Steinmeier is commemorating the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto together with Poland’s President Duda. “Clear words” are required from the Federal President.
Warsaw – Poland, Israel and Germany are jointly commemorating the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising exactly 80 years ago this Wednesday (April 19, 2023). Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be the first German head of state to speak at the monument to the heroes of the ghetto. The Polish President Andrzej Duda had invited him to do so. Israel’s President Izchak Herzog will also attend the memorial event.
Steinmeier in Warsaw: the Federal President should set a symbol against anti-Semitism
At the commemoration, the Central Council of Jews in Germany is hoping for “clear words” from Steinmeier. His President Josef Schuster, who will accompany Steinmeier in Warsaw, recalled Steinmeier’s speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in early 2020, where he clearly acknowledged German guilt for the Holocaust and promised to protect Jewish life today. He also expects something like this from the Federal President in Warsaw.
“Unfortunately, we see that xenophobia, anti-Semitism and racism are also increasing in Germany. It would be important to send a clear signal, especially at this point,” Schuster emphasized German Press Agency (dpa). “I also expect from the Federal President’s speech that the importance of self-determined Jewishness in history and thus also in the present will be perceived more clearly.”
Steinmeier commemorates together with Duda: “Signs of reconciliation”
The fact that Steinmeier was invited to speak there was, on the one hand, a sign of reconciliation, said Schuster. “But it is also a signal that the German side, and that is not disputed, recognizes the blame for what happened at the time.” Ultimately, German occupying forces were responsible for the suffering at the time. The joint commemoration also makes it clear “that in this uprising, which was actually hopeless from the outset, Jewish people have shown that they are not ready to be led like lambs to the slaughterhouse”.
The Warsaw ghetto was set up by the German occupiers in autumn 1940. Around 450,000 people were trapped in an area of just over three square kilometers – the Jewish population of Warsaw as well as Jews from other parts of Poland and Germany. Residents were forced to do forced labor. The food supply and the hygienic situation were catastrophic. Hunger and epidemics spread. Added to this was the daily terror of the SS.
In 1942, the National Socialists began deporting Jews to extermination and labor camps. Between July and September, 250,000 to 280,000 people were deported from the ghetto or murdered. When SS units marched in there on April 19, 1943, the uprising of the weakly armed and militarily completely inferior Jewish resistance began. The fighting lasted until mid-May. More than 56,000 Jews were killed or deported to concentration and extermination camps. (bohy/dpa)
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