‘160,000 People Were Killed’ – Legia Warsaw Fans Keep It Light With Graphic Pre-Match Tifo About 1944 Uprising (Photo & Video)

Chris Wright

3rd, August 2017

13 Comments

Photo via @Regista_Michael/Twitter

On Wednesday night, Legia Warsaw played Astana in a Champions League qualifier that just so happened to coincide with the 73rd anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.

The Uprising began on 1st August 1944, as Polish civilians revolted in an attempt to free their city from Nazi occupation. The fighting lasted for 63 days, during which approximately 200,000 people, most civilians, were killed.

As the entire city marked the occasion, the Legia fans followed suit with a decidedly bleak pre-match tifo depicting a young boy having a gun held to his head by a Nazi officer…

Historically accurate, yes – but still…

Posted in Champions League, Photos, Videos

Share this article: Email

13 Comments

  1. Adam says:

    Hi,

    In short: officer standing behing is a German soldier, not some cryptic individual of a long-forgotten Nazi tribe

    My problem with how this happening is described is the way Western media describe German behind that boy: as a Nazi officer.
    As if they were afraid of using the real name: German officer.

    Please remeber: historical accuracy starts with proper naming and by naming that guy as a ‘Nazi’ you create an impression of Nazi being something distinct from being a German.
    People tend to forget who was the real invader, who murdered Jews, Gypsies and Slavs and assume that Germans wrere somehow forced to obey Hitler.
    In fact,
    1) they ellected him in a democratic way (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_federal_election,_March_1933)),
    2) they read ‘Mein Kampf’ (a bestseller in Germany, published in 1925) in which Hitler laid out his ‘race theory’ and plans for acquiring more ‘lebensraum’.

    Please stay accurate, otherwise in few generations all atrocities will be assigned to some misterious ‘Nazi’ people, who ones reigned unwilling Germans.

    • JP says:

      Got something against Germans, Mr Wikipedia?

      If you want to continue your pointless pedantry, why not go a step further and call him a ‘Wehrmacht Officer’?
      Have a bit more reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht

      • D Rob C says:

        I’m pretty sure most Poles who have had their relatives murdered by Germans during WW2 have something against Germans. Funny that you should call the guy Mr. Wikipedia and then quote Wikipedia yourself. Overwhelming majority of Wehrmaht soldiers and 99.9% of its officers were German so, yeah, Adam is pretty much correct. Moreover it is well documented which units took place in pacifying Warsaw and murdering its citizens. Do some reading yourself.

        • JP says:

          The people of Germany WERE forced to obey Hitler and Nazism. I think all the German people who had family killed for opposing Nazism within Germany would agree.

          You might one day realise the irony in selecting which facts you acknowledge in order to justify prejudices.

          • Monofiliusz says:

            You might one day realise the irony in selecting which facts you acknowledge in order to justify prejudices.
            — Right back atcha!

          • przegosc says:

            JP, stop with this nonsense. Following your logic, every single soldier belonging to the aggressive side in the history of man is innocent because he was to some extent pressured to join the ranks. Your idea of pre-war Germans as innocent sheep that were somehow forced to follow shows how limited your understanding of WW2 history is.

            During the post-war trials of the concentration camps staff, a common line of argument of the highest-ranked officials was exactly the same nonsense. They just followed orders, not following is punishable! How about taking responsibility for one’s actions instead of moral relativization? I know it’s a crazy idea.

          • acton says:

            @JP: Don’t forget that Hitler and his National-Socialist party was ELECTED in 1933 by the Germans. Unlike Lenin, Hitler did not take power through coup d’etat, but democratic process. Besides, the Germans were overwhlemingly supportive of the regime till its last days.

          • Tim says:

            What about all the jewish Germans? There were pleanty of Germans who did not support nazism – thats why it is important to distinguish between the two. Plus the fact that there is still a whole country who identifies as German, who aren’t Nazis. Yes Hitler was elected, but that was on a campaign of intimidation and lies…

  2. Huck Fitler says:

    Fuck Nazis, then and now.

    Way to go, Legia Warsaw! Never forget.

  3. MIKE says:

    These were NOT Wehrmacht officers. These were GERMANS, trying to put away the blame to so called “NAZIS” or “WEHRMACHT”>? No Germans killed Poles, Jews, Russians and Roma. Simple as that!!

  4. Anonymous says:

    Isn’t this a football website?

  5. Luke says:

    Amazing! I have noticed the Germans try to distance themselves from being responsible for the WW2 over the last years and the term ‘Nazi’ is used instead with no connection to Germans or Germany. This is a great reminder who murdered innocent people across Europe during the WW2 – the Germans. Well done Legia fans!

  6. Bremer Junge says:

    Considering that this thread covers a very sensitive issue, I will try to choose words carefully.
    It is clear that Polish lives, which have been taken during the Siege of Warsaw, matter just as much as all the other lives taken under german tyranny.
    Also, there is a considerable portion of our society claiming (Right wing spectrum size 15 – 20%) that actively demand historical responsibility for the horrendous crimes committed during Hitler’s reign to be lifted. I would assume that there is another good portion of people that do not take an upfront stance and actively say: Yes, it was our ancestors that did all this. They rather stay quiet and go on with their daily lives. That being said, it was still us, it is true, and you may always shout it out as loud as you can that it was German people who initiated the biggest mass murder in history. Actually, in 1967 some german psychologists named Mitscherlich wrote a phenomenal book on the issue, why post-war Germany was doing a pretty bad job at commemorating the victims and facing the facts properly. It’s called the inability to mourn. That may just be a side note here. Good read btw.

    The problem in our society is that there is a considerable lack in critical thinking, and the generation of such capacities are no longer a real part in our education system. It is basically all about law-abiding conformism our education system is designed to support. Concerning WWII some crucial parts of explanation are hardly accessible for the average citizen. We had had it all at school for years and years, learned about the fatality numbers, the perverse actions by the SS, the war itself and the horrible BS that the Nazis did. Despite the fact that the topic is covered extensively in class, it seems ineffective to just teach what happened without delivering a comprehensive sociological picture, which was not as much part of the NS education. Even at a private stage, I would wish more people made a stronger effort to overcome their political indifference and cognitive boundaries, that prevent them from asking hard and ugly questions so a more intense debate on WWII and Nazism would arise.
    One last remark: It is not easy to fully expose oneself to that whole pile of shit. It hurts badly, and sometimes, from a personal perspective, one might feel too insecure to let it completely sink in over and over again. At least that is how I feel sometimes

Leave a Reply to Anonymous