On 23rd February 2021 Dr Wlodek Meir-Jedrzejowicz, Chairman of the London-based Federation of Poles in Great Britain, sent an open letter to Mr Andreas Michaelis, German Ambassador in London, asking the German government to "review, if not terminate" permission for completing the construction of Nord Stream-2. This pipeline is due to supply Russian gas directly to Germany across the Baltic Sea, bypassing and thus isolating the current pipeline through Poland and Ukraine, and thus leaving those countries more vulnerable to Russian aggression.
German President Walter Steinmeier has aggravated Poles throughout the world, including in the UK, by justifying the Nord Stream project as a moral compensation for German crimes in Russia during the war. While Germany was indeed guilty of mass killings in Russia, the President overlooks the sense of guilt and need for compensation that Germany owes the Polish nation after 1939, when 20% of its population (a higher proportion that in Russia) was killed and many cities were destroyed. Dr Meir-Jędrzejowicz wrote "Poles throughout the world are deeply upset by the moral implications arising from (these) comments."
The Federation of Poles in Great Britain, a CIO charity, is an umbrella body that has acted as the voice of Polish organizations in the UK since 1947. There are currently more than 1 million UK residents of Polish ethnic origin in the UK. The Federation address is 240 King Street, London W6 0RF.
For further information please contact Wiktor Moszczynski, spokesman for the Federation of Poles in GB, tel 07786471833.