WI DAILY NEWS
Date: 9 October 2020
Response to the article by Mr. William Echikson
In response to the article “Germany overcame its history. Why can’t Poland?” by Mr. William Echikson, published on the POLITICO website on October 8, 2020, the Warsaw Institute feels obliged to clarify several statements.
Expecting Poland to “overcome its history” in the same context as Germany, is a historically false, biased and harmful statement. Unlike Germany, Polish state and authorities were never engaged in the genocidal process or mass murder of other nationalities and ethnicities. Contrary to many other nations of war-torn Europe, Poland never collaborated with the Hitler’s regime. The German occupation of Poland was among the most severe and cruel ones whilst the proportional death toll of Polish citizens was the highest in the world. Not to mention the systematic murder of Polish intellectual elite as well as the complete destruction and cleansing of the capital of Poland – Warsaw. Today, Poland still bears the burden of the horrible actions that took place on its soil while the Polish cultural and social life is still affected by them. At the same time, the historical memory about these events is frequently manipulated and falsified by the foreign media. Given the above, demanding from Poland to simply “get along with it” is more than just inappropriate – it is outrageous.
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