Odra Nysa Boundary DEFINITIVE WORK Giertych

Poland and Germany, by Jedrziej Giertych. 1958

Combatting German Revanchism Regarding the Odra-Nysa (Oder-Neisse) River Eastern Boundary of Germany. The Polish Landlord Myth

This book is quite lucid, and I focus on a few issues:

ONGOING RELEVANCE OF THE RECOVERED TERRITORIES

At times, Poland has come under attack for acquiring the territories comprising Silesia, Pomerania, and East Prussia after WWII. This work examines and refutes these attacks. Even today (2018), 60 years after this book had been written, the issue remains relevant. Even though formal German revanchist claims have (supposedly) died out, some Germans still retain the Recovered Territories as a “moral issue” in attempting to force Poland to allow Germans to buy-up Polish lands (notably at Szczecin), and to stake out a moral high ground in that Germans have “already repented for Nazism” in the form of the cession of these formerly-German territories. This is doubly nonsensical, as the Germans were forced to cede these territories just as the Germans were forced to apologize for Nazism and so have no right to claim moral credit for that.

A PERSONAL ASIDE

[The Odra River is Oder in German, which makes one think of odor. As a small boy, I made up this joke: “Why does the Odra River have a bad smell? Because the Germans had it for so long.]

CREATING A NONEXISTENT GENOCIDE OF GERMANS

This is a small but fact-filled English-language book. The 2.2-million-German-expellee-dead-myth is repudiated. (p. 47).

THE RECOVERED TERRITORIES ARE NOT A QUID PRO QUO FOR THE USSR SEIZING THE KRESY

Poland’s acquisition of German territories finds moral and legal justification in terms of German reparation for the German evils done to Poland. (p. 2, 60, 67, etc.). Giertych does NOT see them as a replacement for the eastern Polish territories confiscated by the Soviet Union, or as an undoing of the fact that the recovered territories had belonged to Poland many centuries ago (during the Piast Dynasty).

GERMAN SELF-PITY ABOUT BEING “COLLECTIVELY PUNISHED” FOR NAZISM

As for the accusation of collective punishment heaped upon Germans, Giertych cites an interesting 1946 sermon by Archbishop Konrad Groeber of Freiburg, in which he treated German crimes a moral issue having collective implications in terms of loss of territory. (p. 76). The archbishop pointed out that, although a person cannot be punished for the murder caused by one’s sibling, he may still be morally bound to provide financial assistance to the victim’s survivors. A partner in a business cannot be jailed for an act of fraud caused by an associate, but may well be obligated to help pay in rectification of the fraud.

Let us take this further. If the Allied confiscation of these territories is an act of victor’s justice, and a punishment of Germany for being on the losing side of the war, then what is the Allied confiscation of Poland’s eastern half (the Kresy)?

NO MORAL HIGH GROUND FOR GERMANS (FALSELY) CLAIMING THAT THE RECOVERED TERRITORIES WERE ETERNALLY GERMAN

Jedziej Giertych expounds on the past Slavic character of the territories in question, NOT to justify their Polish re-acquisition in 1945, but in refutation of the “eternally German” myths. There is no basis for the claim that the territories were Germanic until the Slavs drove them out in the 7th century. (p. 4). The fact that the Silingi were a Germanic tribe is irrelevant. The Germanic Burgunds, Vandals, Goths, etc. all had transient presences, but this does not mean that the relevant territories of modern-day France, Italy, etc. are thereby rightfully German. (pp. 4-5). Despite the intense Germanization of recent centuries, large parts of Pomerania, Silesia, Warmia and Masuria, etc. remained substantially Polish in language until fairly recent times. (p. 11, 15, 39-40, etc.).

PAST GERMAN COLONIALISM OF POLAND CANNOT BE COMPARED WITH OTHER COLONIALISMS

Nowadays, past episodes of political and religious colonialism are often considered the same. They are not. For instance, consider Bismarck’s forced-Germanization policies in Prussian-ruled western Poland: “The German influence there remained as superficial and artificial as the Dutch influence in Indonesia and the French in Morocco (with the great difference however, that this was not compensated by any cultural or economic achievements comparable with the Dutch and French in those Dutch and French possessions.)” (p. 94). The missionary-pretending Teutonic Knights exterminated most (though not all) of the indigenous Prussian population and practically annihilated its culture. In contrast, “Let us compare the state of the Teutonic Order in Prussia with a similar state, organized by a religious society, the Jesuit `reduction’ in Paraguay! Jesuits established there a benevolent `Utopia’ the aim of which was the material well-being and spiritual salvation of the natives. The very savage Guarani-Indians became transformed into a civilized and Christian population, which forms today the overwhelming majority of an independent state, Paraguay, and still speaks its native tongue.” (pp. 25-26).

THE END-WWII GERMANS AS VICTIMS NARRATIVE FAILS

The sinking of the WILHELM GUSTLOFF by the Soviets must be kept in perspective. During this same time, Germans evacuated the concentration camp at Stutthof (near Gdansk) and subsequently dumped the sick inmates off ships into the Baltic Sea. (p. 69).

AGAINST THE ATTEMPTED DELEGITIMIZATION OF POLAND: THEN AND NOW

Against “Poland a historical failure”-type thinking, Giertych points to numerous Polish achievements in the short 21-year interwar period (pp. 116-117)–all in spite of the poverty and backwardness caused by 123 years of foreign occupation, massive devastation during WWI, etc. For example, a new large port (Gdynia) was built practically from scratch, 7,000 kilometers of new railways were constructed, and illiteracy in the eastern provinces was reduced from 66% to nearly zero.

This is not solely of historical interest. Nowadays, the cultural Marxists, LEWAKS, globalists, etc., continue to try to delegitimize Poland in accordance with their agendas.

THE POLISH LANDLORD MYTH

Poland was not fixated in feudalism: “By the way, it is not true, as many people believe, that Poland before the last war was a land predominantly of large agricultural estates: according to the census of 1931, 57.6 percent of land in Poland was in holdings under 50 hectares or 125 acres, 25.8 percent in farms and estates over this size, and 16.6 percent, mainly forests, belonging to the state and local governments. Note that on American or English standards 125 acres is not a large estate but a normal, quite average farm.” (p. 117).