Trump Goes to Warsaw

Says a lot of words. With some notable omissions about — surprise! — Russia.

Justine Jablonska
Jul 20, 2017 · 5 min read

Trump spoke in Warsaw last week.

In front of crowds that were bussed in from rural Poland — including Poles draped in Confederate (!) flags. In front of a Polish crowd that mostly supports its populist, nationalistic, uber-conservative, restrictive government.

The speech was factually correct. Someone on his team knew enough to hire a speechwriter familiar with Polish history.

What’s fascinating is not just what he said, but what he didn’t say, and what he did afterward.

And that speaks volumes about the true intent of the speech, and the man who read it.

It was certainly packed full of Polish history. A history that’s not just complicated, but one repressed for decades by Communist propaganda. As a result, nobody really talks about or pays attention to Poland.

So, what’s Poland generally known for, on a global scale?

The Holocaust. Schindler’s List.

Yes: the Germans built their horrific death camps on occupied Polish territory.

How often have you read the phrase “Polish death camps”? I came across it so frequently when I worked at the Polish Embassy that I ran an educational campaign against it.

Because the camps were never, ever Polish. Poles didn’t work there. They died there, in huge numbers. These were German camps, through and through: built, financed, operated, celebrated by Nazi Germany.

Anything else?

Perhaps Solidarity? But when you hear about the fall of communism, you more likely hear about the Berlin Wall. Poland’s Round Table Talks happened earlier — and it’s because of those talks that the wall fell.

Trump’s speech was excellent at acknowledging numerous heroic and heart-breaking incidents in Polish history the world mostly ignores: the Katyn Forest Massacre, the fact that our borders were erased through numerous partitions over the centuries.

And: that Poland survived through all of it. He praised Polish courage and spirit and strength. No wonder the bussed-in crowds and certain sectors of the Polish-American community lapped it up.

When no one pays attention to you, and someone finally does, especially an American president, it’s understandable to feel some pride.

It was, after all, an acknowledgement of so much that’s gone unacknowledged and ignored at best, misrepresented and misquoted at worst. President Obama used the phrase Polish death camps during a Medal of Honor ceremony in 2012. He apologized for this fundamental mistake afterward, but the copywriter clearly hadn’t done their homework, and the team hadn’t bothered to fact-check that speech.

And so, this time around, Poles felt vindicated and that someone had finally got it right.

But did he? In all the excitement and hullaballoo, few noticed an important omission in the speech, namely what Russia — then an ally — was up to during the Warsaw Uprising.

Monument dedicated to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising; Warsaw, Poland | PHOTO: Spens03

Trump spoke in front of a monument that honors that 1944 uprising. Warsaw was still under German occupation, as it had been since 1939.

Polish patriots wanted to try one last time to throw off that yoke. And so they gathered, and conspired, and fought. They fought for 63 days. It was a desperate battle against the most powerful army on earth.

They lost. Why? They lost because they fought alone; none of the Allies came to help. The U.S. and Great Britain were willing to assist, but their planes did not have the capacity to carry the fuel needed to reach Warsaw. The Soviet Union, also an ally, refused to give permission for the planes carrying supplies and ammunition to land on their Soviet-controlled territories in Poland. That’s right: an Ally wouldn’t let Allied planes land to help another Ally.

None of that was included in Trump’s speech. And because so many of the other facts in the speech were correct, it’s obvious that this was intentionally omitted to not offend Trump’s Russian pal Putin.

Then there’s this sentence in the middle of a paragraph about the Uprising:

“From the other side of the river, the Soviet armed forces stopped and waited. They watched as the Nazis ruthlessly destroyed the city, viciously murdering men, women, and children. They tried to destroy this nation forever by shattering its will to survive.”

So… who was it that “tried to destroy this nation forever”? “They” refers to the Nazis in the speech. But after the Uprising ended, after the fighters were imprisoned, after the war ended, Russia made Poland a communist satellite.

The Russian regime in Poland was totalitarian and cruel; it jailed and murdered those who spoke out against it for more than four decades. During that time, the Russians tried to rewrite Polish history. The Warsaw Uprising? Never taught in schools. Never mentioned publicly. The Katyn Forest Massacre? Same. The Soviet Union blamed Germany until Gorbachev finally confessed in 1990 the Russians were responsible.

Back to Trump’s speech: the Soviet armed forces didn’t just “stop and wait” during the Warsaw Uprising. It was a deliberate act of sabotage. The Polish Home Army sent out ever more desperate pleas for their help, over and over again. Each was ignored.

Stop and wait seems so innocuous. Innocent, even. Like the Soviet army happened to arrive early to a restaurant that’s clearing after brunch before it starts setting up for evening cocktails.

That’s not what happened. The Russians knew exactly what they were doing. They waited, with cold calculation, for the Germans to slaughter the Home Army and destroy Warsaw.

Warsaw Uprising mural in Greenpoint. Brooklyn. P.S. Note to the muralist: Women also fought in the Uprising!

The Warsaw Uprising veterans I’ve interviewed all spoke with quiet conviction and courage, humility and pain about why they chose to participate.

It’s difficult to reconcile their courage with Trump, who once bragged that the most courageous fight he ever had was against VD.

And after that speech, after the crowds were bussed back home, the Confederate flags folded away for future use, after the parades, where did Trump who “loves” Poland go?

To the G20. Where his most reported-on meeting was with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. They spent 2 hours and 16 minutes together. It was a meeting that had been scheduled for 30 minutes.

Today’s Russia isn’t the Soviet Union, of course, but it’s an authoritarian regime whose leader imprisons and murders those who dare speak out against him, and invades former Soviet satellites like Ukraine and Georgia.

It’s a Russia whose interference in the election the U.S. intelligence continues to discover and reveal. It’s a Russia that is waiting to see how America reacts to their meddling in the election, to their documented efforts to get Trump elected.

Since that Warsaw speech, Trump, who’s had not one — but two meetings with Putin — has no doubt forgotten everything that he read about Poland. And to my fellow Poles, I urge the same: forget him and forget his insincere words.

You are beautiful, Poland. Your history is heart-breaking AND heroic.

Understand and believe that.

Don’t rely on a snake oil salesman to reflect your self worth.

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Justine Jablonska

Written by

Content Director, IBM Industries

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