VILNIUS - Lithuanian and Polish veterans made another gesture of reconciliation when they commemorated their finest hour 's the Zalgiris Battle, or the Battle of Grunwald 's last week.
Veterans of Lithuania's Local Unit and Poland's Armia Krajowa marked the 595th anniversary of the battle by re-enacting scenes and laying flowers at a monument to the historic defeat of the Teutonic Knights.
The two units fought against each other during World War II.
Together with some 40,000 spectators, veterans watched a pageant of the battle involving some 2,000 knights.
The Zalgiris Battle is considered one of the largest and best-known medieval battles. A joint army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish Kingdom defeated the Teutonic Order on July 15, 1410. The battle claimed the lives of 28,000 people 's 22,000 German knights and 6,000 Lithuanians and Poles.
But it was the mutual hostilities between the erstwhile allies that most remember.
In June, ex-servicemen of the Local Unit and Armia Krajowa honored the civilians that died in the Vilnius region during the war.
Also, ex-servicemen of the two units signed a reconciliation declaration in Vilnius last year. "History has settled issues for which we had fought against each other," the declaration read.
During the Nazi occupation, the Local Unit, led by General Povilas Plechavicius, fought against Soviet partisans and Armia Krajowa in the Vilnius region, seeking to restore an independent Lithuania.
Armia Krajowa fought against both Nazi occupation forces and Lithuanian troops, claiming that the Vilnius region was part of Poland.
The Polish daily Rzeczpospolita noted that "there can never be too many gestures of reconciliation, provided that they are sincere and do not depend on political conjuncture." The daily also stressed that the participation of Local Unit and Armia Krajowa veterans in the commemoration of the Zalgiris Battle was "a look back on a common historic past, which has been seen differently so far."
On their way to the commemoration, Lithuanian and Polish veterans laid flowers on the grave of poet/bishop Antanas Baranauskas in Seinai and met with the local community.
