Polish ambassador outraged by Hungarian Chief of General Staff’s “falsification of history”

The Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Budapest was outraged by the words of the Hungarian Chief of General Staff, who drew a comparison between the current geopolitical climate and the outbreak of the Second World War. Sebastian Keciek condemned Gábor Böröndi’s statements in an open letter.

Controversial statement

Lieutenant General Gábor Böröndi, the recently appointed new Chief of the General Staff of the Hungarian Army, said on M1 television that “the Hungarian government considers peace-making important because of the danger of war escalation. In 1939, the German-Polish war started as a local war, but it was not terminated in time by a peace treaty, and this led to the Second World War.”

The statement was already greeted with puzzlement by many on Tuesday. Some accused Böröndi of outright falsifying history, writes telex.hu.

The Polish Ambassador reacted

Sebastian Keciek, the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Hungary, also reacted to Böröndi’s words. The diplomat is perplexed by the Lieutenant General’s words and has written an open letter to the Hungarian Chief of General Staff, reports index.hu.

“I was shocked by your statement on Poland in an interview with M1 state television on 9 May this year, in which you described Nazi Germany’s 1939 aggression against Poland as a ‘local war’ that would not have escalated into World War II if it had been stopped in time by the peace process,” Keciek began his letter.

The ambassador added: “These words, which could be interpreted as accusing my country of complicity and escalation of a global conflict, are for us an unacceptable distortion of history and should not be uttered, especially by a representative of a close ally.”

The ambassador said the world should learn from history and take action against unlawful aggression.

Domestic criticisms

Besides Poland, Hungary does not agree with the statements. According to the national curriculum, Böröngi’s statement is not correct, since it is well known that Germany was preparing for world war from the very beginning.

“The next target of the “territorial settlement” (in fact, aggression) promoted by Germany was Poland. It became clear that Hitler was not only planning to annex German-inhabited territories to his empire but he was preparing for a war that threatened the whole of Europe,” reads the history textbook published by the National Curriculum.