The Polish people aren’t interested in the events of the past, being fully consumed by their daily hassles, and the country’s authorities are using this to their advantage, freely rewriting WWII history, academics told RT.
Warsaw was taken from the Nazis on January 17, 1945, after a large-scale offensive by the Red Army and the Polish forces. The 75th anniversary of the historic victory is marked on Friday, but the capital of Poland isn’t preparing for any celebrations.
The fact that the USSR liberated Warsaw from the Nazis is “diminished” in schoolbooks and ignored by Polish media “because we live in country where Russophobia is one of the pillars,” military historian Michal Glock said.
The capital’s Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and his liberal Civic Platform party are “responsible for destroying monuments dedicated to Polish and Soviet soldiers and partly [responsible] for erasing the information that Warsaw was liberated by the Red Army and its allies, such as the Polish 1st and 2nd Armies, from the memory of the residents,” Glock added.
Older people are aware [of] who liberated our capital city, but the younger generation lives in ignorance.
Those who are interested in history only study the Warsaw Uprising, which was a massive –though failed– attempt by the Polish resistance to reclaim the capital from its Nazi invaders, the historian pointed out.
In the version of history that is promoted by the current Polish authorities, “the liberation of Warsaw (but also the whole of Poland) was part of a second occupation. The Nazi troops were replaced by the Red Army.”
Glock considers this angle “dangerous” and “very confusing,” especially considering the fact that the Nazis were planning a genocide of the Polish population.
“After Jews and gypsies [were sent] to gas chambers, the Poles were supposed to go there. The Red Army saved us from genocide, not only planned by the Germans, but also by the Ukrainian nationalists.”
He said that the “saddest thing” is that his fellow historians do nothing to stop the rewriting of history “in fear of being accused of favoring Russia and President Putin.”
‘A key battle for the outcome of WWII’
Glock’s evaluation of his colleagues appears to be quite accurate, as many other Polish historians approached by RT refused to discuss the matter. And the few who did respond asked that their names be omitted, and simply relayed the stance of the country’s authorities.
One of them said that the liberation of Warsaw isn’t celebrated simply because nobody in Poland cares about World War II anymore. People are more interested in rising prices, the taxes they have to pay, and other daily concerns, he explained.
What the Polish authorities are trying to erase from history was actually an operation that was “enormously important” for the whole outcome of World War II, British historian Michael Jones told RT.
‘Greatly shocked’
The liberation of Warsaw came shortly after the Battle of the Bulge, a successful counter-offensive that was launched by the Nazis in mid-December 1944. It saw four allied armies encircled and destroyed, leaving the anti-Hitler coalition (USSR, UK, US) “greatly shocked,” he recalled.
The Soviet offensive on the Polish capital “was brought forward… at the request of the Western allies and destroyed much of the German Army’s capabilities.” It was highly praised by British PM Winston Churchill and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the iconic Yalta Conference in February 1945, the historian added.
Jones said he’s confident that “it’s always important that we keep debating the past,” but it has nothing to do with “a tendency in recent times to simply blame the Soviet Union and now Russia for everything that goes wrong.”
The fact is that during World War ll “we were all working together in common cause to defeat fascism,” he said.
(c) RT
“The liberation of Warsaw came shortly after the Battle of the Bulge, a successful counter-offensive that was launched by the Nazis in mid-December 1944. It saw four allied armies encircled and destroyed, leaving the anti-Hitler coalition (USSR, UK, US) “greatly shocked,” he recalled.”
Muscovy rewriting history yet again. The Battle of the Bulge was won by the allies, and was probably the final nail in the coffin for Hitler. As for Churchill. this is what he really said, not what RT claim he said.
Winston Churchill, addressing the House of Commons following the Battle of the Bulge said, “This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory.”
I guess RT didn’t see that bit, they are only interested in why Poland are so ungrateful for being “liberated” by Muscovy.
