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Russia-Poland feud over World War II history clouds Auschwitz anniversary
NBC News ^ | Jan 2020 | Associated Press

Posted on 01/26/2020 1:18:30 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege

WARSAW, Poland — Over the next several days, world leaders will gather twice to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of Nazi Germany’s death camps.

That there will be two competing ceremonies — one in Jerusalem on Thursday and the other at the Auschwitz site in southern Poland on Monday — underlines how politically charged World War II remains...

Soviet forces liberated Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945. But the country had also signed a nonaggression accord with the Nazis shortly before the war began in 1939, known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. It contained a secret protocol in which the totalitarian powers agreed to carve up Eastern Europe.

Two years later, Germany turned on Kremlin leader Josef Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union, bringing the Soviets into the war on the side of the Allies. Millions of Red Army soldiers lost their lives in the eventual defeat of Adolf Hitler's Germany.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to shift wartime blame to Poland over anger that historical memory in the West has begun to focus more on the Soviet role in triggering the war and less on its role in defeating Germany.

...Western historians see those allegations as a cynical ploy to minimize Soviet responsibility as Moscow today seeks to glorify what is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War and more generally a Stalinist era that included mass killings of opponents at home and suffering imposed on Eastern Europe during decades of communist rule.

In recent days, Poland's government has been defending the nation's record, recalling how its wartime government-in-exile sought to save Jews by warning the world, and listing cultural and economic damage that Poland suffered after Soviet troops took control of its territory at the end of World War II.

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: auschwitz; holocaust; poland; putinsbuttboys; russia; vladimirputin; wwii
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1 posted on 01/26/2020 1:18:30 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre


2 posted on 01/26/2020 1:20:14 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

After WWI, Russia, which had surrendered to the Germans, lost a lot of territory in the Versailles Peace Treaty. They lost the Baltics, Finland, Russian Poland and other territories.

They tried and failed to take Finland back in the Winter War, although they did later annex some Finnish territory and they were quite willing to make a deal with Hitler to get back “their part” of Poland as well as the Baltic Republics. At the end of WWII they got to keep the Eastern part of Poland, Poland was basically moved west into what had always been German territory.

They kind of did the same thing with Crimea. I guess old habits are hard to break.


3 posted on 01/26/2020 1:33:16 PM PST by hanamizu
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

They didn’t just agree to carve up Poland, they invaded several weeks after the Germans did.


4 posted on 01/26/2020 1:35:43 PM PST by mrmeyer (You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him. Robert Heinlein)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

Stalin was more than happy to allow Hitler to take a few million Soviet Jews off of his hands.


5 posted on 01/26/2020 1:36:32 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: hanamizu
Poland was basically moved west into what had always been German territory.

Only they weren't always German territory. It went back and forth over the centuries.

6 posted on 01/26/2020 1:37:38 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege

German Military Representatives at 1941 Red Square May Day Parade, weeks before Operation Barbarossa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAfSrBMuXI8


7 posted on 01/26/2020 1:44:01 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: BenLurkin

I guess the Russians have selective memory. I remember the Katyn Forrest Massacre of Polish officers by the Russians in 1940 and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 that the Russians were both responsible for.
But hey, who really can throw rocks while living in glass houses?


8 posted on 01/26/2020 2:40:29 PM PST by Doc91678 (Doc91678)
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To: CondoleezzaProtege
"historical memory in the West has begun to focus more on the Soviet role in triggering the war and less on its role in defeating Germany."

Easily explained IMHO: for the fifty years following the war, the Western historical memory mainstream media and academia was an ally of the Soviets. They have been gradually revising their attitude towards Russia since Putin came to power.
9 posted on 01/26/2020 3:15:05 PM PST by Mr Radical (In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act)
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To: Doc91678

I guess it can be said that everyone hated Jews during that period. I always wondered if America would ignore the Holocaust altogether if America was not provoked into WWII.


