German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence were part of commemorations in central Poland to mark 80 years since the outbreak of World War II in Europe. A welcoming ceremony for the invited heads of state was followed by a military ceremony before senior officials from Germany, Poland, and the U.S. addressed the crowd. Later, they attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Few countries saw death and destruction during the war on the scale of Poland. It lost about a fifth of its population, including the vast majority of its three million Jewish citizens.