Tusk jokes that Poles shouldn’t ‘panic’ if they see German soldiers helping out after floods

Too soon? Apparently 85 years is long enough.

Poland’s leader had a message for his people Thursday: Don’t freak out if German troops roll into your town.

As Poland struggles with devastating floods that have carved a swathe of destruction through Central Europe, submerging entire communities and leaving at least 21 people dead, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that Germany had offered to send troops to provide support.

“If you see German soldiers, please do not panic. They are here to help,” a deadpan Tusk said at a crisis meeting in Wrocław, a city in western Poland facing rising floodwaters, according to Polish media.

He added that American troops were already providing support to flood-affected communities in southern Poland and that Turkey had extended a similar offer of assistance.

Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939 together with the Soviet Union, annexing and dividing the country between them, triggering World War Two.

That history has long been a sticking point in German-Polish relations, with Warsaw demanding financial reparations from Berlin for its wartime devastation, though relations between the neighbors are otherwise stable.

Tusk, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer will meet in Wrocław Thursday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss their response to the floods.