Poland's Nazi taunt inflames EU summit

[Herman Munster]

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23401261-details/We'd+have+more+power+in+EU+if+Germans+hadn't+'reduced+our+population'+in+World+War+II%2C+says+Polish+PM/article.do

Germany's Nazi past has returned to haunt the EU summit.

A vitriolic outburst by Poland's prime minister revealed the Second World War bitterness that still strains the heart of Europe. Jaroslaw Kaczynski accused the Germans of "incomprehensible crimes" against his country, turning what was already set to be an acrimonious meeting into a confrontation between historical enemies. Poland has been fighting plans for the summit - being held in Germany to change the EU's voting system to one based on population.

It would increase the influence of the host country, EU's largest with 82million people, at the expense of smaller members such as Poland, which has only 38million. Mr Kaczynski stunned other EU leaders by claiming that Poland has 28million fewer people than it should have as a result of the slaughter inflicted by Germany between 1939 and 1945.

He breached one of the great taboos of the EU - Don't Mention the War - and highlighted Poland's tortured relations with Germany. His heated intervention provoked a furious reaction across the EU and appeared to revive age-old disputes. It was the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 which triggered the war. By its end in 1945 some 6.5million Polish civilians were dead - close to a quarter of the country's population.

Mr Kaczynski said: "It was the Germans who inflicted unimaginable injury, terrible harm, on Poles - incomprehensible crimes - and Poles like Germans, while Germans do not like Poles." "We are only demanding one thing, that we get back what was taken from us. If Poland had not had to live through the years of 1939-45, Poland would be today looking at the demographics of a country of 66million."

[rockymountaindem]

1. This came completely out of the blue for me

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when he said that. The looks on everybody else's faces must have been memorable.

[The Straight Story]

2. I was reading about this on the FT site earlier

Getting nasty there :) (ps FT=Financial Times)

There is a big battle brewing over Vodka there as well.

[Hardrada]

3. The Austrians don't like Poles either!

Best this had not been brought up.

[Eurobabe]

4. I've seen stickers with EU and a red slash through the letters

In many of the bigger cities. (Just like the 'No W' stickers.) There are some over here who think the EU is not a good idea.

Only time will tell, I guess.

[Hardrada]

5. Norway, my ancestral homeland, never bought the idea.

Nor did Gross Britannien

[BlooInBloo]

6. It's bound to happen from time to time. German representatives are prolly used to it.

[ProgressiveAmPatriot]

8. This is actually extremely rare for a head of state to mention the war in this way

The only way they mention the war, is talking about how there is no more war in Western Europe. This is, as far as I know, unheard of in at least the past 15 years.

[soothsayer]

7. So those predictions about the "World Mark" look like accurate.

Germany is going to be the dominant force in the NWO. Interesting to see how it's unfolding. (On edit: the world mark will be the new currency. First we have to start some effing union with Canada and Mexico so we can have an "Amero" but after that we'll all be part of the one happy NWO. Ugh.)

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. No.

Just how do you think double majority voting on certain EU matters leaves Germany the dominant force in the world?

[RB TexLa]

15. Oh no . . . Look over there!

:rofl:

[tanyev]

9. Don't mention the war!

[mainegreen]

11. My first thought as well.

German:“We did not start it,”
Basil: “Yes you did, you invaded Poland!”

[WinkyDink]

12. The Truth hurts, I guess. I've often wondered what the world would be like

if, in the event Nazism was unavoidable, the state of Israel had been carved out of Bavaria.

[DavidDvorkin]

13. Then there's the Jewish population of Europe

Which would be far larger, and especially in Poland, than it is now. And the Gypsies, and the homosexuals, and ...

I'm sure the present government of Poland is all in favor of somehow increasing the influence of all of those groups to compensate for what they lost because of the Nazis.

[Hardrada]

17. Good point!

But we won't hear about any of that from the Warsaw government.

[xchrom]

14. if there is no ''EU'' -- as some posters seem to think

might be a good idea -- then there is no adequate force to keep europe from being dominated by america, china, india economic policies.

but if that's what they want.....

[Sequoia]

16. Of course he's right.

The Poles were made to leave their homes with what only they could carry so the good Germany familes could move in. The Poles had to clean up their homes and cook a meal and leave it on the table for them and then just leave. The first concentration camp spewed out so much soot that it would land on the food in the gardens which the people would not eat.

I read this from an eye-witness account in the book, "Five Marks", of an American who was captured by the Germans and he escaped and walked through Poland. I contacted him for an interview thinking he lived in Northern Cal still but he had moved to the Palm Desert area. He was old and in a wheelchair but was lively and very forthcoming about his experiences. He said he hoped the world would never have to go through that again. Mind you, this conversation took place a year before we became the Nazis in Iraq.