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The hostile rhetoric of the nationalist Polish government towards Germany intensified. The leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, Kaczynski, even began warning about a Fourth Reich, he said. Deutsche Welle.
The building is located on a street not far from the center of the Polish capital, where in October 1943 the Nazi occupiers carried out the first public execution in Warsaw. Posters with the faces of Adolf Hitler and Josef Goebbels can now be seen on the building, along with those of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Angela Merkel, Helmut Kohl and Konrad Adenauer. And all this – dotted with photos of jubilant Nazis and flags with a broken cross.
And under the photo of the current German ambassador to Warsaw, Arnd Freitag von Loringhofen, there is a call in English urging Germany to pay reparations to Poland for the crimes of World War II.
Other posters used photos of concentration camps, naked prisoners and footage of executions, and a photo of the German ambassador to Poland was placed next to them. At the same place some time ago another poster was displayed with the inscription: “Reparations bring freedom” – an obvious hint of the famous inscription at the entrance of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
With the logo of the Ministry of Culture
The action with the posters took place just before the first visit of the new German Foreign Minister Analena Burbock to Warsaw. Against the background of their rather provocative message, it is rather strange that they bear the logo of the Polish Ministry of Culture. However, the ministry denies funding the operation. Its logo is explained by the fact that the action was funded by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, which reports to the Ministry of Culture.
Poland’s political leadership often resorts to such provocations. According to Polish media, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslav Kaczynski, said: “Germany has put the cards on the table – it aims to create a Fourth Reich. We will not allow it.”
The reason for this statement was commented by Marek Ast, MP of the ruling PiS: “The Germans are not even hiding that they want to develop Europe as a federal state, I guess, under German leadership. We do not agree with such a thing.” And former Polish ambassador to Berlin Andrzej Birt told the State Security Service that Kaczynski’s words about the Fourth Reich were “a deliberate insult uttered by a man who knows the world only from books and television and who seems to love bullfighting.” Kaczynski’s philosophy is “Divide and Conquer,” Birt added.
He does not know what may be the reason for Kaczynski’s negative attitude towards Germany. Behind this may be his personal memories of almost completely destroyed post-war Warsaw or his parents’ stories about The Warsaw Uprising. In any case, Poland’s historical experience is often the reason for such statements. For example, a PiS representative recently used the phrase “Brussels occupation”, by “Brussels” actually referring to Germany.
Anti-German rhetoric on television
–Poster with the inscription “Reparations bring freedom”.
The pro-government TVP also likes to attack Germany: almost none of its newscasts pass without ridicule and attacks against Germans, portrayed as arrogant and envious people who do not remember history. This anti-German rhetoric leaves its mark: according to a joint study by German and Polish institutions called the German-Polish Barometer, Poles’ sympathy for Germany has fallen from 53 percent to 42 percent in the past four years.
PiS chief Kaczynski described the idea of a federal Europe as “dangerous” not because it came from Germany. Berlin’s patience with Poland under Chancellor Angela Merkel could quickly run out under the country’s new government. , believes the political commentator from the internet portal Onet Slavomir Sirakovski. He also recalls that in the new German government there are no more East Germans in overly responsible positions, ie. no special patience and understanding can be expected from Berlin.
This is especially true of Germany’s new first diplomat, Analena Burbock, who was born in the western provinces of Germany more than 40 years after the start of the war (1980). At the same time, she is critical of Russia, for example on the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. And this is met with approval in Poland itself. Therefore, the comparison of Burbock with Hitler or Goebbels is more than absurd.
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