Peace In Our Time

Oh great. Germany and Poland are at war again.

A football war, that is. The Euro 2008 football championship is underway--tonight Holland beat the reigning World Cup champs, Italy (whoopty-whoop!).

Poland played Germany yesterday. In the lead-up to the match, this appeared in one of the Polish tabloids:



It created a bit of a fuss in Deutschland.

Poland's national football coach apologised yesterday after a tabloid newspaper ran a gruesome depiction of him holding the severed heads of Germany's national trainer and team captain and demanded he slaughter them at the forthcoming Euro 2008 championships.

[...]

The picture ran alongside the caption: "Leo, Give us their heads," arguing that Poland, which has never beaten Germany, had waited too long for a victory over its neighbour. The image followed another tabloid's take on the rivalry, which showed Ballack wearing a Prussian helmet and recalled a 15th-century battle in which Teutonic knights were defeated by the Poles.

"This picture is an absolute scandal," said Peter Danckert, chairman of Germany's parliamentary sports commission. "I hope that the Polish government will react to it in an appropriate manner."

Germany's tabloid Bild responded by stating in a provocative banner headline that Poland had declared war against Germany and calling it "disgusting".

Poland still feels a bit bitter about being invaded in 1939, having its cities destroyed, its population enslaved, and its Jews completely wiped out in the opening stage of a war that would eventually kill 60 million people. Oh yes, sweet football revenge was coming.

As it turned out, Germany beat them 2-0.

Don't worry Poland, Russia's still in the tournament.


But wait; here's the kicker:

The photomontage in Super Express of Poland's Dutch coach, Leo Beenhakker, clutching the bloodied heads of Michael Ballack and Joachim Löw provoked outrage i Germany...

That's right! Just like the guy who burnt down the Reichstag in 1933, giving Hitler the opportunity to seize full power, the guy shown ready to decapitate Germany's football team captain is Dutch. Oh Holland, why can't you leave those Germans alone...