Ulalalalaala....Anne, Anne...

The Germans have kept a low profile since WW II, for they had to.

It was a fantastically successful political strategy (and very, very smart!). It has also taken place at symbolic level. (Bonn looks so unpretentious and modest, compared to, say, Paris or London, doesn't it? Very smart...) Unfortunately, in Poland and in most of post-communist Europe, it's beta males (often with nice diplomas) that make policies, and they are not able to match their counterparts. As a result, we're very happy to see the poverty and humiliation of millions of people….. But you don’t see it…at the Sheraton hotel, right?

However, "as a matter of principles", just please let me recall you that you missed some precious details. Does it take a genius to see that the splendid and hugely successful policy has not impeded Germans to:

a) destroy with great determination evidence of the crimes that the Germans committed in a plethora of concentration camps (THERE ARE DOCUMENTS THAT CONFIRM IT!!! Not only my words as a deranged individual!!!)

b) write NEW HISTORY (oh; DO NOT DENY IT because I'll throw up and I don't feel like cleaning up my laptop!); of course, you prefer not to see it, just as you do not see that there are GERMAN signs of villages and cities in the south-western part of Poland, and that Angela Merkel has OFFICIALLY supported Erika Steinbach. I don't reproach any society that it has insane individuals (since any society is not free from pathologic entities and persons), but I do reproach them if such individuals are supported by the public authorities. That’s horrendously dangerous. But you simply don’t care. You care only about your fantasies and wild dreams.

c) finally, and most importantly, COLONISE Central Europe, and reduce it to more or less poor provinces, depending on the states concerned.

Political, social, economic, and cultural demise in Poland is manifest and appalling. Appalling.

Oh, maybe you call culture those cheerful ladies that think they are unique and great actresses only if they take off a T-shirt for Playboy? Or-AT BEST- these "artists" that support rapists? This is your culture, the culture of vassals and slaves!

Goethe (great Goethe, though so unfashionable now!) said that real slaves are those that do not see that they are slaves. I couldn't agree more. You do not see it.

Those very few distinguished people that still remain in PL can only count on your spitting from time to time. But it shouldn't be surprising taking into account the fact that you spit even at Nobel-Prize winners (or even more funnily, Radek has recently corrected himself and played as a hero in an effort to help (also colonised but more aware of it) nations in Africa! What a great initiative! It's a shame that he forgot about his compatriots, and that anyone who opposes your blind politics (I oppose politics, not people) relies on "information that is not credible"; great! But didn't he listen to Desmond Tutu before going there? Bingo? You know where the pb is? I wouldn't ask a physician how to write a legal text, no matter how great a physician he/she would be....But you fail to see it. You DON’T WANT to see it.

Shall I continue? what about German spies? They are hard-working boys, but they are not very discreet. . .

You fail to see all this because you couldn’t bear it psychologically.

***

And all this results from the fact that you SPIT, SPIT, and SPIT at alpha males and alpha females, consequently, the only thing they can do is emigrate and never came back...

Germans politicians are smart. Really smart. And so modest and unpretentious.

Most of what you write is too obscure to be meaningful, but are you actually implying that the author, or the mainstream audience, is somehow unaware of the German concentration camps?

I think you live in a world of delusion.

You may have noticed that the whole world is in somewhat dire economic straits these days. Poland is actually fairly well positioned to take off economically when the tide turns. Certainly better so than, say, Bulgaria or Armenia. You're in the EU now, baby.

You have a sense of humour. A tragicomedy.

As Fitzpatrick mentioned, most of what you have written is frankly indecipherable, however think this reflects an attitude I have come into contact with numerous times among those who live in countries that were part of the German Empire pre-WWII, namely that the Germans are constantly trying to regain what was lost (to both the country and to private German citizens) after the war. While there may be a few nutcases such as Erika Steinbach out there who would advocate that Germans displaced from what is now Poland be able to assert their rights as property holders, etc, I frankly think those people are largely ignored within Germany and will for the most part be gone within 20 years at the most. Younger Germans are quite satisfied with the current borders and have no interest in digging up the past.

What continues to astound me if that every single time an article on Germany appears in this forum, no matter what the subject, the attrocities committed in WWII by Germans are inevitably brought up. Can we not have a discussion on modern Germany without the Holocaust playing the major role? Angela Merkel was born after the end of the war (as was even Helmut Kohl!).

