“Where Southeast Poland Once Was…”
Bertolt Brecht and the Hitler-Stalin Pact
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
In contrast to Polish national memory, the Hitler-Stalin Pact was long a taboo topic for leftwing German memory culture. To this day, the memory of this event is difficult. One of the reasons for this was the widespread notion that anti-Fascism und anti-Stalinism were incompatible. Therefore, Bertolt Brecht, who by all means saw the injustice of the pact, did not express himself publicly at the time. However, in his poem “Children’s Crusade 1939,” which was published in 1941, Brecht speaks a poetic but clear language. Students of Brecht have ignored the historical background of this poem.
(Osteuropa 4/2011, pp. 71–84)