Adolf Hitler as an honorary citizen of Polish cities? Benito Mussolini, Empress Catherine II of Russia, and Gerhard Schröder as recipients of the Order of the White Eagle? It sounds like a grim joke, but it is reality. In the latest issue of the weekly Gazeta Polska, Piotr Lisiewicz exposes what he describes as the shocking negligence of the Polish state regarding its highest honors. Why do criminals and controversial figures still appear on lists of those officially honored? The answer sheds light on what the author sees as the pathologies of the Third Republic of Poland.
In 2024, a historian from Iława discovered that Adolf Hitler still officially remained an honorary citizen of the town. Similar situations exist in Wrocław and Gdańsk. Local authorities often argue that such distinctions automatically expired with the fall of the Third Reich. According to the article, however, the real reason for their inaction is purely political. Officials fear that removing Hitler would trigger a broader wave of decommunization. Municipal authorities would then also have to strip honors from figures such as Bolesław Bierut, Konstanty Rokossovsky, and Viktor Kulikov, who still share honorary citizenship titles with Nazi leaders.
The history of Poland’s highest decoration—the Order of the White Eagle—is portrayed as equally disturbing. Poland has never revoked the award from Benito Mussolini or Philippe Pétain. Both received the honor in the 1920s, before they became associated with regimes later condemned by history. The list extends even further back. The order was awarded to Empress Catherine II, one of the architects of the partitions of Poland; Alexander Suvorov, responsible for the massacre of Warsaw’s Praga district; leaders of the Targowica Confederation; and Nikolai Novosiltsev, remembered from Adam Mickiewicz’s Forefathers’ Eve (Dziady) as a symbol of Russian oppression and Russification.
According to the article, the problem did not end with the fall of communism. President Aleksander Kwaśniewski awarded the Order of the White Eagle to Włodzimierz Reczek, a communist activist from the Stalinist era. The same distinction was also bestowed upon Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor who, shortly after leaving office, began working with Russian interests and became involved in the Nord Stream gas pipeline project.
The author summarizes the situation with a quotation from Stanisław Wyspiański’s Liberation (Wyzwolenie), cited in the article:
“Ours is a hospitable country. Indeed, there is room for every thief.”
Why has the Polish state avoided confronting this controversial legacy for so many years? Who else appears on these historical lists of dishonor? And why is the Palace of Culture and Science still, in legal terms, a building bearing Joseph Stalin’s name?
The full article by Piotr Lisiewicz, rich in historical details and documentation, can be found in the latest issue of Gazeta Polska. The piece invites readers to reflect on the state of Poland’s historical policy and its approach to controversial figures honored throughout the nation’s history.