Commemorating courage
Perhaps wisely, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder didn't attempt to follow in the trailblazing footsteps of his predecessor, Willy Brandt, who stunned Polish public opinion by kneeling in front of the Ghetto Heroes Monument to the Jews killed during the April 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
Schroeder swung through Poland for a one-day visit last week on his way to the European Union summit in Nice. He paid his respects in front of the monument after first taking part in the opening ceremony for Willy Brandt Square in Warsaw's Muranow district.
The square is close to the Ghetto Heroes Monument, where in "a moment full of emotion Chancellor Willy Brandt knelt, seized with contrition, before the monument to fascism's victims," according to historian Norman Davies. Brandt made the historic gesture during his 1970 visit, when he signed a treaty recognizing the border between Poland and Germany that had been established by the Americans, British and Russians during the 1945 Potsdam Conference. It took Western Germany 20 years to accept the border, which crosses the Odra and Nysa Luzycka Rivers in western Poland.
Schroeder said that he vividly remembered the moment: "Back then we were hopeful about the future relationship between our nations, but we also had a lot of doubts.
"We were asking ourselves whether Brandt would be able to step over that horrible precipice (between the two nations)." And Brandt took that step, Schroeder said, in "a moment that took our breath away."
Tadeusz Lange, a senior citizen and avid historian, also remembers the events of 30 years ago. "I didn't see it, I only heard about it, but that was enough to make an incredible impression on me," Lange said. "It was really difficult to believe that a representative of the German nation could behave like that."
He said that even 25 years after the war, he had little faith in the Germans. "I think Brandt's actions softened our attitude to the German people," he said.
During last Wednesday's ceremony, Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek also acknowledged the impact of Brandt's gesture. "It was a gesture that, together with the letter of Polish bishops to the German ones, was the next step in changing Polish-German relations," Buzek said, referring to the famous 1965 letter in which Polish clergy wrote that they "forgive and ask for forgiveness" from the German nation.
Anna Rowidzka, whose windows look out on Willy Brandt square, wasn't so ready to forgive in either 1965 or 1970. "I was shocked by the letter, and Brandt's gesture meant nothing to me," Rowidzka said. "I now think that I wasn't a good Christian then." She said that with maturity, she appreciates what Brandt did:
"I think no German politician would do that today." But she also thinks "Brandt's kneeling by the monument was strictly political."
Others are less skeptical.
"It wasn't just a political gesture," said Andrzej Zozula, from the Union of Jewish Communities (ZGWz). "It was a rare case of a politician behaving in a risky but at the same time very human way."
Members of the ZGWz were less interested in the intent behind Brandt's gesture than the fact that the square's opening ceremonies made no mention that the victims to whom Brandt paid tribute were Jewish.
As ZGWz member Piotr Kadlcik pointed out, the politicians emphasized the significance of Brandt's actions for Polish-German relations, and omitted that "after all, what Brandt did 30 years ago, he did for the Jews."
