DISINFO: Polish elites try to put Poland in the row of the countries which collaborated with Nazis
SUMMARY
The official [Polish] historical policy glorifies those who thought about collaboration with Nazi Germany. Increasingly, we hear fantasies about how we could have captured Moscow together with the Wehrmacht.
In this way, contrary to historical facts, the Polish political elites are de facto trying to put Poland in a row with Latvia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia and other countries with dark spots of collaboration with Nazi Germany.
RESPONSE
This message is part of the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism. It accuses Poland of the “falsification and rewriting” of its history and, sometimes, Poland is presented as a supporter of Nazi Germany.
The claim that the Polish authorities allegedly glorify Nazi collaborators or “try to put their country in the row of Nazi collaborators” is a clear historical manipulation. Polish society and the authorities are highly critical of both the German and Soviet totalitarian regimes, which attacked the country in September 1939. There is a special law in Poland prohibiting the propaganda of both Nazi and Communist totalitarian ideologies.
The Baltic states and Ukraine were not allies of Nazi Germany during WWII - the Baltic states were occupied both by the USSR and Nazi Germany, facing enormous suffering from these two regimes.
According to mainstream Polish historians and the views of the predominant part of Polish society, in 1944-1945, the USSR occupied Poland, establishing the undemocratic and repressive Communist Poland. De facto, Poland appeared under the Soviet military occupation until 1989. Only in 1993 the Russian troops were fully withdrawn from Poland.
See other cases promoting the message that Poland has “sympathy” to Nazis: The Polish authorities systematically rewrite history, absolving the Nazis, the Third Reich and Hitler of their sins; Poland rewrites history erasing the names of Polish soldiers, who fought against Nazism and Poland uses Russia as its external enemy, presenting it worse than the German Nazis.