The cover
Photo: EPA
Germany's Angela Merkel
Photo:Reuters
Polish weekly shows Merkel in concentration camp prisoner uniform
'How Germans turn themselves into World War's victims,' headline reads; Poles outraged over German series showing Polish resistance as anti-Semitic
A Polish magazine created an uproar after its cover photo featured Germany's Angela Merkel dressed in a concentration camp prisoner's uniform.
"Distorting History: How the Germans managed to turn themselves into World War II's victims," read the cover of the Uwazam Rze weekly.
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The weekly's cover followed general outrage in Poland over a new German historical miniseries which depicted Polish resistance fighters as indifferent to Jewish suffering during the war.
The weekly's cover (Photo: EPA)
On Wednesday, the German Der Spiegel reported the cover as the latest in the long-running verbal dispute between Germany and Poland regarding the blame for the war.
While Germany disapproved of the weekly's "bad taste," Poles accused their German neighbors of falsifying historical facts and turning the war's victims into its perpetrators.
The three-episode miniseries, "Our mothers, our fathers," which aired on the ZDF network at the end of March, focused on the fate of five Germans during World War II.
In one scene, a group of Polish fighters allows a concentration camp bound train to carry on when they realize the passengers are Jews.
In another scene a Polish character says "We drown Jews like rats."
ZDF stated in response that there was no attempt to distort history or make light of Germany's blame for World War II.
The series' producer, Nico Hofmann, said that "the scenes are based on historical data. There was no intention to insult the Poles."
He added that the show's goal was to encourage national debate on the war.
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