polskieradio.pl | 20May2009 | (mg/pg)
http://polskieradio.pl/thenews/news/artykul108562_polish_farmers_collaborated_with_nazis__says_der_speigel.html
Polish farmers collaborated with
Nazis, says Der Spiegel
This week’s edition of
Der Spiegel accuses Poles and other nations of having collaborated with
Nazis during World War II.
The accomplices: Hitler’s European helpers in the Holocaust reads the
headline of the front-page article, accompanied by a photo of Hitler.
The article names Polish farmers, among others, as accomplices of the
Nazis during World War II.
The article tells the story of John Demjanjuk, the Ukrainian
SS-officer, who was recently extradited from the US to Munich to stand
trial for war crimes, including the death of at least 29,000 Jews at
the Sobibor Nazi death camp in southeast Poland during WW II.
Demjanjuk served as a guard at the Treblinka, Sobibor and Majdanek
death camps and was known as “Ivan the Terrible” by the prisoners
because of his extraordinary violence.
Der Spiegel cites the case of Demjanjuk to prove that it was not only
Germans who were responsible for mass murder during the Holocaust. If
it had not been for Ukrainian gendarmes, Latvian auxiliary policeman,
Romanian soldiers, Hungarian railway workers, Polish farmers, Dutch
land register officials, French mayors, Norwegian ministers and Italian
soldiers, the Nazis would not have been able to mastermind the
Holocaust, claims the weekly.
Historian Dieter Pohl, quoted by Der Spiegel, estimates that more than
200,000 non-Germans were involved in war crimes, which almost equals
the number of Germans and Austrians responsible for the Holocaust.
The weekly gives reasons why it thinks non-Germans collaborated with
the Nazis, mentioning fear, perversion, anti-Semitism, and a
willingness to help the presumed victors of the war.
Der Spiegel claims that while Italians and the French are aware of the
scale of collaboration with the Nazis in their countries, Poles fail to
admit it. According to the weekly, this is surprising, considering the
fact that in Poland hatred for Jews is “deep rooted” and pogroms took
place in Poland even after WW II was over.
Most countries, especially from Central and Eastern Europe, have to
take the responsibility for the Holocaust instead of throwing the blame
entirely on Germans, claims Der Spiegel.
Spiegel divides Polish
politicians
“There is freedom of press in Germany, as there is in Poland,” said
Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, commenting on the article
by Der Spiegel, accusing Poles of collaboration with the Nazis.
Unlike Sikorski, however, the head of the Law and Justice party (PiS)
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, is outraged at Der Spiegel’s claims. “Germans are
trying to free themselves from taking responsibility for the major
crimes of Holocaust,” said Kaczynski and added that, to his horror,
some circles in Poland support the opinion.
“If we allow Germans go in for this sort of practice, in the future we
will have to pay damages to German soldiers who died during the Warsaw
Uprising,” said the head of PiS.
(mg/pg)
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