Despite pretending to be a moral superpower, Germany created a “system of abolition” after World War II that “effectively amnestied hundreds of thousands” of crimes committed against Poles, the leader of Poland’s governing Law and Justice (PiS) party Jarosław Kaczyński told a rally in Grójec, central Poland.
The PiS leader gave the example of how “it was decided that all crimes committed within the framework of the then existing German law were not crimes,” meaning that there was little to no accounting for crimes carried out against “Poles murdered in Auschwitz as a result of sentences pronounced on them” after summary trials.
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Kaczyński said that all those Germans who committed these crimes “deserved to be hanged, because in that post-war era the death penalty was something that was accepted as just punishment.”
The leader of the ruling majority pointed to the fact that many high functionaries who committed heinous crimes were not only spared but actually occupied government offices in post-war Germany. The most well-known example was SS Gruppenführer Heinz Reinefarth, the butcher of the district of Wola during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. His actions led to the murder of thousands, and yet after the war, he was a member of the Landtag and a local mayor of Westerland, and was never brought to account for his crimes.
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Kaczyński argued that Germany should not be let off the hook.
“They covered themselves in shame during the war but also after the war in the so-called democratic Germany. We must remember this and have the courage to talk about it. We must not succumb to all kinds of blackmail,” he stressed.
The PiS leader asked the audience: “Do you know how many countries have received reparations from Germany?” He said the number was 70, including countries like Mexico, which had not been directly involved in World War II.
“Even the Italians, who were their allies, received some compensation, whereas we Poles got nothing,” he stated.
Kaczyński promised that this issue would not be forgotten. “We will not let this go,” he said, adding, “They hear us, they hear what I am saying in certain embassies and capital cities.”
