In Berlin, German police officers assaulted Polish activists from the Border Defense Movement (ROG), triggering a wave of outrage in Poland. The attack was motivated solely by the fact that the ROG activists wanted to pray and place a wooden cross next to a memorial stone dedicated to Polish victims of World War II. According to the police, the Poles did not have permission to do so.

A shocking video documents the deliberate brutality of the officers, who attacked a dozen defenseless individuals peacefully carrying a large cross, threw them to the ground, handcuffed them, and beat them.

https://x.com/Poland_Based/status/2066934102406688872/video/1

The state responsible for World War II has once again proven incapable of showing even the most basic respect for the memory of its victims. The suppression of Poles who wished to commemorate those victims discredits the German authorities. If Poles in the German capital are prevented from paying tribute to their murdered compatriots, then we are facing something that should concern not only Poles but all of Europe.

To better understand what happened in Berlin on June 16, it is necessary to recall some background facts.

Exactly one year ago, near the Bundestag, the “Memorial Stone for Poland 1939–1945” was erected. The massive stone, featuring a plaque in three languages, was intended to commemorate the Polish victims of Nazism and German occupation. It was supposed to be a gesture of reconciliation by the German authorities toward Poland, but instead it provoked indignation among many Poles. Germany, the country that destroyed Poland during the war and caused millions of deaths, and which has never paid war reparations—as it has done for many other countries—appeared to be trying to “cleanse its conscience” with a single stone.

As a result of the German occupation, Poland lost nearly six million citizens, half of whom were Jews. During the first year of occupation alone, the SS, the Selbstschutz, and German police forces murdered more than 100,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia. Throughout the occupation, which lasted from 1939 to 1945, they exterminated 55% of lawyers, 30% of scientists, 40% of doctors, 20% of teachers, and 20% of the clergy. Overall, Poland lost 37.5% of its university graduates and artists.

German occupation forces killed 1.5 million children and left 20% of the surviving children orphaned. Furthermore, the Germans deported approximately 200,000 children to Germany for forced Germanization. They murdered nearly all patients in psychiatric hospitals. They burned more than 800 villages, either entirely or partially, killing their inhabitants.

Two and a half million Poles, most of them between the ages of 15 and 24, were forced into labor to enrich German companies such as Hugo Boss, Thyssen Krupp, Daimler-Benz, BMW, Audi, Bayer, AGFA, Siemens, Dr. Oetker, Zeiss, Bosch, Maggi, BASF, IG Farben, and thousands of German farmers. Fifteen percent of these forced laborers did not survive.

The German occupation left approximately 590,000 Poles permanently disabled. One million people struggled with tuberculosis after the war due to malnutrition and overwork, and thousands died within a few years. Added to this were the devastation of the economy, the destruction of industrial, energy, transport, and service infrastructure, the looting and removal of entire factories and workshops, the confiscation of agricultural products and livestock, and the theft of bank assets and personal savings.

Nor can the enormous loss of cultural heritage be forgotten. The Germans removed 516,000 works of art, stripping galleries and private collections. They demolished 25 museums, destroyed 43% of historic buildings and churches, and looted or burned 15 million books. The vast majority of these works of art have still not been returned to their rightful owners, often due to German laws that prevent such restitution.

Every September 1, the anniversary of Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, the world should be reminded of these figures, which many in today’s Germany would prefer to forget.

It must also be emphasized that Poland has never been compensated for these terrible human and economic losses. Moreover, for decades the German government has pursued a historical policy aimed at minimizing German responsibility for crimes committed during World War II and, even worse, attempting to blame the victims for collaboration.

For this reason, the events in Berlin take on even greater significance.

Equally disturbing is a detail that emerged from the footage: a German officer appears to place something into the pocket of Border Defense Movement leader Robert Bąkiewicz before forcing him into a police vehicle. Was the German police force attempting to create a pretext to justify the brutal treatment inflicted on Bąkiewicz?

The footage circulated online shows the ROG leader pinned to the ground by five officers, his face pressed into the pavement. The videos also show police targeting individuals carrying a cross, tearing them away from it, throwing them to the ground, and handcuffing them. These were not young protesters but people of a certain age. The confiscated cross can be seen lying on the ground.

Perhaps the most shocking image shows a man holding a rosary in his handcuffed hands. It is therefore not surprising that comments appearing on Polish social media beneath these photos and videos include statements such as: “German police are like the Gestapo!”

What would happen if a similarly brutal intervention by German police targeted Muslims demonstrating in support of Palestine? What would happen if Polish police brutally treated Jews carrying Israeli flags at Auschwitz during a peaceful but “unauthorized” commemoration of Jewish victims of concentration camps?

There would undoubtedly be worldwide criticism of the Polish authorities, accompanied by attacks and accusations across mainstream media. Yet when German police act brutally against Poles seeking to commemorate the victims of German crimes, there is no media reaction, no widespread outrage, and the shameful footage is not shown on television.

The events in Berlin also represent a test for Donald Tusk and Radosław Sikorski, politicians known for their subordination to the oligarchies of Brussels and the German Chancellery. Will they react to the disgraceful treatment of Poles by German police, or will they remain silent so as not to offend their “protectors”?

We are confronted with something larger than a simple issue of maintaining public order (even if some local regulation may have been violated, as German authorities claim). This concerns a sensitive nerve in Germany’s historical policy: its crimes during World War II.

Original Italian article published by La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana:

https://lanuovabq.it/it/onoravano-le-vittime-di-guerra-la-polizia-tedesca-picchia-i-polacchi