 1980 at a Gdańsk shipyard.
It played a key role in bringing about the collapse of communist rule in Poland in 1989.
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Source: PAP