The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - ELTE BTK Történelem Szakos Portál

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historians. 15 This does not mean that this event is much more well-known in Germany than in France: journalist Matthias Kolb does not hesitate to say this about the 23 rd of August 1939: „in Germany this date is hardly known […] „. However, he states there is a conscience of its importance (in particular for Central and Eastern Europe) and of the responsibility of Germany in this event. The use of the expression of pact of the devil or devilish pact, 16 even in the titles of some articles, is, along with the name Hitler-Staline pact a good illustration of this fact. And concerning this subject, the official German statements for the 70 years of the beginning of the war are significant of this state of mind. On the 1 st of September 1st, former Foreign Secretary (and then vice-chancellor), Frank-Walter Steinmeier, wrote an article with his Polish counterpart on the occasion of this anniversary. 17 On the same day, chancellor Angela Merkel came to Westerplatte to apologize in the name of her country to all the victims of the war. The german's culpability does not prevent it from still having a complex. Indeed, a few days before, having underlined that Germany „had caused immense sufferings in the world”, the chancellor also declared that she considered the eviction of the Germans of Poland after the Nazi defeat as an „injustice”: „The eviction of more than 12 million persons from the territories of former Germany that are in Poland today is obviously an injustice, and this also needs to be said”. 18 In France as in Germany, the German-Soviet pact remains above all the events that started or allowed (following different points of view) the Second World War, for its consequences after the war for these two countries are nothing in comparison with Poland or the Baltic States. It is not a holiday and it is necessary to admit that the signature of the pact tends to be relegated to History books. However, in Germany, the very strong idea of the duty of remembrance, consecutive to this world conflict, helps the commemoration of this event to remain strong. III. German and French glances concerning the Russian position in this time But if there is a subject on which the French and German press agree during this anniversary, it is the Russian declarations about the pact on the occasion of University of Erlangen. 15 rd TROEBST, Stefan: Eine schmerzhafte Wunde. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 23 August 2009. He is a historian, teaching at the university of Leipzig and researcher in history of memory. 16 th SCHÖLLGEN, Gregor: Als Stalin und Hitler den «Teufelspakt» schlossen. Die Welt, 24 August 2009. BRÖSSER, Daniel: Ein teuflischer Pakt. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 23 rd August 2009. 17 STEINMEIER, Frank-Walter, SIKORSKI, Radosław: Der Erste September 1939. Süddeutsche Zeitung und the Gazeta Wyborcza, 1 st September 2009. They were respectively the German and Polish Foreign Minister. 18 SAINT-PAUL, Patrick: Angela Merkels' incline devant les victimes du nazisme. Le Figaro, 2 nd September 2009. Rede Bundeskanzlerin Merkel bei der Gedenkveranstaltung zum 70. Jahrestag des Ausbruchs des Zweiten Weltkriegs in Danzig. http://www.bundeskanzlerin.de/Content/DE/Rede/2009/09/2009-09-01-bkin-danzig.html, date of consultation 1 st December 2009. 38
this anniversary and more widely of the anniversary of the beginning of the war. a) Scandal about the Russian statements: reason: the pact Vladimir Putin, during his travel in to Poland, condemned the German- Soviet pact („It is doubtless that we can rightly condemn the Ribbentrop- Molotov pact which was signed in August 1939”) but he really wanted to remind that France and Great Britain had a similar agreement with Hitler in Munich („but one year earlier, did not France and Great Britain sign the famous treaty with Hitler in Munich, ruining all the hopes to form a common front against fascism?” 19 ). Finally he also invited „to turn the page” of the Second World War in order to improve the Russian-Polish relationships. It is all the more possible, according to the Russian Prime Minister, since „Russians and Poles had fought against the same common enemy during the war” and since the Russians „had [during the war] considered the Poles as brothers of weapon” 20 . Le Figaro shows itself very critical because it accuses Russia to distill declassified „archival documents” „tending to involve Poland in the preparation by Nazi Germany of the invasion of Soviet Union” 21 „in order to clear itself of responsibility in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact”. The German press uses the same comments by evoking in particular, in the weekly paper Der Spiegel, an historical quarrel 22 between Poland and Russia about the Soviet Union’s responsibility in the beginning of the war. Piotr Buras, a Polish journalist, about Vladimir Putin’s comparison of Katyn’s massacre with the death of 17 000 Soviet soldiers in Polish jails in 1920, reminds us that Russian historians agreed too because „the Russian soldiers died after diseases and not because of a ball in the nape of the neck like the Polish soldiers” 23 . b) Unanimous critics against Russian nationalist revisionism But even beyond Russian declarations (which are sometimes scandalous), the French and German journalists are particularly interested in Russian nationalist revisionism which was encouraged if not led by the Kremlin. Marie Jégo in Le Monde evokes a Russian attempt to rehabilitate the pact, Stalin's „brilliant blow” „having allowed to put the entry of Soviet Union in the Second World War two years later”. 24 This revisionism is all the more dangerous as it 19 st AFP: Poutine condamne le pacte germano-soviétique de 1939. Libération, 31 August 2009. 20 AFP: Seconde Guerre mondiale: recueillement en Pologne sur fond de polémique. Le Monde, 1 st September 2009 21 st AVRIL, Pierre: Varsovie et Moscou s'accusent de réécrire l'histoire. Le Figaro, 31 August 2009. 22 st Geschichtsstreit überschattet Gedenkfeier in Polen. Der Spiegel, 1 September 2009. 23 BURAS, Piotr: Kaczynskis Holocaust-Vergleich ist unangemessen. Die Zeit, questioned by Katharina Schuler, 2 nd September 2009. Piotr Buras is the Germany-correspondant of the Gazeta Wyborcza, the biggest overregional Newspaper in Poland. 24 th JÉGO, Marie: Moscou tenté de réhabiliter le pacte. Le Monde, 30 August 2009. 39
