President Steinmeier addressed all Poles and asked for Forgiveness
The Warsaw Uprising is one of the bloodiest chapters in the long history of the Poles and the Germans
August 04th, 2024
"I ask, here and now, for forgiveness"
At the memorial ceremony to mark 80 years since the Warsaw Uprising, Federal President Steinmeier addressed all Poles and asked for forgiveness. "The Warsaw Uprising is one of the bloodiest chapters in the long history that our two peoples, the Poles and the Germans, share with one another. And it is one of the most heroic chapters in Polish history", the Federal President said.
These are the people of Warsaw. Immortal is the nation that can muster such universal heroism. For those who have died have conquered, and those who live on will fight on, will conquer and again bear witness that Poland lives when Poles live. These moving sentences come from one of the last radio broadcasts made during the uprising in the heroic city of Warsaw, as Churchill writes in his memoirs.
I am deeply moved to be able to join you here today and to have been asked to address you as the President of the Federal Republic of Germany. I know that this can by no means be taken for granted. And I can assure you that it is a great honour for me.
The Warsaw Uprising is one of the bloodiest chapters in the long history that our two peoples, the Poles and the Germans, share with one another. And it is one of the most heroic chapters in Polish history.
The Polish Home Army’s revolt against the German occupiers is a central and highly symbolic event in the history of your country that still resonates powerfully today. It exemplifies the determination to prevail, not to give up on freedom without a fight. It exemplifies pride in having stood up to an aggressor. The Home Army fought the German occupiers for 63 days. Occupiers who carried out mass murders of civilians and who razed the city almost to the ground following the uprising. But here I stand today, in Warsaw, the capital of our friend and neighbour Poland. And I can see, and we all can see, that Warsaw lives! To quote the radio broadcast once again: These are the people of Warsaw!
The protest movement that later emerged in Poland in the 1980s, that served as an example for many others and that ultimately led to freedom in Central and Eastern Europe, and to freedom in the eastern half of my country, too, this movement was inspired by the same unbending spirit.
Not bending to violence, to barbarity, but resisting, not lying down and accepting injustice and daily terror, but resisting, standing up to the occupier, protecting one’s home, family, friends, this is what the Warsaw Uprising stands for, both as a unique historical event and an enduring, shining beacon.
Faced with the heroism, the incredibly courageous action of the resistance fighters, their unconditional desire to win freedom and preserve their dignity, I bow down today in the utmost respect.
You, the people of Poland, have never forgotten the Warsaw Uprising and you will never forget it. And we, the Germans, in whose name I have the privilege of addressing you here today, we must not forget it.
We must not and we will not forget what immeasurable suffering we Germans inflicted on our neighbouring country, how brutally and destructively the German occupiers treated the entire population after invading Poland on 1 September 1939 and devastating this country, its villages, towns and cities, so utterly. Even today, as I know, the suffering and the grief live on in the memories of many families here in Poland. They resonate to this day. And they are very much present.
I would today like to address each and every Pole and particularly the veterans, the heroes of the Warsaw Uprising, who are sitting before me.
Esteemed veterans, there are no words that do justice to this horror. And so I would like to say just one sentence. But one that comes entirely from the heart and is entirely serious. I ask, here and now, for forgiveness.
It was German nationalism, imperialism and racism that led to these terrible crimes that Poland fought back against during the Warsaw Uprising. Things must never again be allowed to reach that point. And so it is not enough to merely look back without acting on what we see. What always also matters is to learn from the past for a better future.
I am delighted that we, Germans and Poles, have become good neighbours. It was a long road, and never an easy one for either side. When we consider everything that we have been through, then the rapprochement and reconciliation that have taken place are in fact almost a miracle. A miracle for which we can only be thankful.
But reconciliation and good neighbourliness, all of that was not and will not become simply a matter of course. No, I am aware that it was not only the fight against the German occupation that required courage. The history of reconciliation with the Germans, too, required courage, here in Poland as elsewhere. Yes, it needed and needs courageous, forward-looking people committed to mutual understanding. And it needs people who know the culture of their neighbour and can come to appreciate it again. Who know what particular abilities, what hopes, dreams and experiences shape the other, what feelings, what fears and what aversions.
The German Government has just approved plans for a German-Polish House in Berlin. A forum for remembrance of Polish suffering and the Polish victims of the Second World War – as well as a forum for exchange. And alongside the German-Polish House, many other efforts are underway, including for the remaining survivors of the German occupation. And, as you know, our two governments are liaising closely on this.
In the heart of Europe, Poles and Germans have committed to working together and for our friends and neighbours in solidarity and in pursuit of peace. And this is what we are doing, together, in securing our borders and our alliance – and in supporting Ukraine.
Central to these efforts is NATO, to which our two countries belong and which secured and continues to secure freedom, peace and prosperity for its members. We have just celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of NATO’s founding.
And the European Union – it is the great peace project, in which we must invest all of our energy and passion. Its origins lie in the horrific experience of two World Wars, the Germans’ destructive fury, the crime against humanity that was the Shoah, committed by Germans, not least here in Poland. But the European Union, eighty years after the war, is no longer concerned only with "Never again". Because war has come back to Europe, a terrible war of aggression. Putin has brought it back. He is seeking to destroy Ukraine, and he is threatening us all. And so there is one thing that matters now and in the coming years: Let us maintain a united front in Europe! Let us be strong! Let us remain true to the values that we have fought for and won together – freedom, democracy and justice!
Today, nobody in Europe is fighting as courageously and as heroically as the Ukrainian people. They are fighting for their freedom and their autonomy. And they are fighting against a brutal and contemptible aggressor. We, Poles and Germans, stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and will continue to do so. We support their heroic struggle, and we stand by them on their path to European Union membership. Today’s anniversary also imposes a duty on us – never again will we accept injustice and tyranny, aggression and occupation in Europe!
Dear Polish friends! I once again bow down before those who fought in the Warsaw Uprising. I once again ask for forgiveness. May our two nations continue to work for a better future in a peaceful and united Europe.