Funny how they mention the US third, after the Union of Soviet Shit Republics and the UK. RT’s signature is going green with envy…
What a load of kremlin pigswill. RaT deploys its usual trick of incorporating an ‘expert’ into the story, in this case ‘British historian Michael Jones’, who no one has ever heard of except perhaps members of the UK putler jackboot lickers society. Similarly it often consults another Jones: Alex Jones, Austin’s top putinazi troll and conspiracy theorist, as an ‘expert’.
Russia has never ‘liberated’ anyone from anything. It invaded Poland and inflicted 45 years of corrupt communism, leaving it with a moribund economy. Whatever we think about the EU, it has transformed Poland’s economy since joining in 2004. It could do the same for Ukraine.
The EU is corrupt and rotten to the core. However, its destruction could unleash some unpredictable circumstances. Europe has a historical predilection for fascism, as we know to our cost. Europe could end up with a new fascist bloc consisting of Orbanistan, Austria and Italy, with the potential addition of a Le Pen-led France and a Wilders-led Holland, all aligned with, ie controlled by, putlerstan.
Better if the EU could be persuaded a) to discontinue its policy of allowing degenerates from savage cultures to settle, b) to abandon its imperial ambitions and revert to what it should be: a free trade bloc and c) to produce a full set of audited accounts and root out and prosecute the many corrupt officials feeding off its carcass. First on the list should be the filthy, stinking putlerite piss-head Jean-Claude Juncker.
I thought Juncker was already canned. Now it’s Fräulein Von der Leyen running the muppet show.
Not canned, just came to the end of his agreed term. But he is monstrously corrupt and needs to be investigated. Naturally he is a putlerite.
To give you an idea of what a rotten, filthy outfit the EU is; Dave Cameron knew full well the type of person Juncker was : anti-Britain/pro-putler and begged stasi Merkel not to appoint the cunt. The corpulent quisling gleefully went ahead and hired him anyway, which was eventually highly influential in Britain leaving the EU.
Poland never was liberated, it did leap out of the fryer straight into the fire.
History is all Muscovy have got, and even that is fake. They have no present, or future. Basically they are fucked.
I think this is the reason many Poles may appear uninterested. Nazi occupation versus Soviet occupation. 6 of one, half dozen of the other. Like exchanging a gassing death for a stabbing death….
I think most countries in the West prefer to get on with their lives, and not live in the past. When your country is a total shithole run by mafia for mafia, you got to have something to distract the sheep with.
Divide et empera.
This is the trick.
Btw, Orbán are compared with genocide and war crimes just because he protect the hungarian borders and wish to preserve Hungary as a nation for hungarians, so pathetic.
Double standards, again.
And Italy, fascist!? 😂
Yeah, right.
Agne, with the greatest respect, why don’t you just fuck off? This is not a site for imbeciles or putler jackboot lickers. Many thanks. Missing you already.
Ha,ha,ha,ha!
Awww, you miss me, how nice! 😘☺️😍
But don’t worry my little rabid stalker, i am here for you.
Chill.
Orban does not even know where Hungary’s borders end and where the borders of Ukraine, Serbia and Slovakia begin. He’s as good at reading maps as is Russia…
He doesn’t?
So, you mean he is also an invader of Ukraine? Is that it?
How?
He is handing HU PPs to local residents, then he claims he is responsible for them. That is a covert indirect invasion. I think those who love Hungary and Russia should also go live there.
So that’s the hungarian invasion of Ukraine, wow, that’s why Orbán is considered a genocidal maniac.
Impressive.
I never mentioned anything genocidal, but maniac is pretty accurate.
Ok, but if he should be a maniac just because he doesn’t open the borders for the so called migrants from third world?
No, in that case i take side with him to the fullest.
There is a hungarian minority in Ukraine and there is a ukrainian minority in Hungary, i see no reason neither of these should be a problem.
In Sweden there is naturally a finnish minority and vice versa, neighbour countries and of course all of us don’t get along but in general there are no problems.