Gdańsk’s celebrations for the end of World War II took place this morning at the Monument “To the Innocence of Gdańsk”. Peter Grzelak He said at the celebration that the global conflict had claimed tens of millions of victims. He recalled that one of them was “Erwina Barzychowska, an 11-year-old pupil of the guard who guarded the Polish Post Office in Gdańsk.” He also mentioned a dollhouse on display at the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, which belonged to “a German girl who hid in a shelter in besieged Berlin and played with these dolls.”
– These two girls, young women, their childhood was taken away, their lives were taken away, what we can enjoy today was taken away. And what happened in the beginning? In the beginning was a word. A dirty word. A word against another. A bad word from Poles against other countries, from Germans against other countries. Europe was divided because of this bad news. And today it seems good to remember the words of the President of the European Council, who said that today the language is slowly turning in the wrong direction, Grzelak stressed.
– We are increasingly using the conjunction “or” instead of the conjunction “and”. We are not looking for conjunctions that connect, but conjunctions that separate. Today we can – and must – honor the memory of the victims of World War II, but a much greater task awaits us. The task is to find what connects. What unites Poland and now, in the near future, what unites Europe – Grzelak concluded his speech.
Grzelak’s statement sparked controversy. Journalists present at the ceremony asked local government officials to comment on the words. The statement was criticized by the chairman of the PiS councilors’ club in the Gdańsk City Council, Kacper Płażyński. In his profile on the social networking site, he quoted Grzelak as saying: “What was the beginning? In the beginning there was a word, a bad word. Words against each other. And this bad word was Poles against other countries, Germans against other countries. Europe became a bad word that was divided.”
Płażyński commented on the quote: “Not only in… Gdanskbut such words have no right to be uttered anywhere in Poland. I wonder if Piotr Grzelak is also counting on a friendly pat on the back from Donald Tusk, as Tusk did with Jażdżewski.
As reported by Radio Gdańsk, when asked by journalists after the ceremony, Grzelak “assured that the goal was not to equate the responsibility of Poland and Germany for the outbreak of World War II.” – If it sounds like that, I apologize. No one questions who is responsible for World War II, whether it was the Third Reich and, secondly, the Soviet Union. However, what I want to say is that today we are responsible for ensuring that Europe remains united so that this tragedy does not happen again, the Vice President told journalists, as quoted by the radio.
On his social media profiles, Grzelak wrote in the afternoon that he “would like to assure you that he did not in any way intend to point the finger at Poland as a party responsible for this great tragedy.” “There is no doubt that the aggressors, led by the Third Reich, are clearly to blame for the outbreak of World War II. I apologize if anyone was offended by the words I used,” he wrote. “My intention was to draw attention to the full responsibility that lies with us today, regardless of nationality, for the words we say. Words that can unite, but also divide very strongly. We take full responsibility for Europe and for ensuring that such a tragedy does not happen again. World War II It does not happen again in the world,” Grzelak added.
(pmd)
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