[ad_1]
The image is iconic: 50 years ago Willy Brandt, then German Chancellor, knelt in front of the monument to the victims of National Socialism. Journalist Jacek Lepiarz talks about the aftermath of the gesture on German-Polish relations.
SRF News: Would you describe the kneeling position as the moment when the normalization of the Polish-German relationship began?
Jacek Lepiarz: The kneeling came spontaneously and surprised everyone, both the German delegation and the Polish hosts. The photo went around the world. My thesis, however, is that this gesture only developed its enormous effect over time, after the fall of the wall, after the Iron Curtain was overcome: in cooperation between a united Germany and democratic Poland.
Why?
The kneeling put the Polish Communists to shame. They were happy with the recognition of the border, but they still needed the image of the evil German for their propaganda. That is why the image of Brandt kneeling was not shown in the Polish media. I was in 10th grade at the time, very interested in politics, and didn’t notice anything on December 7th. I only saw the image two or three months later in the “Spiegel”.
For many Polish communists, but not only for them, Willy Brandt was kneeling in the wrong place.
Furthermore, Brandt was kneeling in the wrong place for many Polish communists, but not only for them. In his opinion, he should not render this honor at the ghetto memorial, but at the tomb of the unknown soldier or elsewhere. Polish-Jewish relations were not the best. In 1968 there was an anti-Semitic agitation in Poland and the emigration of the remaining Jews to the West or Israel.
Legend:
Shortly after the laying of the crown, German Chancellor Willy Brandt (left) signed the treaty in which the Federal Republic recognized the Polish western border. “I apologize for my people, I also pray that we will be forgiven,” he later said in an interview about his kneeling.
Keystone / Files
That Poland felt that Brandt had knelt in the wrong place: was that also an expression of Poland’s ambivalent attitude towards its own role in World War II?
Yes. But then the kneeling served as a point of reference for everyone in Germany and Poland who was interested in a real reconciliation. That was always a symbol to turn to.
Today the relations between the two countries are again very fresh. What is the biggest problem?
Reconciliation has never been an easy task. There are six million dead in World War II between Poland and Germany. National Conservatives have been in power in Poland for five years, and their DNA includes a distrust of Germany.
The values of sympathy for Germans in Poland have recently fallen.
There are many points of contention between Poland and Brussels. However, government propaganda attempts to portray these conflicts as German-Polish conflicts. In this story, Ursula von der Leyen is not the president of the European Commission, but a German who did not learn her lessons from World War II. That poisons relationships. And you can see that in the polls – German sympathy ratings in Poland have recently fallen.
So Willy Brandt’s kneeling was important to the Germans, and to some extent the Poles as well, but not sustainable?
I would say that you have to try to communicate every day. And he wouldn’t have gotten down on his knees if Willy Brandt had looked at the polls. The same occurs with the letter of the Polish bishops of 1965 with the famous phrase: “We forgive and ask for forgiveness.” Perhaps there are very few such personalities today, and perhaps that is why our world is not doing so well.
Interview conducted by Nicoletta Cimmino.
