7 December is the anniversary of the "Fall on your knees in Warsaw". 54 years ago, the then German Chancellor Willy Brandt created an image that went around the world. After Brandt had first laid a wreath in front of the memorial commemorating the Jewish ghetto uprising of 1943, he spontaneously went down on his knees - as a sign of deep sorrow, as a plea for forgiveness for the crimes committed by the Germans during the Second World War. It was written that this was the first visit by a German head of government to Poland since the Second World War.
During his most recent visit to Warsaw a few weeks ago, District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo, Chairman of the German-Polish Society Saar since 2018, once again visited the memorial that received worldwide media attention in December 1970 and saw Willi Brandt's deeply moving gesture in front of him. He is convinced that this genuflection, this plea to Poland for forgiveness, was a symbol of the greatest effectiveness and a fundamentally important contribution to international understanding in a united Europe. "Europe certainly lives and develops on a large scale, at national and supranational level, through the necessary coordination between governments and parliaments. However, we must not allow this development to fail due to the actions of individuals. Today in particular, our municipal and school partnerships, including Spohn's House in Gersheim, are building many small but immensely valuable bridges between the people of our nations. I see close municipal cooperation as an indispensable and effective basis for the realisation of European unity at municipal level, at the level of civil society. This includes practical examples such as the International Museum Alliance, participation in the Trippstadt Alliance, strengthening the culture of remembrance with the memorial in Gräfinthal Monastery and, last but not least, the founding of the 'Homburg Alliance' in July 2022," said District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo.
It is not only in times of war, in which people in Europe also find themselves with regard to Ukraine, that District Administrator Dr Gallo attaches great importance to commemorating anniversaries such as 7 December with the kneeling in Warsaw: "Today it is no longer about the question of guilt. It's about cultivating a culture of remembrance in order to be able to engage soberly with the historical truth and avoid repeating atrocities. To this end, we have proclaimed the 'Decade of Remembrance' with the 'Homburg Alliance'. We want to support future generations at all levels to live together peacefully and to help each other when help is needed. A compulsory visit to a concentration camp memorial site for schoolchildren, as is currently being discussed again, can make a contribution to this. However, such a measure must certainly be treated in a very differentiated way. A visit to the memorial site in Gräfinthal Monastery - it is about seven children and their two parents who were murdered by the Nazis in 1944 - can be a first concrete step towards taking a closer look at these terrible events."
Information on the district partnerships and the European work of the Saarpfalz district can be obtained from the head of the European staff unit and European representative of the Saarpfalz district, Dr Violetta Frys, by calling (06841) 104-8273 or sending an e-mail to [email protected] or [email protected].