10 posted on 01/26/2020 3:21:24 PM PST by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: shanover

I remember Lindbergh’s speech in September of 1941, where he basically said that the Jews were trying to get us into the war.


11 posted on 01/26/2020 3:23:35 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: hanamizu

“” “” After WWI, Russia, which had surrendered to the Germans, lost a lot of territory in the Versailles Peace Treaty. They lost the Baltics, Finland, Russian Poland and other territories.”” “”

That is because Lenin was a German agent and it was precisely what he promised them for their backing in destabilization of the Empire.


12 posted on 01/26/2020 3:41:27 PM PST by NorseViking
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To: mrmeyer

The Russians invaded Poland on September 17, 1939.


13 posted on 01/26/2020 3:48:03 PM PST by jmacusa ("If wisdom is not the Lord, what is wisdom?)
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To: Doc91678

“” “” I guess the Russians have selective memory. I remember the Katyn Forrest Massacre of Polish officers by the Russians in 1940 and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 that the Russians were both responsible for.
But hey, who really can throw rocks while living in glass houses?”” “”

The narrative is false from the beginning. That latest feud was started by the Polish president Duda. He is the one throwing stones.
I also like how the Warsaw Uprising is now a Russian fault.
That is exactly how history is rewritten.


14 posted on 01/26/2020 3:51:26 PM PST by NorseViking
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To: NorseViking

On 25 July, the Union of Polish Patriots, in a broadcast from Moscow, stated: “The Polish Army of Polish Patriots ... calls on the thousands of brothers thirsting to fight, to smash the foe before he can recover from his defeat ... Every Polish homestead must become a stronghold in the struggle against the invaders ... Not a moment is to be lost.”

On 29 July, the first Soviet armoured units reached the outskirts of Warsaw, where they were counter-attacked by two German Panzer Corps: the 39th and 4th SS.

On 29 July 1944 Radio Station Kosciuszko located in Moscow emitted a few times its “Appeal to Warsaw” and called to “Fight The Germans!”: “No doubt Warsaw already hears the guns of the battle which is soon to bring her liberation. ... The Polish Army now entering Polish territory, trained in the Soviet Union, is now joined to the People’s Army to form the Corps of the Polish Armed Forces, the armed arm of our nation in its struggle for independence. Its ranks will be joined tomorrow by the sons of Warsaw. They will all together, with the Allied Army pursue the enemy westwards, wipe out the Hitlerite vermin from Polish land and strike a mortal blow at the beast of Prussian Imperialism.”

Godzina W was on August 1st.


15 posted on 01/26/2020 3:57:34 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

It was then. Today by far the most antisemitic countries are Poland, South Africa, Ukraine and Hungary. That’s according to ADL which AFAIK bases its studies on interviews of people inside the surveyed countries.


16 posted on 01/26/2020 3:58:47 PM PST by NorseViking
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To: dfwgator

And what is wrong with it? Who liberated Warsaw as a result? Were it the British?


17 posted on 01/26/2020 4:01:30 PM PST by NorseViking
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To: NorseViking

Warsaw just exchanged one set of chains for another.


18 posted on 01/26/2020 4:03:36 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

That is irrelevant because what was a nature of regime USSR was ruled by? Poland didn’t have it worse than the rest. For that very reason the Soviets owed the Polish people no freedom. Yet the Polish people owe the Soviets for the survival of the Polish nation. Let alone the Soviets rebuilt Poland and actually improved its status by adding German territory to it. It has to be acknowledged by the Polish. The political regime of the era is a separate issue. Of course Communism is not to be supported but let’t make it clear. Poland had plenty of own Communists. It wasn’t the Soviets who ruled PNR.


19 posted on 01/26/2020 4:11:48 PM PST by NorseViking
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To: NorseViking

That is because Lenin was a German agent...


I wonder if any German decision makers from the time ever lived long enough to see how poorly the idea of shipping Lenin to Russia worked out for them.


20 posted on 01/26/2020 4:20:59 PM PST by hanamizu
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