The main headline translates as "Partners. European associates in murdering Jews"
The main headline translates as "Partners. European associates in murdering Jews"
I say we invade them again, just to be on the safe side. Oh wait, we're still there.
Sophistry. There were collaborators. Nothing’s new here.
First the Germans tried to create an image, that they were victims of the WW2 - as much as the European nations enslaved by them.
Now - they’re all eager to share responsibility for Holocaust, claiming that the Poles were equally guilty.
What's going to be next?
Maybe Poland will have to pay some compensation to the families of German “polizisten und soldaten” killed during Warsaw uprising?
At last they were only trying to restore “order”.
Alas, it wasn't a satire, but a remarkable rewrite of history. If you follow Der Spiegel's logic you could say that "Well, of course Poland Helped. It was right there acting as a convenient pathway for the Nazis to get to the Jews. Presumably "Poland" could have just disappeared into the Earth, let the waters roll in from the sea, and lo and behold the Nazis couldn't have got to the Jews."
No doubt there are Germans who think this way.
The flaw is, however, that NONE of these "allies" would have participated if they hadn't first been conquered by Germany!
Belgian jews were rounded up by Belgian police. French jews rounded up by French police. Romanian jews rounded up by Romanian police.
Its little wonder why, after the war, when the survivors emerged from the camps, they had little desire to return to the old neighborhood. Israel exists in great part because the Europeans drove them out of Europe. The Germans were the ring leaders. But Europeans in general were complicit.
Well of course they felt it was safe to start sharing the blame after Hussein went over there and apologised for America existing. I’m sure somewhere sometime they’ve already found a way assign blame to us for the Berlin airlifts.
A few will say no and be willing to die for it.
This might better be translated: “The Accomplices. Hitler’s european helpers in the mudering of Jews.”
The Spiegel (German mass propaganda) is despicable.
Belgian, Dutch and French collaboration is fine, Poles however are particulary evil?
The Spiegel has no agenda here of course... /dark sarc
My grandfather killed two French policemen who came to get him and my grandfather and turn them over.
Took their wallets and their guns, too.
You really know how to get my blood pressure up. ;)
-Poland was the only occupied country where aiding Jews in any manner was an automatic death sentence.
-There are more righteous Gentiles from Poland in Yad Vashem than from any other country.
-There was no “Vichy” Polish government, it was all occupied and administered by the Nazis, unlike Vichy France, where the French ran things on a day-to-day basis, under careful Nazi watch.
-No Poles served in the SS.
Partners? Associates?
Helfers translates directly as "helpers," a more intense description than mere "associates." And Komplizen is more accurately translated as accomplices. The headline reads: The Accomplices: Hitler's European helpers in Jew-murder
Well, here in the USA, the New York Times certainly looked the other way at what was happening....
Bear in mind that there was no Poland at this time. There was a government in exile in London, which reported the killing of Jews to disbelieving Western allies. Poland itself had disappeared as a country with its own government, and was part of the “General Government,” a purposefully vague and bureaucratic term.
There were individual Poles who might have collaborated with the invaders. There were many who risked their own lives to help Jews. At one time during the occupation, it meant death to be caught even giving food to a Jew. A family sheltering a Jew (as many did) was laying their own lives on the line.
It is probably true that there was anti-semitic prejudice in Poland, but the Poles never dreamed up the Holocaust on their own. It is an historical fact that Poland had the largest Jewish population in Europe (about 20% of the population) as a result of tolerance by a Polish king, who had sheltered Jews during the Middle Ages, when many were driven out of the Rhine Valley and elsewhere.
I think that it is grossly unfair to point the finger at Poland, when one considers the whole historical picture.
In fact, it is unjust to judge whole countries in this way. There were good people, and bad people. It is true that many French were anti-semitic at the time, but also true that ordinary French peasants of strong Christian belief helped smuggle many Jews into Switzerland and safety. Disproportionate in this effort were the minority French Protestants, who perhaps recalled their own days of severe persecution.
If I remember the story of John Demjaniuk correctly first he was a conscripted soldier in the Russian army after the Russians invaded Poland. Then he was captured by the Germans.
The Germans needing man power offered captured Pols the option to “volunteer” to serve in the German army.
Demjaniuk having the option of spending the rest of the war in a German prison camp on starvation rations or serving in the SS. Demjaniuk chose the German army.
In retrospect maybe not a great choice but who could blame him? Many other Pols made the same choice.
But how Der Spiegel can call this cooperation of other European Countries is just baffling.
Certainly individual collaborated but not the willing cooperation of a substantial number of the polulation.
More like "The accomplices. Hitler's European helpers in murdering Jews." A bit more sinister tone.
Yeah, Austria!
The Germans killed millions of Catholic Poles in the death camps, as well as Jews.
No doubt a few Poles were found who collaborated rather than be murdered. But other Poles helped shelter the Jews and hide them. is Der Spiegel proud of the way Hitler treated Poland during the War?
Actually, the one country I know of that really helped send the Jews to the death camps was Vichy France.
The fact that Der Spiegel would write an article like this and put that photo on the cover suggests how far the new antisemitism seems to be spreading throughout Europe.
Ugly.