When Is a War Really Over?
During World War II the Nazis transferred the collection of the Prussian State Library in Berlin to 29 sites throughout the Third Reich in an effort to protect the treasures from Allied bombs.
Five hundred wooden crates containing manuscripts and documents were placed in the Sudety Mountains at Ksiaz Castle, although they were later moved farther south.
Here’s the problem, when the Polish border was shifted to the west at the end of the war, the collection fell into the hands of Polish authorities who moved it to Krakow at the Jagiellonian University Library.
Some of the materials went back to Germany in 1977, the remainder are still in Poland. They include original manuscripts by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Goethe. Germany wants them back.
Poland, a country that endured a merciless five-year occupation that led to the death of six million Poles has essentially responded with, “Yeah, so?”
The official statement issued by the Polish Foreign Ministry read in part, “all artworks, library and archive materials and all other objects of German origins that found themselves on Polish territory in connection with World War II were taken over by the Polish state on the basis of appropriate legal acts.”
The Ministry made it clear the opinion is the last word on the subject and that they have no intention of entertaining any more groundless claims.
The position of the Polish government is understandable in an emotional sense but for that matter, so is Germany’s. The issue raises the questions, when is a war really over?
There’s universal agreement that works of art taken by the Nazis are to be returned to their legal owners whenever possible. And yet anti-German sentiment is still sufficiently strong that German national treasures are not accorded the same respect.
It’s a difficult subject, one to which I have no answers, but I find it an incredible example of just how recent the war really is in our collective societal memory.
WWII, Poland, Germany, artwork, Prussian State Library
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