A Step Toward Conciliation

The war aim does not consist in attaining particular goals but in the physical annihilation of the enemy. My order is to send every man, woman and child of Polish origin and language to their deaths mercilessly and without pity.

--Adolf Hitler, 1939

To a sickening degree, Nazi Germany obeyed the Fiihrer's genocidal injunction. By the end of World War II, one out of every five Poles--6,000,000 in all --had perished at German hands. After the war, the Poles were unbendingly hostile toward the West Germans in particular, regarding them as the moral heirs of Hitler's Third Reich.

Last week in Warsaw, in a dramatic step toward conciliation, Polish Foreign Minister Stefan Jedrychowski and his West German counterpart, Walter Scheel, initialed a treaty designed to restore normal relations between the two countries and capped it with a champagne toast. The treaty, said Chancellor Willy Brandt in Bonn, would be "a liberating step toward a better Europe--a Europe in which borders no longer divide. That is what the youth of our countries expect and we no longer want to burden them with the past. Instead, we want to give them a new beginning."

Emotional Barrier. Behind the pact lay 1,000 years of deep mutual hatred between Germans and Poles. With the Treaty of Warsaw, Brandt thus cleared the greatest emotional barrier in the East bloc to his Ostpolitik, whose aim is to create a more relaxed atmosphere between West Germany and its Communist neighbors.

He has already put his signature to the Treaty of Moscow, in which the Russians and West Germans pledged to respect present frontiers in Europe. The treaty, however, has not yet been ratified. Since the Czechoslovaks, Hungarians and Bulgarians are soon expected to start talks with West Germany, East German Communist Leader Walter Ulbricht feels increasingly isolated. Last week he agreed to reopen the dialogue with Bonn, which was broken off last May after the fruitless second summit meeting. In the Treaty of Warsaw, Bonn renounces its claim to the 40,000 sq. mi. of former German territory east of the Oder and Neisse rivers that was ceded to Poland after World War II as compensation for 71,000 sq. mi. of Polish territory that had been annexed by Russia. In turn, the Poles have agreed to allow the 100,000 or so ethnic Germans remaining in Poland to resettle in West Germany.

Outdated Villain. Though other Western European countries recognized the Oder-Neisse Line as Poland's western border, West Germany remained a holdout. After Brandt took office 13 months ago, both Bonn and Warsaw agreed that the time had come to settle the border issue. Says the Chancellor, who has been invited to Warsaw for next month's official signing of the treaty: "We are not giving away anything that was not gambled away a long time ago."

In return, West Germany got, among other things, the first favorable press coverage from the Poles since World War II and official praise for Brandt's policies. The new mood may well cause a major revision in the exploits of Poland's most popular television spy. Poles have long thrilled to the heroics of Captain Klos, Warsaw's answer to James Bond, who consistently traps West German agents. Now Klos will probably have to search for different villains.

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