MP says term Nazi acts as ‘firewall between the real perpetrators’ of Shoah

Using the term Nazi acts as a “firewall between the real perpetrators” of the Second World War, a Conservative MP has claimed.

Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury and Atcham) said Germany and the German people should be held responsible, and criticised what he called “revisionism” over who started the conflict.

The Polish-born MP also reiterated he has had discussions with barristers to see whether a private prosecution “against Germany on behalf of Polish and Polish-Jewish survivors who are British citizens” can be implemented, in order to secure compensation.

He told a Commons debate on Holocaust Memorial Day: “The problem with the term Nazis is that it is a firewall between the real perpetrators, which are the Germans.

“And we are now seeing a revisionism as to who was to blame for the start of the Second World War.

“We’ve President Putin last week claim that Poland was somehow partly responsible for starting the Second World War.

“I think it’s very important not to use third-term expressions like Nazis, but say exactly who started this and who was responsible, which is Germany and the German people.”

He later said: “Many honourable members have used the term Nazi, and I am very worried about that term.

“It is almost like a firewall in front of the responsibility of the German nation and the Germans.

“It is almost as if Nazis are some third party who descended on us temporarily.

“They were not Nazis – the Nazi party was a political party – most of the people who carried out these brutal attacks in Poland were German soldiers and German Gestapo officers who were not connected with the Nazi party. They were Germans.

“When I talk about the revisionism that is taking place today, we must remember who the perpetrators of these appalling crimes were.”