What happened to Poland and what occurred on its territories during the German occupation is a history of complete degeneration, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote in an op-ed for the Greek weekly “To Vima”.
In the article entitled “Topicality of World War II History,” he recalled basic facts about the outbreak of the war, pointing out that European societies are becoming “increasingly less aware of the origin of the events that proved decisive to the present shape of Europe.”
According to the head of the Polish government, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine is proof of how many countries have forgotten the lessons of the 20th century, and are now “facing a reviving empire with totalitarian ambitions.”
As Prime Minister Morawiecki wrote, “the pre-war Europe fell into the trap of World War II because, for years, it was unable to understand and appropriately evaluate the treats of two totalitarian ideologies,” adding that “the Soviet communism and German Nazism were completely incomprehensible phenomena to contemporary elites.”
Mr Morawiecki emphasised how “The awareness that Germany turned Poland into hell on earth reached the West very slowly” and “the fact that post-war Germany was incorporated into the international community so soon, without the need for thorough prosecution of war criminals, opened the gate for relativisation of evil.”
The article was published jointly with the Polish monthly “Wszystko Co Najważniejsze” as part of a historical project with collaboration by the Institute of National Remembrance and the Polish National Foundation. Read it here.
Poland and Greece seek reparations
Earlier in September, the Polish Sejm (lower house of parliament) passed a resolution, calling on the German government to accept the political, historical, legal and financial responsibility for all the consequences caused by their unleashing of WWII. The country estimates its WWII losses caused by Germany at EUR 1.32 trillion.
Moreover, Greek governments have been also pressing Germany for decades to provide further damages for the Nazi occupation of their country during the war, an issue Berlin had claimed in the past was settled long ago.
“For the Greek government, but more for the Greek people, the issue of German war reparations remains open, and I would like to say that its settlement, which is primarily a matter of principle, would be mutually rewarding for both our countries,” Nikos Dendias, Greek Foreign Minister, commented back in July.