Poland in South Africa

We kindly invite you to read the fragments of the interview that appeared in the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa on May 8, 2020.

 

(…) ”We must not allow the situation where the executioner replaces the victim.  The Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact is a direct proof of the preparation for the joint aggression against Poland, dividing sphere of influence and occupation of other Baltic States – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.  As a result, millions of citizens were subjected to mass repressions”.(…)

(…) ” The Polish authorities protect places of burial of all soldiers who died in our lands  regardless of their nationality.  All those graves are maintained and renovated with Polish public funding.  I would expect to see equal respect to the burial places of Poles in Russia – victims of the Soviet repression.”(…)

(…) ”Polish heroes did not get the chance for clearing their names, regarding the Cold War in Europe and Poland under influence of the USSR. Many of the commanders like General Sosabowski or General Maczek remained abroad for the rest of their lives and had to work hard physically.  What is more, some of them were deprived of Polish citizenship.  Those who decided to stay in Poland, like Auschwitz volunteer Captain Witold Pilecki, were sentenced to death by the communist authorities”. (…)

(…) “I’m concerned while looking at the places of remembrance in other countries, including the remains of the Gussen camp in Austria.  It is a place of torment of the Polish intelligentsia and the site of mass extermination of Polish and European Jews and several thousand Italians.  The citizens up to 26 countries were imprisoned and murdered in the Mauthausen – Gusen system”. (…)

(…) “We need to demonstrate our solidarity and cooperate in combating the coronavirus, as it knows no borders and hits the entire population.  However it would be naïve to believe that all manifestations of the international assistance, especially those offered by countries striving for domination in the world such as Russia or China, derive purely from altruistic motivations”. (…)