I was reading this article in the Guardian and did a double-take when I read this paragraph:
Increasing German pressure on the Poles for an admission of the wrongs done to Germans at the end of the war and for some form of material compensation are causing intense resentment and mistrust in Poland, where 6 million people died during the war and whose invasion by Hitler in 1939 triggered the outbreak of the conflict.
You’re shitting me, right? The Germans, who put Hitler in power. The Germans, who kept Hitler in power. The Germans, who loved Hitler. The Germans, who did nothing as Jews, gypsies and other “undesirables” were led away to the camps to be slaughtered and worked to death. The Germans, who were Hitler’s willing executioners, want compensation for discomfort suffered at the end of a war they started? A war that resulted in over 20 million dead? If they want to start talking compensation, then they need to take a number and stand behind about 500 million people who have a greater claim.
If that wasn’t bad enough, there’s this:
Some 12 million Germans were kicked out of central Europe, many of them killed, at the war’s end, when Europe’s borders were redrawn by the allies. Poland, in particular, was literally lifted from east to west and transplanted on to territory that for centuries had been peopled by Germans.
The rightwing Prussian Trust organisation, which represents the families of expropriated and resettled Germans, has been launching private lawsuits in Poland for the return of lost property, believing that Poland’s accession to the EU in May will make it easier for Germans to reclaim their former homes.
That is a box you really don’t want to open, especially when it comes to the Poles. For starters, let’s begin with the “Hey, You Don’t Exist Anymore!” partition, whereby Prussia, Russia, and Austria simply declared Poland to be theirs. Sorry, you don’t exist anymore. My ancestor who came over on the boat wasn’t listed as Polish, but as Prussian. He left because education was limited to the Germanic elite, he was prohibited from speaking both Polish and his tribal tongue of Kascubian, and because you guys were assholes.
If you really want to get into it, little Prussian Trust, the land that your squatter ancestors occupied for a time used to be called Pomerania. Before that, it was populated by several Slavic tribes, among them the Kascubians, from whom I am descended. My name was there long before the pagan Tuetons made you “Prussians”. And you know what –and I mean this from the bottom of my heart– I’m glad your country doesn’t exist anymore.
And to the Guardian: Poland was not “literally lifted from east to west and transplanted”. Its traditional eastern territories were carved-up to create Ukraine and Belarus. The Poles who were displaced from those territories settled onto Western lands generously donated by the Germans after their killing spree.
While Mr Schröder and his foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, have sought to distance themselves from any German claims on Poland, the lobby for the resettled Germans, led by the Christian Democrat MP Erika Steinbach, is pressing for compensation, and for a new museum in Berlin dedicated to Germany’s own “victims of ethnic cleansing.”
I’m sure that these people are merely oddballs whose absurd cause is given the slightest legitimacy because they occupy a seat in the legislature, but still, the question does require asking: Germany, do you need your pee-pee spanked again?
As your reader from Poland I can tell you that this problem with Erika Steinbach and her Union of Exiles goes for quite some time. This Union existed since WWII but Mrs Steinbach secured some political support for them. The most disturbing thing is that this Union is financed by german goverment (so they are “oddballs” with some degree of official support). They`ve started new political campaign of “hugging”. Mrs Steinbach organized celebrations of 60 anniversary of Warsaw uprising in Berlin - and she was saying all the time “you suffered and we suffered”. This action was met with outrage in Poland from almost everyone, but she gained more political support in Germany. Polish goverment asked german goverment for a firm statement that the claims of the Union of exiles are illegitimate for a long time, but only got half-answers at best. (Sorry for any errors, speaking or writing in English is somewhat difficult for me).
Comment by Dominix — 20040731 @ 1229
What would you call that? Comment spam?
Impressive post, Sryker. There’s enough crap to go around, though. The Poles had occupied Belarussia and Ukraine (which Stalin obligingly “liberated” in the partition you mentioned) but in the end it’s hard to feel sorry for the Germans.
It’s true, Germans - like Americans you might say - are getting more conservative. 19 year old Germans love to bitch about it not being socially acceptable to be patriotic.
Der Spiegel has been running articles on the sufferings of Germans during WWII for the past couple of years. It’s a fair enough subject - Dresden was a bit overdone to say the least. But when you ask for war you’d best expect it served up hot.
But either way the Germans who dream of this are really reaching. Maybe given Germany’s clout in the EU they might get something done - but it would hardly encourage the new members and not many people even inside of Germany let alone the EU see it as a worth while cause.
Comment by tom — 20040731 @ 1554
This land is my land, this land is your land…
At least the Prussians (?) want a legal settlement which is much better than what they did the last time. Worldwide, every group has their own land dispute.
“Hey, pal, this land was mine 2,000 years ago so it is mine now. This piece of paper says so!”
“Oh, yeah!, where’s your deed?” “Where you around 2,000 years ago?”
Maybe the problem is with the concepts of “group rights” vs. “individual rights”. Do you really have rights to land because your ancestors lived there? Are you trespassed because your dead ancestor was? What if your blood isn’t “pure”. Do you have to get a condo or a timeshare?
Maybe it is about time to say that the sufferings of one’s ancestors are just that. It is a pity, but nothing can change that. They are dead. That doesn’t make the living martyrs.
Live in the present,look forward for the future, and learn from the past. Living in the past is back-end-to.
Comment by gdgadfly — 20040731 @ 1628
My maternal grandfather came from Niezychowo and his birth certificate is written in German.
The Christian Democrats are by no means a fringe party in Germany; they are the mainstream conservative party.
Comment by Yamaneko — 20040801 @ 0001
The Christian Democratic Union may be a mainstream party, but Erika Steinbach and those she claims to speak for are a bunch of fringe assholes. Sadly, the conservatives are still pandering to them, because they sense some votes there (most of those people expelled from what is now Poland, Russia and Czechia settled in conservative dominated areas).
Besides, the problem will solve itself in a couple of years, as the people just die off. Erika Steinbach was approx. 3 when she lost her home. I bet she can’t even remember it.
Comment by Cora — 20040801 @ 2321
I think the UN could do something useful for once and promulgate a “Statute of Limitations for Historic Atrocities”.
Lots of bad things have happened to people throughout history, no doubt. But a line needs to be drawn. I’d prefer a 50-year limit, but might accept a 100-year limit. You get that much time to resolve your beef with history.
After that, your beef is with the history book editors.
And didn’t Poland and Germany have a post-war treaty resolving this in the first place? Treaties pre-empt the Statute of Limitations.
Comment by Hatcher — 20040802 @ 0310