The election run in Poland is taking place at specified a pace that it is hard to comment on or even follow, as it resembles a ping-pong match, and so it is better to look at it from a distance and not to take over these drafts made for five-twelve. However, I found a substance that I considered worthy of comment and development, and it concerns the image of Poland and Polish elections that function in Germany.
A fewer days ago I noticed on German public tv ZDF rather a long study on the situation in Poland. (https://www.zdfheute.de/video/heute-in-europa/sicherheit-polen-trainiert-den-ernstfall-100.html). It mainly concerns how Poles prepare for war and after seeing this material 1 can be convinced that all men, women, and youth are mass trained in the event of war, while Poland is 1 large military camp. This impression arises due to the fact that the main study is the presentation of one-day defence training which has been carried out in Poland for any time.
The German ZDF most likely wants, by showing Poland as full mobilized, to calm its own citizens, due to the fact that if Russia wanted to visit Berlin again, for the 4th time in history, Poles would defend Berlin the same way, or possibly even more than Warsaw.
In this report, edited by the ZDF team, there are besides a fewer contributions to the current presidential elections in Poland. 1 of them is very interesting, showing supporter of Mr. Trzaskowski. The conversation with him, portrayed by the name Paul, is conducted at the gate of his home and he says there, in Polish, that he would like to live in the community (unless European) that cooperation with Germany is simply a good thing and akin clichés. But at any point, a German reporter draws his attention to the fact that the Trzaskovsky banner, which hangs on the outside of his fence, is most likely damaged. The same Lord Paul goes out through the gate to the street and sees that the character of Trzaskovsky on the banner is painted with spray. And this is where it starts to happen, due to the fact that it immediately abandons Polish and starts to talk German, throwing out: – typical Polnische Schweine (Polish pigs). Nichts mehr (Nothing more). It is due to the fact that individual “Neues, frisches Poster (new fresh poster) destroyed him.
Perhaps not everyone knows, but the word “Polische Schweine” is simply a German, racist and dehumanizing word for Poles, as subhumans, commonly utilized by Germans in the times of the 3rd Reich. It is besides crucial that he switches to German and throws out these hateful terms erstwhile he was aroused by the sight of his banner. Often, in a state of agitation, people begin to usage the language in which they were raised as a child, so it can be assumed that the Lord Paul is of German descent. It is besides possible to explain the shocking behaviour of this hard supporter of the Trzask candidacy, namely that he utilized the words "Polische Schweine" as he thought that the Germans, those reporters from the ZDF, would like it.
And I don't think he made a mistake, due to the fact that if he did, the editors of the ZDF would remove this passage about “Polish pigs”, realizing that specified terms should not rain in public. But the behaviour of ZDF should not be surprised, due to the fact that erstwhile it comes to this station, it is known for a long time from anti-Polish jumps. In 2013, ZDF aired the German tv series “Our Mothers, Our Fathers” which sparked large controversy in Poland due to showing soldiers of the AK as anti-Semites. Another time in ZDF, the phrase “Polish concentration camps” was used, for which he sued them to court Korol Tendera – erstwhile prisoner of the German Auschwitz camp. In the Polish court he was ordered to apologize for the usage of this wording, but it proved hard to enforce it and yet took the position until the German Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, who stated that the ZDF did not gotta apologize to Karol Tendera, and the Polish court found the conviction to be a violation of freedom of speech in Germany.
In view of this approach of the ZDF towards Poles, it is not amazing that they could even be satisfied that there was a Polish citizen, who calls his fellow citizens “Polische Schweine” and possibly they could not even deny themselves the pleasance of showing it. It is not even so crucial to analyse their intentions, but first of all, to get free of the illusions about the fact that Germany, as well as many representatives of their interests in Poland, has a different opinion about Poles than the 1 presented by them by the Lord Paul, a strong supporter of candidate Trzaskowski.
We must be aware of this and draw conclusions, besides during the vote next Sunday.
Stanisław Lewicki