Page 2 and 3: ISBN 978-963-284-164-9
Page 5 and 6: Unknown Clauses: The Background Dea
Page 7 and 8: CONTENTS Foreword (István MAJOROS,
Page 9 and 10: Foreword The world remembers in 200
Page 11: The Historical Judgement of the Mol
Page 14 and 15: went often on emotional instead of
Page 16 and 17: What is much more interesting is th
Page 18 and 19: such an international agreement as
Page 20 and 21: Text of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggress
Page 22 and 23: Done in duplicate, in the German an
Page 25 and 26: Lachaise, Bernard Historiography of
Page 27 and 28: Relations) are the focus of special
Page 29 and 30: Russian agreement (…) would allow
Page 31 and 32: Europe and on the French communists
Page 33 and 34: adopted a stance of denying the fac
Page 35 and 36: Ortolan, Guillaume The 70 th annive
Page 37 and 38: government (more than twenty) came,
Page 39: War. On the contrary, it shows that
Page 43: interesting: „Illusions. In summe
Page 47 and 48: Kretschmann, Vasco The ideological
Page 49 and 50: One of the most influential associa
Page 51 and 52: Germanness in the provinces of West
Page 53 and 54: Prętkiewicz, Przemysław The syste
Page 55 and 56: interwar period and the treaty was
Page 57 and 58: situation of rising danger accepted
Page 59 and 60: Manchukuo and broke relations with
Page 61: I would like to finish my article w
Page 64 and 65: party itself but for the whole Slov
Page 66 and 67: In summary, the group of the „Mod
Page 68 and 69: make proposals or suggestions. 6 In
Page 70 and 71: (Aland), Hanko and the islands of t
Page 72 and 73: have had a less serious effect on t
Page 74 and 75: not expect strong resistance and ho
Page 77 and 78: Winkler, Paul Adolf Eichmann’s Vi
Page 79 and 80: individual offenders, 10 who used h
Page 81 and 82: esearch. But how could the suppress
Page 83 and 84: expert of this matter 29 and had as
Page 85 and 86: Arendt on the contrary is in the op
Page 87 and 88: the „matter”, where there was a
Page 89 and 90: adoption of the model it became cle
Page 91 and 92:
of Eichmann. For that Heydrich deli
Page 93:
esistance […] but of logistics. N
Page 96 and 97:
British government refused to give
Page 98 and 99:
ole in the defence of Madrid in Nov
Page 100 and 101:
public doubt the democratic idea of
Page 102 and 103:
Republicans. In the refugee camps i
Page 104 and 105:
102
Page 106 and 107:
iron? Where can one find more nicke
Page 108 and 109:
According to his diaries, the main
Page 110 and 111:
announced: „We have no active all
Page 112 and 113:
110
Page 114 and 115:
negative, an analysis of the disapp
Page 116 and 117:
can let think of an imminent war po
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de la guerre [il] ne fait que l'agg
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Party), the enemy of the inside. Of
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120
Page 124 and 125:
Before the Pact M. Coulondre, the F
Page 126 and 127:
Lets us skip a few decades and list
Page 128 and 129:
argain with. Hitler had an offer th
Page 130 and 131:
secret protocol clarified that the
Page 132 and 133:
to reach out for Russia through the
Page 134 and 135:
of a war interesting rather on civi
Page 136 and 137:
At the same moment, we can note an
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Faure 2 , remains hostile to war. I
Page 140 and 141:
war can still be avoided in June 19
Page 142 and 143:
acked by a „belligerent” coalit
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142
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agreement” sound anachronistic. E
Page 148 and 149:
1939 between Germany and the Soviet
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Two ideas emerge from the press: on
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soviets didn’t have motive. Blum
Page 154 and 155:
Moscow's line, with the national an
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154
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2.000 German speaking inhabitants).
Page 160 and 161:
The Eastern Polish border was not r
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Army. The mayor of Lviv did not wan
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162
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Budapest, and for Warsaw. The two c
Page 168 and 169:
could not destroy the Polish Air Fo
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independence, Romania was forced to
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importance for the events considere
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possible future opposition to the S
Page 176 and 177:
ate of communists within the Jews o
Page 178 and 179:
the initial positive feeling toward
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wanted to take revenge for the NKVD
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German Reactions A last point that
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182
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