Agreed, rambling and very 'driven'. Actually, Ms Applebaum's rosy view of Merkel is that the German Chancellor shines because the rest are so 'dull'. Even duller? She is a Swabian housewife! She is a sort of female Stanley Baldwin (British PM of the 30s) whose motto 'Steady as she goes" masked a singular lack of imagination. You do not have to live in north America to find this 'European Union' all a bit far away and obscure. This weekend in a humourous piece on B.B.C. television about the election of a President for Europe (don't ask!) the same middle level management male face appeared on screen as the tie colour changed in time with the reading of a list of what are to the U.K. audience meaningless names. Yes, I am afraid (I have German relatives) Europe or even, Europeans, have not forgotten the Second World War. If north Americans had had their experiences, neither would have they. However, the enthusiasm for Germany in the U.S.A. has always been marked, past record and all, given immigration from the 'old country'. Applebaum is a germanic name is it not?

Kreuznacher:

Angela Merkel was born after the end of the war (as was even Helmut Kohl!).

Don't get carried away, Helmut Kohl will be eighty next year, and if my math is right, he has been born in 1930. Now, that's nine years before Hitler attacked Poland. Unless you are referring to WWI, of course ...

Yes, I do admit that my comment may be cryptic, for it assumes certain knowledge that those that don't follow the situation closely do not necessarily have. But my addressees are well aware of these issues, and they know what I'm talking about.

"I frankly think those people are largely ignored within Germany and will for the most part be gone within 20 years at the most. Younger Germans are quite satisfied with the current borders and have no interest in digging up the past."- YES, I know it very well. Most Germans have no idea about what's been happening in this part of Europe.

Unfortunately, even the majority of our politicians have no idea about what's been happening here. Others get nice financial rewards for not seeing it, or profit from living in the shadow of such people. It's too tempting, especially if you don't have intellectual capital or you're not a born entrepreneur to earn such money otherwise.

Some people are well aware of the situation, they often learned it the hard way, but they are like cassandras that nobody listens to. Well, even not so much cassandras as people that don't have a remarkable ability to cheat themselves, taking into account the fact that the demise is so manifest and pervasive that one doesn't have to have a penetrating mind to see it. Moreover, this time there is no resistance. Like in Africa, as far as I know. It's really probably the end unless good economists that are also good policymakers, and not only technicians that write cute papers, are engaged to lift post-communist Europe out of the mud. And that seems to be fiendishly hard. Finally, tell me who will decide to lose their health listening to economic adolescent experts and worshipped omniscient gurus that are too weak psychically to admit their defeat and face reality? It's the end....

Don't comment on the issues you don't understand in the slightest degree.

Kreuznacher:

As Fitzpatrick mentioned, most of what you have written is frankly indecipherable, however think this reflects an attitude I have come into contact with numerous times among those who live in countries that were part of the German Empire pre-WWII, namely that the Germans are constantly trying to regain what was lost (to both the country and to private German citizens) after the war. While there may be a few nutcases such as Erika Steinbach out there who would advocate that Germans displaced from what is now Poland be able to assert their rights as property holders, etc, I frankly think those people are largely ignored within Germany and will for the most part be gone within 20 years at the most. Younger Germans are quite satisfied with the current borders and have no interest in digging up the past.

What continues to astound me if that every single time an article on Germany appears in this forum, no matter what the subject, the attrocities committed in WWII by Germans are inevitably brought up. Can we not have a discussion on modern Germany without the Holocaust playing the major role? Angela Merkel was born after the end of the war (as was even Helmut Kohl!).

In my study

Distilled spirits

I thought your post a thing of beauty

As I nosh upon a strudel

Thus it is my solemn duty

To sit and study on a poodle

No matter what the cost

This window seal seems to be broken

I have sealed up the chimney flue

The Word no longer shall be spoken

Do this in remembrance of you

Forget the Holocaust

If you've seen her previous ramblings it's pretty clear Magdalena is a mildly deranged Polish nationalist. I'll summarise: She believes there is a vast Europe wide conspiracy, headed by the Germans, to enslave Poland. From what I can tell she wants Polish markets to be closed to other European countries, all Polish industry to be nationalised and Polish professionals to be paid vastly more than the going rate (in Poland) to stop them from emigrating. However she doesn't want to leave the EU as these socialised industries and wages – and improvements to Polish infrastructure – should be entirely supported by EU subsidies i.e. my taxes (I'm British) and those of the Germans she so despises, without Poland having to provide any access to foreign-owned, and especially German-owned, businesses. This seems only fair to her for reasons I can't fathom beyond perhaps mental illness.

