Only a few days ago, the memorial stone had caused indignation in Germany and Poland. In Bytom in Polish Upper Silesia - the former Beuthen - a memorial stone with German inscriptions had been erected on Memorial Day. The stone not only commemorated the "fallen German soldier" during the First and Second World Wars, but also reminded "of the self-defense and free-corporal fighters and the murdered and oppressed East Germans".
The memorial stone, among other things co-financed by the AFD member of parliament Stephan Protschka, originally also bore the inscription of the right-wing extremist "Young Nationalists", which had been plastered before the installation - allegedly at the request of the AfD politician.
Among the listed "initiators" on the stone counted the AfD offspring "Young Alternative" (JA) from Berlin and the fraternity "Markomannia Vienna to Deggendorf" observed by the constitution protection as well as other persons from the right scene.
Glorification of Nazi crimes
Alarmed by German media reports, the Polish embassy in Berlin last week had spoken of a serious issue that had been investigated, inter alia, the Institute for National Remembrance (IPN) in Poland. As the SPIEGEL learned on Tuesday, the monument has already been cleared. The process was confirmed by the Polish Embassy in Berlin.
According to an IPN statement written in German, the inscriptions "German National Socialist soldiers from the Second World War" and "Members of the formations Selbstschutz und Freikorps" are glorified. The stone's installation "horribly insults the memory of the millions of citizens of the Republic of Poland, of Polish and Jewish descent murdered by members of the criminal National Socialist formations of Germany".
According to the Institute, the cemetery administrator had not agreed to the lineup. Shortly after the construction of the stone was smeared by apparently Polish right-wing extremists - with signs of racist "White Pride" and in German with the word "Raus" and "Szwaby", which colloquially in Polish is a derogatory term for Germans.
The Institute of National Remembrance stated in its statement that any such object should be "immediately removed."
As the press attaché of the Polish Embassy in Berlin, Dariusz Pawlos, told SPIEGEL that the memorial stone of the parish cemetery in Bytom was "removed on 22 November". Also, the Institute for National Remembrance will soon report to the prosecutor (read the statement of the IPN in full).
JA member apparently as an initiator
The initiative for the installation of the memorial stone evidently came from the local representative of the Federal Youth of the German Minority (BJDM) in Poland, Markus Tylikowski. He is also a member of the AfD junior boy alternative and had participated in the spring of the office of AfD MPs Protschka at a youth parliament of the Bundestag. The BJDM board dissociated itself from the action of its member and also from its contacts, which Tylikowski had maintained in the fundraising search. For example, he had received a check for over 200 euros for the stone, as evidenced by a photo from the Dresden NPD boss Maik Müller circulating on the internet.
Among other things, the reference to the Freikorpsverband in Poland had caused outrage. The units - they consisted of predominantly demobilized soldiers - were founded after the end of the First World War in December 1918 by the Reichsgesetz first as armed units for the protection of security and order.
Many of their followers, however, were right-wing radicals and supporters of the Volkish movement, who were involved in the suppression of the Spartacists in Berlin and the Soviet Republic in Munich in 1919. In addition, the Free Corps also fought as "Border Guard East" against units of the resurrected after the First World War Polish State in Upper Silesia. In addition, during the Nazi occupation there were self-defense organizations set up by the SS, which were made up of members of the German minority in Poland. These murdered thousands of Poles after the German occupation of Poland.
The memorial stone in Poland also caused indignation because he indirectly assumed that there were no war cemeteries in the country for German soldiers. According to the Polish Embassy in Berlin, thirteen official war gravesites are currently maintained and maintained in Poland, on which German soldiers from the First and Second World War are buried. Remains of German soldiers found in recent excavations in Poland would either be buried on these sites or transferred to Germany, it was said.
