But the official insult has awakened the worst Polish fears. Germany's repeated assurances of a desire for a German-Polish reconciliation on the model of the one with France, now look threadbare. The victim is having to beg to be recognized. At some level, we are untermenschen to the Germans still. It's a bad omen.
Ambivalence also reigns in Russia.
Just as it had done fifty years ago Moscow has appropriated the glory, downgrading the proportionately larger sacrifices of Ukraine and Belorus. Just like the victory in the Second World War saved Stalin's regime from possible internal collapse, so the commemoration of its anniversary might yet restore a sense of purpose to the Russia of Boris Yeltsin. And, just as fifty years ago Russians were ambivalent as to whether to regard Stalin as a bloody tyrant, or their deliverer from Nazism, so today, they are confused as to their Soviet legacy. But the latching onto the Soviet legacy of victory carries long term risks. The fate of the statue to Marshal Zhukov makes the point well.