80 years since the Warsaw Uprising: what remains?
On the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier travelled to the Polish capital to ask the population for forgiveness. The rebellion of 1944 lasted 63 days and was brutally crushed by the Nazi occupying forces. Around 200,000 resistance fighters and civilians were killed and the city almost totally destroyed before the Russians moved in.
Failed revolt against repression
Adam Michnik, editor-in-chief of the Gazeta Wyborcza and former anticommunist dissident writes:
“If we don't understand the Warsaw Uprising, we cannot understand ourselves, our glory and our misery. Without this uprising – whose consequences were so tragic – we would be a different nation. The Warsaw Uprising was militarily directed against Hitler, politically against Stalin, and emotionally, it was a demonstration against subjugation to slavery and foreign dictates. It was a final and desperate attempt to reverse the political logic born [at the 1943 conference] in Tehran and leading to Yalta. This condemned Poland to long years of communist dictatorship and Soviet foreign rule.”
Time for compensation
Germany can no longer shirk its material responsibilities, argues wPolityce:
“Celebrations like these bring up topics that are uncomfortable for today's Germany. These include a discussion about Nazi crimes, the Germans' moral responsibility and the need for a debate about material reparations. If the crime was so great that the head of state is paying respect to the victims today, it cannot be dismissed with statements about it all happening so long ago that it is no longer important.”
Deaf ears in Germany
Germany should now finally build the planned memorial to the Polish victims of the German occupation, demands Phillip Fritz, Warsaw Correspondent for Welt newspaper:
“After all, the Bundestag decided to build it back in 2020. People in Poland are growing impatient; with every week that passes, fewer survivors will have the chance to see this form of recognition of their suffering. For this reason alone, time is of the essence. The suppression of the Warsaw Uprising is probably the biggest German war crime, the dimensions of which the Germans hardly seem to comprehend. Steinmeier's words have fallen on deaf ears in Germany.”