"Yes, I do admit that my comment may be cryptic, for it assumes certain knowledge that those that don't follow the situation closely do not necessarily have. But my addressees are well aware of these issues, and they know what I'm talking about."

Fifty years of Communism, and still, the nomenclatura dominate the Slavs. Magdalena, please step into the modern world. Shed your robe of elitism, get over your university degree in literature, roll up your sleeves and get to WORK. One man, one vote. Goethe is dead, and even when he was alive, a man of privilege and wealth. Yeah he was wise, but largely because he had command of his wise and rich language.

Steinbach is not a 'nutcase'. She represents disposessed victims of tyranny. You failed to mention that within German jurisdiction, victims of tyranny are compensated for their losses and damages. As much as possible. It's a legal process, so it takes time. Often more time to get restitution then it should. The heir's of Wertheim had to wait decades, but restituded they were.

Why can't Steinbach expect to receive the same treatment that her country affords anyone? I know Poles and Checks have a lot to fear. The theft and murder and rape committed against Germans on their lands are of a magnitude that would bankrupt them. Property confiscated by the former Communist regime in East Germany has been restored to their former owners. Dispossessed Germans have been compensated, somewhat, in the German courts. I know that Poles live in fear that some day, an EU court will follow suit. But, relax, it's never going to happen. Poland and the Czech Republic have received special dispensation, from everybody, including the Germans. One great character trait of the Germans that is never mentioned, is, they are truely interested in peace, and are truely sorry for their misdeeds between 1939-1945. Unfortunately, they are the only ones.

Get into the 21th century Magdalena. Get to work, on Poland. And stay in Poland. It's not all about who has the bigger sausage, the bigger status, and biggest fur to go with the big head, but who has the most freedom to be themselves and be all they can be. Your happiness is not in trying to become a Parisian, because that is fashionable today. Haven't you learned anything from Communism?

Germany has been the dominant economy in central and eastern Europe since Bismarck's time, and German was the language of higher education and culture. It always had the soft power to dominate the region. The great tragedy of 20th century Europe was that the German state and people, unified and militarized under Prussian auspices, thought it had to be done militarily instead. What Magdalena is complaining about is the predominance that a pretty much demilitarized Germany enjoys through other means.

Correct. And she believes that the citizens of Europe, including those of Germany, should subsidise the Polish economy and exempt it from competition within the EU so that it can better resist ze evil Germanz. Perhaps she feels Poland would be better off outside the EU, fending off the Russians. I know plenty of people who've lost their jobs to the cheap Polish labour that flooded in to Britain who might welcome that.

jack_cerf:

Germany has been the dominant economy in central and eastern Europe since Bismarck's time, and German was the language of higher education and culture. It always had the soft power to dominate the region. The great tragedy of 20th century Europe was that the German state and people, unified and militarized under Prussian auspices, thought it had to be done militarily instead. What Magdalena is complaining about is the predominance that a pretty much demilitarized Germany enjoys through other means.

The tragedy is that the US through fear of communism and under the influence of our Neocon neocolonialist reached the same conclusion as the German Prussians. It seems our great historical thinkers, such as Henry Kissinger, didn't study their European history with the intent to learn how to balance the power and maintain the peace, like General Marshall successfully advocated after WWII, but instead to find how they, in their arrogance, might "run the table" when given the chance. Compared to the US, modern Germany and Japan are indeed model world citizens but you have to forgive the other people of Europe and Asia for still experiencing some discomfort toward them in the context of past history, Psychologically it is probably depressing to them as well that "the world's only superpower" hasn't had much regard for international cooperation or law for most of the past four decades.

"What continues to astound me if that every single time an article on Germany appears in this forum, no matter what the subject, the attrocities committed in WWII by Germans are inevitably brought up. Can we not have a discussion on modern Germany without the Holocaust playing the major role? Angela Merkel was born after the end of the war (as was even Helmut Kohl!)."

Ditto Israel.