When the subject is world conflicts, we simply cannot overlook the main culprit on the block – Germany. And if a German is in action, there is bound to be a Pole getting under his feet. If it hadn’t been for the Poles the Germans would have taken the whole world without one shot being fired on their second attempt. But seriously, think about it, in the many-thousand-year World’s history, there have only been two World Wars, both of them instigated by the Germans. Not a bad track record, huh?
Back to horror. Germany is a male (that being due to high testosterone levels in an average German male’s – or female’s - bloodstream.) I would love to liken Germany to Frankenstein – the name is just right and so are the looks, but no, I will go for Werewolf. Think about it. Overall, on a good day, Germany is a good boy: he has his socks well mended, his shirts are properly starched, he is in school on time, two Minutens before the bell goes off. He knows his times-tables backwards. His gets married at 25, has three boys and a girl by 32, and… by 35 dies in another war (the last event being a bit of a bummer in the otherwise perfect German existence).
A German is well groomed (ok, he burps after meals but that’s only to show appreciation to his devoted German wife who is a bit deaf after all the explosions of the experimental rockets he has fired in their perfect German backyard, next to her washing line). He is also loyal. Not like you, the English! He never argues with his wife and never judges her appearance by comparing her unfavourably to the seductive Polish vixen who lives round the block and leads him into temptation, which he doesn’t fall for, of course. He values his Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut und Berliner Weiße too much to give it up for a moment of madness with a treacherous Pole.
So life is perfect as it should be for our good, prim and proper Germany, until the full moon. Sheiße! Something animalistic, bestial even, kicks in! Our poor German cannot control it or stop it. He starts growing ginger hair all over his back, arms and chest, his solid, square hands turn into paws, and his body expands thereby tearing his perfectly starched shirt. And then he has to go and conquer, hunt and feed on fresh meat. Oh yes, he howls at his misery! But what’s done, is done… And then when the Moon wanes, so does our werewolf’s facial hair and he promptly returns to his basement to write a philosophical dissertation about racial purity. It’s all well intended.
The German story does not leave much room for my Poles. So briefly – Poland is a woman. She is hauntingly beautiful, tall and slim. She is been brought up on Romantic notions to believe in a better world that apparently has once existed, but there is no evidence of it anywhere in sight. But Poland doesn’t care about such trivia as tangible evidence. Poland is an idealist and has been seen fighting tanks with swords off horseback, with some degree of success.
As for horror – Poland is a closet witch. Daytime she attends Sunday mass without a fail and goes to confession to talk about domestic affairs, but at night… At night she practices black magic, makes poisonous concoctions out of snake’s spit and foxglove to add them to the chicken broth she makes for her pain-in-the-arse neighbour who fell victim to some mysterious illness (she denies it had anything to do with her “Fuck my Neighbour” spell). She is so superstitious that her foot will never pass under a ladder, or on a crack of a broken paving stone, or across the path of a back cat! On Friday, the 13th she sleeps under the bed and always keeps her fingers crossed when she lies. She is a witch alright… And in her irrationality she so irritates her sensible, perfect neighbour that he screws her every chance he gets. And that gives him an excuse for another World War.


