Apart from major religious and national holidays , the bell was rung on some of the most significant moments in the history of Poland , including the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 , on the eve of Poland 's entry into the European Union on 30 April 2004 , on the occasion of each visit by Pope John Paul II , and after the plane crash which killed President Lech Kaczyński and dozens of other high-ranking officials on 10 April 2010 . It also tolled during funerals or reburials of several great Poles , such as Adam Mickiewicz ( 1900 ) , Marshal Józef Piłsudski ( 1935 ) , General Władysław Sikorski ( 1993 ) , Pope John Paul II ( 2005 ) , and Lech Kaczyński with his wife ( 2010 ) . It rung defiantly on Polish national holidays in the times of partitions ( 1795 – 1918 ) and under the communist regime ( 1945 – 1989 ) , thus reinforcing its role as a national symbol Hans Frank , the governor-general of Nazi German-occupied Poland , had the Sigismund Bell rung in 1940 to celebrate the German victory over France . After the death of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1953 , Poland 's communist authorities demanded that the bell be rung as a sign of mourning . When the cathedral 's bell-ringers refused , soldiers were ordered to ring the bell instead , or – depending on the source – it was rung by a group of Communist activists
plane crash
2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash
The Sigismund Bell