Disinfo: Europe not prepared to admit that Poland and others colluded with Nazi Germany

Summary

Russia possesses documents confirming that several European countries, including Poland, engaged in negotiations with Nazi Germany. Europe is not yet prepared to admit this part of its history: that Poland and other European countries colluded with Nazi Germany. Moreover, Lipski, the Polish ambassador to the Third Reich, had promised to erect a monument to Adolf Hitler for the Führer’s plan to deport Polish Jews to Africa.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that attempts to relativise and erode the disastrous historical role of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact by stating that other countries signed various international agreements with Adolf Hitler throughout the 1930s and that Poland was an ally of Nazi Germany. The article also contains the recurrent disinformation message that accuses Poland of anti-Semitism.

The claim that Poland was “an ally of Nazi Germany” goes against all available historical documents. It is impossible to compare the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934 with the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, as the former was a standard international agreement aimed at the mutual recognition of borders and a declaration that existing political conflicts would be solved through diplomatic tools. There is no historical evidence that this pact contained any secret protocols which assumed common aggressive actions of Germany and Poland against third parties.

In the case of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, it is a historical fact that it contained the Secret Supplementary Protocol, which assumed the division of Poland and other Eastern European countries between the USSR and Germany. Moreover, in 1934, the plans of Hitler were still unknown, so all European countries carried out normal diplomatic relations with Germany.

By contrast, the secret protocols to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact definitely provided for the division of the territories of other countries between Germany and the USSR. The Nazi-Soviet Pact enabled the German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler and the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to start the war by assaulting their neighbours and to create the situation, where “territorial and political restructuring” occurred, followed by the wide seizure of foreign territories and the elimination of independence in neighbouring countries.

Read similar cases claiming that some European countries especially Poland, had conspired with Nazi Germany, that the German-Polish non-aggression pact of 1934 assumed the partition of the USSR, that the Nazi-Soviet Pact was a direct result of the Munich Agreements that sold out Czechoslovakia, that Poland was a Nazi ally, and that Warsaw colluded with Hitler to expel Polish Jews to Africa.

publication/media

  • Reported in: Issue 183
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 04/02/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Italian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Italy, UK, France, Poland, Germany
  • Keywords: Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Anti-Semitism, World War 2, Jews, Adolf Hitler, Nazi/Fascist
see more

Disinfo: Anti-Semitism flourishes in Ukraine

In Ukraine anti-Semitism, racism, nationalism and xenophobia flourish. But the Ukrainian authorities refuse to admit it.

Disproof

This is the Kremlin’s systematic disinformation campaign that anti-Semitism in Ukraine is on the rise and that Ukraine is a Nazi state.

The Israeli government’s annual report on anti-Semitism in the world says that by the end of 2018, Ukraine recorded a low incidence of intolerance towards Jews. Moreover, the report presented in 2019 by the Israeli Minister for Diaspora Relations, Naftali Bennett, states that “the anti-Semitic incidents in Ukraine were inspired by outsider forces hostile to Ukraine, aimed at discrediting Ukraine in the eyes of the global community” (p. 72).

Disinfo: Ukraine is sold in parts to the West

Ukraine is sold in parts to the West. The Ukrainian government sold the country’s main railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, to Germany. External governance, hidden under the guise of reforms initiated by external actors, result in the obvious – the loss of sovereignty, territories, and the state as such.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Ukraine is a failed, disintegrating state with no sovereignty and under Western control. Ukraine has not “sold” or “handed out pieces” of its main transport company to Western partners. During the Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on 22 January 2020, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk announced that German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn had signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure. According to Honcharuk, the memorandum does not even speak about the “sale or lease of such a strategically important state object, but rather that German specialists will advise on the reorganisation of Ukrzaliznytsia.” At the same time, Deutsche Bahn specified: the management of Ukrzaliznytsia will remain in the hands of the state, and “the engineering and consulting company Deutsche Bahn on infrastructure, mobile and transport projects will advise and support the Ukrainian railway in business and technical matters." For similar cases, see here.

Disinfo: Stalin never cooperated with Hitler

Joseph Stalin was not named a criminal in any legal documents and never cooperated with Adolf Hitler. It was Stalin who stopped Hitler.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative that the Soviet Union is not responsible for starting World War II. Read similar cases that the USSR signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact with Nazi due to Poland's aggressive policy and that the Soviet Union was forced to sign the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. The USSR also started negotiations with Germany in parallel and on 23 August 1939 signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop (Stalin-Hitler) pact. The agreement was accompanied by a secret supplementary protocol, which divided territories of Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland into German and Soviet "spheres of influence". The pact had the most tragic consequences for European nations and the world. What followed was the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the USSR in September 1939, followed by the further carving up of Europe. The Kremlin denied the existence of the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact up until 1989.