West 'to appease aggression again?'
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
02.09.2014 15:13
On the 75th anniversary of the beginning of WWII, a group of Polish intellectuals and artists have warned tension caused by the Ukraine crisis is “reminiscent of 1939”.
90 percent of the town of Wieluń left in rubble on 1 September 1939 by Nazi bombers: photo - wiki/CC
The appeal by veteran film director Andrzej Wajda, novelist Dorota Masłowska and WWII war-veteran and former foreign minister Władysław Bartoszewski, among others, and published in Belgian’s La Libre Belgique, Die Welt, Le Monde and Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza says the West appears to be capitulating again to aggression, just as it did as Hitler's troops marched through Europe.
“An aggressive state – Russia – takes over Crimea, a part of its smaller neighbour’s territory,” the appeal says, under the title 'Why die for Danzig?', as Gdansk in northern Poland was known at the outbreak of WWII.
“President Putin’s army and special services operate in eastern Ukraine, often covertly, supporting separatist formations that terrorize the local population and openly threatening invasion,” the appeal continues.
“All European citizens and every European country should take part in campaigns aimed to help alleviate the threat hanging over Ukraine,” say the Polish intellectuals.
“Yesterday it was Danzig, today it is Donetsk: we cannot allow a situation where Europe will be living again for many decades with an open and bleeding wound,” the open letter concludes. (pg)
Read full appeal here