Poland's border shifted 150 kilometers west in 1945. Breslau became Wroclaw. Danzig became Gdansk. Millions of Germans had to leave. This was not a natural boundary finally settling into place. It was a decision made by Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt drawing lines on a map during a conversation.

They treated Eastern Europe like a child rearranging toys. The Soviet Union moved bodily westward, swallowing what had been Poland. Poland took German land in compensation. Governments rounded up populations and forced them across borders. Entire cities and regions swapped national identities. No referendums. No local say. Winners wrote the rules.

This pattern repeated across the continent. The Austro-Hungarian Empire crumbled in 1918. Outsiders who had never visited the region redrew it anyway. Romania grabbed land from three neighbors. Hungary lost two-thirds of its territory. Leaders invented Czechoslovakia from scratch, drawing borders around ethnic groups that had lived separately for centuries.

Today we pretend these borders are permanent and natural. Children memorize them in school as if they have always existed this way. The European Union built its entire founding principle on respecting existing borders. Yet most of Europe's boundaries were drawn by outsiders who ignored local populations. Borders born from conflict and ethnic cleansing became the foundation of peace.

Europe has memory loss about its own history. The continent lectures Africa and Asia about respecting borders while its own borders rank among the most recently redrawn on the planet. We demand permanence from others. We treat our own borders as unchangeable facts. The hypocrisy is complete.