WSJ.com - The New Warsaw Uprising September 13, 2004 REVIEW & OUTLOOK DOW JONES REPRINTS This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit: www.djreprints.com. • See a sample reprint in PDF format. • Order a reprint of this article now. The New Warsaw Uprising September 13, 2004 Last month, Gerhard Schroeder became the first German chancellor to attend the Polish commemoration of the Warsaw uprising against the Nazi occupation 60 years ago. During those 63 days of fighting, the Germans completely destroyed Warsaw, killing about 200,000 people. Mr. Schroeder's participation was intended to demonstrate how far the two countries have come in their reconciliation process. And yet, his presence was already overshadowed by the actions of a few others who seem determined not to let those war wounds heal. Two of them, Erika Steinbach and Rudi Pawelka, have become some of the most famous, or, to be more precise, infamous Germans in Poland. Ms. Steinbach heads the Federation of Expellees, an organization that represents the about 12.5 million Germans and their descendants who were driven away from former German territories in Eastern Europe at the end of World War II. For a long time, the organization refused to accept Germany's new borders and managed through its close links to the Christian Democrats to slow down any reconciliation between Germany and its Eastern neighbors. Ms. Steinbach plans to create a "Center of Expellees" in Berlin, a project eyed with much suspicion in Poland and elsewhere. It is seen as an attempt to rewrite history and to equate the suffering of German refugees after the war with what Poles and others suffered at the hands of Nazi barbarity. But what really got Polish blood boiling was Mr. Pawelka -- a member of the Federation of Expellees -- who has embarked on a legal battle to achieve what he was denied so far in the political arena. Through his "Prussian Trust Fund" he plans several lawsuits this fall in Polish and European courts to fight for the former property of ethnic Germans. Even though the chances of success are doubtful and any lawsuit will certainly take years, the mere thought of Poles losing their land to Germans has shaken the country. That's why much of Poland listened very carefully to what Mr. Schroeder had to say in his Warsaw uprising speech. "The German government will oppose such claims and make that plain before any international court." These were soothing words but not reassuring enough. After all, the German government, although its opinion would probably be heard in the courts, cannot prevent the lawsuits. That's also what Mr. Pawelka said and he is determined to go ahead. Last Friday, it was Poland's turn to raise the stakes. The Sejm, the Polish parliament, with only one abstention passed a resolution calling on the government to ask for war reparations from Germany. Inexplicably, the resolution also accused the German government of "encouraging" the lawsuits, doing injustice to Mr. Schroeder who has sharply criticized Mr. Pawelka. It is unfortunate that the actions of a few private citizens have troubled Polish-German relations and brought about an escalation also on the political front. Luckily, the Polish government tried its best to head off a row with Berlin. Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz rejected the non-binding resolution, saying "it's not reasonable." Even though both governments need to be commended for trying to defuse the situation, the problem is not going to simply disappear. What could be done? For starters, Ms. Steinbach could more credibly distance herself from Mr. Pawelka. If she really opposes these lawsuits as she claims, why does her deputy also double as a deputy for Mr. Pawelka's trust fund? The Christian Democrats, who have long held close ties with the expellees, also need to end all ambiguity about what they think about the issue. If they want to return to power in two years, improving the relations with the new European Union members in the East will be a major foreign policy task. And Mr. Schroeder could try to fend off some of the lawsuits by addressing the problem domestically, trying to determine whether the expellees have any legitimate grievances. Finally, as much as we might emotionally understand Polish outrage, the members of the Sejm need to recognize that a clear majority of Germans reject the actions of the revisionist few. Germany was a strong advocate for Poland's EU membership. Cultivating old stereotypes of the "ugly German" has no room neither in "old" nor "new" Europe. 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