A slew of presidents, prime ministers and officials from around 40 countries, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, took part in ceremonies in the Polish capital to remember the war, which broke out when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.
Nearly 6 million Polish citizens were killed in the conflict.
Speaking at Piłsudski Square in central Warsaw, Pence said: “Those who sought to remake the world by force did not have the last word because there was something greater at work.”
'You never lost that spirit'
Pence referred to both German occupation and communist rule after the war.
He added: “Poland and the other captive nations of Europe endured a campaign to demolish your freedom, your laws, your history, your identity and your faith. Yet you never lost that spirit. Your oppressors tried to break you but Poland could not be broken.”
Pence delivered his speech as a stand-in for Donald Trump. The US president announced on Thursday he was cancelling his planned trip to Poland this weekend, saying he needed to stay and monitor Hurricane Dorian as it approached the southern state of Florida.
'Imperialist tendencies' of Russia need firm response
At Sunday’s ceremonies, Polish President Andrzej Duda referred to Russia, warning against "imperialist tendencies" in today’s Europe and attempts to change borders by force.
"There must be sanctions, there must be decisive steps, it must seen that every act of military aggression will meet with an absolutely firm, decisive, enormous response," he said.
Duda added that World War II was a “historical cataclysm”.
"We remember and will remember out of gratitude to all those who fought, who gave their lives for the free world," he said.
During the commemorations in the Polish capital, leaders jointly laid a wreath in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Then they took turns at ringing a "Peace Bell" which had been specially cast for the occasion.
When the last peal sounded, bells rang out in churches across Warsaw.
'I ask for forgiveness': German president
During a visit to Poland earlier on Sunday, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier asked for forgiveness for the destruction his country unleashed during World War II.
"I ask for forgiveness of Germany's historic culpability,' he said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki took part in ceremonies in the northern Baltic port of Gdańsk, where on 1 September 1939 the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein shelled a Polish military depot at Westerplatte in the first battle between Polish and German soldiers of WWII.
Referring to the destruction Poland suffered at the hands of Germany in the war, Morawiecki said: "We need to talk about those losses, we must remember, demand the truth, demand compensation.”
Poland’s conservative leader Jarosław Kaczyński said in May that over EUR 1 trillion in war reparations could be owed to his country by Germany.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was earlier this year quoted as saying that, for his country, the issue of reparations was “closed from the legal point of view.”
(pk)
Source: IAR/PAP