Survivors
of Auschwitz-Birkenau,
Ladies
and gentlemen,
I
would like to thank the International
Auschwitz Committee for the invitation
to speak to you here today.
In
my estimation an invitation of this kind
is still not something that can be taken
for granted. It would be fitting for us
Germans to remain silent in the face of
what was the greatest crime in the history
of mankind. Words by government leaders
are inadequate when confronted with the
absolute immorality and senselessness
of the murder of millions.
We
look for rational understanding of something
that is beyond human comprehension. We
seek definitive answers, but in vain.
What
is left is the testimony of those few
who survived and their descendants.
What
is left are the remains of the sites of
these murders and the historical record.
What
is left also is the certainty that these
extermination camps were a manifestation
of absolute evil.
Evil
is not a political or scientific category.
But, after Auschwitz, who could doubt
that it exists, and that it manifested
itself in the hate-driven genocide carried
out by the Nazi regime? However, noting
this fact does not permit us to circumvent
our responsibility by blaming everything
on a demonic Hitler. The evil manifested
in the Nazi ideology was not without its
precursors. There was a tradition behind
the rise of this brutal ideology and the
accompanying loss of moral inhibition.
Above all, it needs to be said that the
Nazi ideology was something that people
supported at the time and that they took
part in putting into effect.
Now,
sixty years after the liberation of Auschwitz
by the Red Army, I stand before you as
the representative of a democratic Germany.
I express my shame for the deaths of those
who were murdered and for the fact that
you, the survivors, were forced to go
through the hell of a concentration camp.
Chelmno,
Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Maidanek,
and Auschwitz-Birkenau are names that
will forever be associated with the history
of the victims as well as with German
and European history. We know that.
We
bear this burden with sadness, but also
with a serious sense of responsibility.
Millions
of men, women, and children were gassed,
starved, or shot by German SS troops and
their helpers.
Jews,
gypsies, homosexuals, political prisoners,
POWs, and resistance fighters from across
Europe were exterminated with cold industrial
perfection or were enslaved and worked
to death.
Never
before had there been a worse breakdown
of thousands of years of European culture
and civilization. After the war it took
some time before the full extent of this
breakdown was realized. We are aware of
it, but I doubt that we will ever be able
to understand it. The past cannot be "overcome."
It is the past. But its traces and, above
all, the lessons to be learned from it
extend to the present.
There
will never be anything that can make up
for the horror, the torment, and the agony
that took place in the concentration camps.
It is only possible to provide the families
of those who died and the survivors a
certain amount of compensation.
Germany
has faced this responsibility for a long
period of time now with its government
policies and court decisions, supported
by a sense of justice on the part of the
people.
The
young men and women in the photo we see
here were freed in the summer of 1945.
Most survivors went in different directions
after their liberation: to Israel, to
North and South America, to neighboring
European countries, or back to their countries
of origin.
However,
some of them stayed in or returned to
Germany, the country where the so-called
'Final Solution' originated.
It
was an extraordinarily difficult decision
for them, and often enough it was not
a voluntary decision, but rather the result
of total desperation. However, hope did
return to their disrupted lives, and many
did remain in Germany, and we are grateful
for that.
Today
the Jewish community in Germany is the
third-largest in Europe. It is full of
vitality and growing rapidly. New synagogues
are being built. The Jewish community
is and will remain an irreplaceable part
of our society and culture. Its brilliant
as well as painful history will continue
to be both an obligation and a promise
for the future.
We
will use the powers of government to protect
it against the anti-Semitism of those
who refuse to learn the lessons of the
past. There is no denying that anti-Semitism
continues to exist. It is the task of
society as a whole to fight it. It must
never again become possible for anti-Semites
to attack and cause injury to Jewish citizens
in our country or any other country and
in doing so bring disgrace upon our nation.
Right-wing
extremists, with their spray-painted slogans,
have the special attention of our law
enforcement and justice authorities. But
the process of dealing politically with
neo-Nazis and former Nazis is something
we all need to do together.
It
is the duty of all democrats to provide
a strong response to neo-Nazi incitement
and recurrent attempts on their part to
play down the importance of the crimes
perpetrated by the Nazi regime. For the
enemies of democracy and tolerance there
can be no tolerance.
The
survivors of Auschwitz have called upon
us to be vigilant, not to look away, and
not to pretend we don't hear things. They
have called upon us to acknowledge human
rights violations and to do something
about them. They are being heard, particularly
by young people, for instance by those
who are looking at the Auschwitz memorial
today with their own eyes. They are speaking
with former prisoners. They are helping
to maintain and preserve the memorial.
They will also help to inform future generations
of the crimes committed by the Nazi regime.
The
vast majority of the Germans living today
bear no guilt for the Holocaust. But they
do bear a special responsibility. Remembrance
of the war and the genocide perpetrated
by the Nazi regime has become part of
our living constitution. For some this
is a difficult burden to bear.
Nonetheless
this remembrance is part of our national
identity. Remembrance of the Nazi era
and its crimes is a moral obligation.
We owe it to the victims, we owe it to
the survivors and their families, and
we owe it to ourselves.
It
is true, the temptation to forget is very
great. But we will not succumb to this
temptation.
The
Holocaust memorial in the center of Berlin
cannot restore the lives or the dignity
of the victims. It can perhaps serve survivors
and their descendants as a symbol of their
suffering. It serves us all as a reminder
of the past.
We
know one thing for sure. There would be
no freedom, no human dignity, and no justice
if we were to forget what happened when
freedom, justice, and human dignity were
desecrated by government power. Exemplary
efforts are being undertaken in many German
schools, in companies, in labor unions,
and in the churches. Germany is facing
up to its past.
From
the Shoa and Nazi terror a certainty has
arisen for us all that can best be expressed
by the words "never again."
We want to preserve this certainty. All
Germans, but also all Europeans, and the
entire international community need to
continue to learn to live together with
respect, humanity, and in peace.
The
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide was a direct
effect of the Holocaust on international
law. It requires people of different cultural,
religious, and racial origins to respect
and protect life and human dignity throughout
the world. You in the International Auschwitz
Committee support this with the exemplary
work you are doing in the interest of
all people.
Together
with you I bow my head before the victims
of the death camps. Even if one day the
names of the victims should fade in the
memory of mankind, their fate will not
be forgotten. They will remain in the
heart of history.
After
The 60th Anniversary of the liberation of
the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz by Russian
soldiers, a commemoration was held in a
Berlin.