1940, Warsaw. Children on the ghetto street
Photo: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection.
The anniversary of the end of Second World War in Poland, Germany and Russia - review
Author:Agnieszka Kudełka
On the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the end of the Second World War the Polish weekly „Tygodnik Powszechny” analyzes various interpretations of the year 1945 in Poland and in other countries, today and in the past. It also looks at how the anniversary influenced Polish-Russian relations. On the 8th/9th of May the German armed forces had signed the unconditional surrender which ended the war in Europe. "Tygodnik Powszechny" tries to answer the question how the Poles remember this event 65 years later as well as how the Germans refer to this anniversary.
Wojciech Pięciak summarizes that in Germany there are different perceptions of the end of the Second World War. Some Germans consider it as a defeat and some as a liberation from National Socialism. Pięciak remarks that the Germans do not stress publicly their role as victims or their suffering as they used to a few years ago. He also deals with the topic, how the Soviet soldiers have been commemorated in Poland on the 9th of Mai. This year many Poles went to Soviet cemeteries to commemorate the Soviet soldiers killed in battle (among them many were Polish soldiers). Pięciak asserts that the discussion about this commemoration act was too emotional, and it does not bring the consensus over the reconciliation with Russia. Pięciak has also appealed for not-ignoring the emotions of the other side in discussions about the past. The ability of empathy and carefulness in expressing opinions could help everybody to better understand each other in basic questions.
The commemoration of the 9th of Mai in Russia has to be analyzed in more detail than it had been done by the „Tygodnik Powszechny”. One should consider the visit of Angela Merkel and Thorbjørn Jagland, the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, in Moscow and that the Anthem of Europe was sang spontaneously by the people of Moscow at the end of the commemoration ceremony at the Red Square. For the first time there were also Polish campaigners and the Polish representation present at the commemoration ceremony. But the visit of Mr. Komorowski has caused many discussions in Poland. The newspaper „Wiedomosti” pointed out that because of the presence of the representations of Europe and the USA at the ceremony there were no more posters of Stalin at the streets of Moscow this year. However one should also be aware that the „Memorial” association also campaigned firmly against such posters.
The presence of Mr. Komorowski in Moscow has caused many discussions in Poland because the year 1945 means for many Poles not a liberation but the beginning of a new occupation. Many articles in „Tygodnik Powszechny” have discussed this question. Andrzej Paczkowski analyzes the interpretation of the days 8th and 9th of Mai 1945 for the Polish people at that time and nowadays. He asserts (in a provocative way?) that the Polish state began on the 22th of July 1944, when the communist Polish Committee of National Liberation (Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego) announced its manifesto, the so-called „July Manifesto”.
Piotr Majewski also tries to interpret the meaning of the year 1945 for Poland. He asserts that the answer should be ambiguous. He refers to the political possibilities at the end of the Second World War and to the former acceptance of the situation. In contrast to this point of view Łukasz Kamiński looks at the diplomatic relations between the countries in the second half of the 40s and argues that „the Allies of the World War II have not any plans for liberation of the Central Europe.”
Max Hastings stresses, like it seemes against the opinion of Kamiński, in his book „Finest Years: Churchill As Warlord” (Harper Press, London 2009) which was quoted in the weekly that Winston Churchill looked ahead and assumed the dangerous behavior of the Soviet Union and he ordered to prepare a plan of war against Stalin. It is still very difficult to find out if the Great Britain could implement it. This plan has a code name „Unthinkable Operation”. The operation should cause the „square deal for Poland”. So Hastings asks if 1945 a war for Poland could break out.
„Tygodnik Powszechny” raises discussions on important and difficult questions and it shows the many aspects of them. Hopefully the opinions reach many people and they will have an effective end. The readers can express their views and opinions to different articles and send them online or by post to the Editorial staff.
Tygodnik Powszechny
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