“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme” – Mark Twain
Each country has its own history, some points which are more important for the ones than for other countries. Almost every country had a golden age, where the empire had its pique and was influential. For Austria it was the time of Austria – Hungary and for Poland the time of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Coincidental both countries had their peak in a union with another state. Could be foreshadowing that the history rhymes again and another union will be a golden era in our both histories.
But I don’t want to talk about golden eras in history, more about the dark part of History. The second world war, probably the darkest part of our both history but with a different background. After the second world war was over the narrative that Austria was the first victim of Nazi Germany was common. It was thought in schools and it was willingly accepted by the society, because it is always easier to play the victim instead of facing the hurtful truth. Then a change happened when Kurt Waldheim, a former Secretary of the United Nations and he was also the elected President of the Republic Austria, got confronted with his past. He was an officer in the Wehrmacht during the second world war, but he never mentioned it. It was reported during the election but nevertheless he won and become president of Austria. During this presidency he was mostly international isolated. This was in 1986. More than 40 after the war ended Austria questioned the role we played. The mentality of the first victim changed into the perpetrator we were, it took too long but, in the end, now we are more aware of the truth.
In Poland the second world war has also a central role in history, but in a different way. Seeing the history of Poland, during the second world war in Museums, gave me a new perspective in a lot of things. Before I was coming, I didn’t know exactly what was happening in Warsaw. I just knew Warsaw has been destroyed during the second world war, but I never heard about the Warsaw uprising. There is a museum, which covers these events very well. All throughout the museum are leaflets on the wall with some announcement and they were written in Polish and German. Therefor I understand it and it was always written in such an official way and it was horrifying how the announcement of the death penalty for over 100 people was written in a way like every other announcement.
Words have sometimes more power then we estimate. The language is a tool, we use everyday but it can be used in a way which creates hate and this can lead to action, only based on words and therefore we have to look that history don’t rhyme to much in this part and if we hear such rhyme we have to stop right from the start. This is universal for all countries
16.02.2020