Rumpus over grinning Warsaw Rising toys

Cobi: 'Powstanie Warszwawskie

The toys, which were manufactured by Cobi, a Polish firm that creates products comparable to Lego, come complete with barricades, and the set has been released as Poland marks the 70th anniversary of the insurgency.

“Who smiles during a war?” argued psychologist Dr Barbara Stawarz in an interview with the Dziennik Polski paper.

“Probably only a psychopath,” she added.

“There is no truth in this - neither historical nor psychological” she claimed.

Meanwhile, noted historian Professor Andrzej Chwalba stressed that “the smiling SS man is an extremely repulsive product.”

However, Cobi has defended the toys.

“The figures are supposed to be for children, so they are smiling,” said deputy director of Cobi, Urszula Siedlecka.

“Would menacing, contorted faces have been more appropriate?” she questioned.

“Then we would here complaints that we are scaring children,” she claimed.

One history teacher who has a young child told the paper that in reality, Nazi or Polish Underground symbols will be meaningless to most children, and that the majority of toddlers will see the products as no more toys. (nh)