Poland’s parliament declares Germany and Soviet Union equally responsible for start of WWII
The lower house of Poland’s parliament has adopted a resolution which condemns the false and provocative statements by Russian senior government officials regarding Poland’s responsibility for unleashing World War II.
The Polish parliamentarians believe that such statements are designed to discredit Poland and to damage Russian-Polish relations.
“Relations between the countries cannot be built on lies and the falsification of history,” the document states.
The resolution points out that World War II was begun by the two totalitarian powers of the time – Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union, “after the signing of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact”.
“The war led to the deaths of tens of millions of people, the creation of Nazi concentration camps and the Holocaust in Europe – one of the greatest crimes in the history of humanity,” the resolution observes.
The document emphasizes that “the Sejm of the Republic of Poland pays tribute to the memory of the victims of Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism, and wishes for the history of their martyrdom never to be falsified, or to be treated as an instrument”.
The Polish parliament called for mutual reflection on the principles for building international relations, which should be the basis of “mutual respect, partnership and good neighborliness”.
The document was drafted with the involvement of Sejm Deputy Marshal Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, who announced the consideration of the resolution on January 5.
On January 3 it was learned that Polish President Andrzej Duda had decided not to travel to Israel to attend a global Holocaust memorial event on account of Putin being invited to attend and speak. Duda’s decision to boycott was based on a series of statements made by the Russian leader in December regarding Poland’s role in World War II, and the fact that Duda himself will not be given a chance to speak at the forum.
While speaking at an annual press conference on December 19, 2019, the Russian president justified the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939 citing Soviet propaganda that the Polish government at the time had effectively lost control of the country. Putin also said that the Soviet Union was the last country to sign the Treaty of Non-Aggression with Germany.
Later, during a Defense Ministry meeting, Putin called Jósef Lipski, the Polish Ambassador to Nazi Germany in 1938, a “scoundrel and anti-Semitic swine”.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in turn accused the Soviet Union of allying with Nazi Germany, emphasizing that the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact essentially became a treaty agreement between the two countries.