Former East Germans are leading the noisiest dissent. Communists and social democrats fought Hitler throughout the ’30s – and paid much more heavily in lives than the military, they say. The Wehrmacht plotters, say these critics, helped Hitler’s rise and might not have replaced him with a democratic government. They wonder why the military plot alone has been singled out, when it was the 40th attempt on Hitler’s life. And they want recognition for the 30,000 people executed for deserting Hitler’s army. But conservatives oppose giving the left any credit. “To be in the resistance only in order to replace one dictatorship with another cannot be put on the same level as the resistance that led to July 20,” said Count Franz Ludwig Schenk von Stauffenberg, son of the Wehrmacht colonel who led the attempted coup.
Chancellor Helmut Kohl only added to the divisiveness. Facing re-election this fall, he played the occasion for votes. The only speakers at the commemoration were Kohl and Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen, a political ally in the chancellor’s Christian Democratic Union. Many Germans thought it would have been more appropriate for President Roman Herzog, a less partisan figure, to have presided. But there was no debate over the fact that Germans, too, would have been better off if the plotters had succeeded. ..CN.-The Warsaw Uprising
It was the fiercest single act of resistance against the Nazis in Occupied Europe. After the Polish underground’s Home Army rose up on Aug. 1, 1944, the fighting lasted 63 days. But the Poles were no match for German tank crews, who blasted buildings at will. And Russian troops watched the devastation passively from across the Vistula River, because the Polish fighters were also ready to fight an impending Soviet takeover. About 200,000 Poles and 17,000 German troops died in the Warsaw Uprising; afterward, Hitler ordered his troops to drive the survivors out of the capital and level it. “This was not the earth, but the moon,” recalls Olgierd Budrewicz, who returned to Warsaw after the Germans withdrew in January 1945. The battle remained such a potent symbol of the Poles’ yearning for freedom that for years Soviet-dominated regimes refused to let them officially commemorate it.
Many Poles still aren’t ready to forgive. President Lech Walesa provoked furious opposition by inviting both German President Roman Herzog and Russian President Boris Yeltsin to next week’s ceremony marking the Warsaw Uprising’s 50th anniversary. Both countries were excluded from D-Day commemorations, veterans note. “The French did not invite the Germans to Normandy, and they have very good relations with them,” said Krystyna Jaroszewicz, who served as a nurse during the uprising. A joke making the rounds suggests that Yeltsin should be given a pair of binoculars so he can observe the ceremony from across the river.
Walesa argues that Poland can secure its future only by putting old grudges to rest. The public reconciliation promotes Poland’s current agenda: joining the European Union and NATO. “Those who have to should apologize once again,” Walesa told Newsweek. “Then we should close this chapter and set about building a united Europe.” But the two invitees aren’t helping much. Yeltsin has said he’ll send a delegation; he could anger Russian nationalists by apologizing for the Red Army’s actions. Herzog will attend and is expected to apologize. But an interview published in Germany showed he thought the anniversary is for the smaller Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943. Still, a bare majority of Poles approve of the gesture, according to one recent poll. Holding a grudge simply isn’t practical anymore, they have concluded. As the resistance hero Jan Nowak-Jezioranski put it: “We cannot nurture eternal hostility toward both our powerful neighbors.”
title: “Old Scars New Squabbles” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-29” author: “George Lowery”
Former East Germans are leading the noisiest dissent. Communists and social democrats fought Hitler throughout the ’30s – and paid much more heavily in lives than the military, they say. The Wehrmacht plotters, say these critics, helped Hitler’s rise and might not have replaced him with a democratic government. They wonder why the military plot alone has been singled out, when it was the 40th attempt on Hitler’s life. And they want recognition for the 30,000 people executed for deserting Hitler’s army. But conservatives oppose giving the left any credit. “To be in the resistance only in order to replace one dictatorship with another cannot be put on the same level as the resistance that led to July 20,” said Count Franz Ludwig Schenk von Stauffenberg, son of the Wehrmacht colonel who led the attempted coup.
Chancellor Helmut Kohl only added to the divisiveness. Facing re-election this fall, he played the occasion for votes. The only speakers at the commemoration were Kohl and Berlin Mayor Eberhard Diepgen, a political ally in the chancellor’s Christian Democratic Union. Many Germans thought it would have been more appropriate for President Roman Herzog, a less partisan figure, to have presided. But there was no debate over the fact that Germans, too, would have been better off if the plotters had succeeded. ..CN.-The Warsaw Uprising
It was the fiercest single act of resistance against the Nazis in Occupied Europe. After the Polish underground’s Home Army rose up on Aug. 1, 1944, the fighting lasted 63 days. But the Poles were no match for German tank crews, who blasted buildings at will. And Russian troops watched the devastation passively from across the Vistula River, because the Polish fighters were also ready to fight an impending Soviet takeover. About 200,000 Poles and 17,000 German troops died in the Warsaw Uprising; afterward, Hitler ordered his troops to drive the survivors out of the capital and level it. “This was not the earth, but the moon,” recalls Olgierd Budrewicz, who returned to Warsaw after the Germans withdrew in January 1945. The battle remained such a potent symbol of the Poles’ yearning for freedom that for years Soviet-dominated regimes refused to let them officially commemorate it.
Many Poles still aren’t ready to forgive. President Lech Walesa provoked furious opposition by inviting both German President Roman Herzog and Russian President Boris Yeltsin to next week’s ceremony marking the Warsaw Uprising’s 50th anniversary. Both countries were excluded from D-Day commemorations, veterans note. “The French did not invite the Germans to Normandy, and they have very good relations with them,” said Krystyna Jaroszewicz, who served as a nurse during the uprising. A joke making the rounds suggests that Yeltsin should be given a pair of binoculars so he can observe the ceremony from across the river.
Walesa argues that Poland can secure its future only by putting old grudges to rest. The public reconciliation promotes Poland’s current agenda: joining the European Union and NATO. “Those who have to should apologize once again,” Walesa told Newsweek. “Then we should close this chapter and set about building a united Europe.” But the two invitees aren’t helping much. Yeltsin has said he’ll send a delegation; he could anger Russian nationalists by apologizing for the Red Army’s actions. Herzog will attend and is expected to apologize. But an interview published in Germany showed he thought the anniversary is for the smaller Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943. Still, a bare majority of Poles approve of the gesture, according to one recent poll. Holding a grudge simply isn’t practical anymore, they have concluded. As the resistance hero Jan Nowak-Jezioranski put it: “We cannot nurture eternal hostility toward both our powerful neighbors.”
