Poland's Prime Minister also reads SPIEGEL HISTORY.
That's gratifying, it surprised us.
Around Christmas, the SPIEGEL editors received a statement from Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who had read an article in the current issue of "Hitler's Faithful People" on "Aryanization," the gigantic robbery of Jewish Germans through expropriations.
The head of the government and the national-conservative PiS party thought that was aptly described, but missed the description of the “historically unprecedented looting” in Poland: “In 1939 the killing and looting really started.
The German invasion of our country and the six-year occupation left a wound that hasn't healed to this day," writes Morawiecki, a studied historian, in his guest article.
He explains the devastation caused by Nazi tyranny: the immeasurable suffering of the 5.5 million victims and their families in Poland, but also the destruction of towns and villages, the countless stolen works of art, the smashed monuments and sculptures, the burned libraries and archives.
The government estimates the Polish losses at 6,220,609,000,000 zlotys.
This corresponds to around 1.3 trillion euros, i.e. 1300 billion.
Morawiecki demands that Germany must take on not only political and historical but also financial responsibility - through compensation payments.
There have been vehement debates on this in Poland for years.
The German federal government, meanwhile, rejects any negotiations because the reparations question has long since been legally settled and the then communist government of Poland declared in 1953 that it would refrain from German payments.
»The Germans like to play the role of world champion in coming to terms with their past.
But most of them only have a vague idea of what the Nazis did in our neighboring country," says our colleague Jan Puhl, who deals intensively with Poland in the SPIEGEL editorial team.
He sees domestic political reasons for the compensation claims almost eight decades after the end of the war, but above all Poland's strong desire to free itself from the historical role of victim and "to be more active and demanding towards Germany and the EU".
Morawiecki wants to win over the European public for this - and "German arrogance" is actually a problem in the attitude towards Eastern European EU partners, says Jan.
Were we pope?
Benedict XVI is on New Year's Eve.
died, Pope for eight years until his resignation in 2013 - the first pope from Germany in the history of the Catholic Church for a long time.
"We are Pope," was the euphoric headline in the "Bild" newspaper after his election.
Was that really us?
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger represented an extremely conservative Catholicism, a rigid sexual morality, and a tough stance on ecumenical questions.
History editor Felix Bohr describes him as the "face of an epochal crisis": because the bishops under Benedict's aegis remained rigidly clerical, because the church apparatus today stands for "rigidity, refusal to modernize and abuse scandals" instead of "sincerity and decency".
Read Felix's commentary on the decline of Catholicism here.
In an interview, the sociologist of religion Detlef Pollack explains how believers are slipping away from the churches – he speaks of a “tipping point” with serious consequences for society.
And the historian René Schlott describes the sometimes astonishing ceremonies of the Catholics at the death of their leader: "Three gentle hammer blows on the forehead confirmed the death."
If you haven't been able to read our issue "Why the Germans fell victim to National Socialism" yet: Order it now or subscribe to SPIEGEL HISTORY, because the next issue will be coming soon.
In it you will learn everything about the way of life and culture of the first Americans, far beyond the clichés of »noble savages«, tipis and totem poles.
More on this in the next newsletter, which you can order here.
Until then, please write to us at spiegelgeschichte@spiegel.de.
We wish you all the very best for 2023!
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