« These colors run | Home | Happy Birthday! »

Wearing out one’s welcome

Thought I’d comment on something I found a bit ridiculous.

In Berlin, plans are underway to construct a “Center of Remembrance” for WWII victims. Not the WWII victims you might be thinking of, either - I’m talking about Germans who were expelled from places like Poland following the war.

I don’t know if you guys have heard or not, but there were these really nasty guys called “Nazis” that ran roughshod over almost all of Europe around 65 years ago. Although I loves me the Germany, it seems a bit insensitive for the Germans to somehow feel like they were victimized following World War II. World War I, maybe - but not World War II. The above picture was taken in Warsaw after the Germans, realizing the eastern front was lost, razed over 80% of the city to the ground and killed roughly 200,000 Poles before surrendering the city to the Soviets. Gee, I wonder why the Germans got the boot?

Angela Merkel visited new Polish President Lech Kaczynski over the weekend, as tensions over the proposed monument simmered. Merkel supports the controversial project, while Kaczynski feels it’s not exactly appropriate for obvious reasons. As the new face of Germany, Merkel hopes to breathe new life into intra-EU relations, and she’d be well-advised to distance herself from something this absurd in the formative stages of her Chancellorship.