The unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht on 8 May 1945 marked the end of the Second World War in Europe. 8 May stands for the end of National Socialism in its active, inhuman and cruel form up to that point and it stands for the temporary end of immeasurable suffering. There are many reasons to commemorate this day. "One of the main reasons is to keep the memory of this dark time alive so that we do not stop learning from the past," emphasises District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo, Chairman of the German-Polish Society Saar, who looks at this day with humility.
Not too many contemporary witnesses can tell us about the attack on Poland on 1 September 1939 by the German Wehrmacht under Hitler, which violated international law, from personal experience. However, the effects of the events can still be felt in many places today.
"This war hit the Poles with cruel harshness from day one; we are talking about an unbelievable terror against the Polish population. No wonder that German-Polish relations were still severely strained decades after the end of the war. What impressed me most during my first visit to Poland, and still does, is the impartiality and openness shown to us despite all the atrocities. Even if it has been 80ß years, Poland in particular deserves our attention beyond sporadic visits to mark anniversaries. We must intensify exchanges and encounters, especially in the areas of culture, schools and young people," appeals the District Administrator.
Even in the Saarpfalz district, where the front line ran through Bliesgau for several months towards the end of the war, grandparents and parents still tell the following generations about bombings, about hiding in cellars, about dramatic and painful losses in their own families. Many soldiers never returned to their wives and children. Other soldiers learnt on their return that their wives and children had perished in the hail of bombs.
After the devastating Second World War, life, reconstruction, political decisions, economic developments, etc. in Europe were characterised by peace for decades.
Peace, yes, and yet not again? Even after 1945, there have been armed conflicts in Europe and in the former Soviet republics, in which hundreds of thousands of people have died. These included the conflict in Cyprus in 1974, the war in the Balkans in the 1990s, Chechnya, also in the 1990s, and Georgia in 2008. Most conflicts were declared to be separatist or civil wars.
In this context, District Administrator Dr Gallo recalls the massacre in Srebenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in July 1995, which is regarded as the darkest moment in Europe's recent history and the most serious war crime in Europe since the end of the Second World War.
"Anyone who can't imagine what can happen in supposedly peaceful times - the genocide took place 30 years ago - should watch the 2020 film "Quo Vadis, Aida?". It shows the immediate aftermath of the massacre and gets under your skin from the very first minute. When the commander of the Dutch UN force at the time, who was directly confronted by the Serbian military, sought advice from his superiors, they were unavailable, on holiday or at the weekend.
And today? Today, Ukraine must fight for its survival, for its freedom. The enemy is known. The number of casualties in the Ukraine war on both sides remains unclear. There is talk of over 100,000 soldiers and civilians. In any case, we are once again moving along a spectrum that defies our imagination about what is happening. This does not mean that we can withdraw. On the contrary. In Europe, in Germany, we are now living in a time in which people increasingly no longer recognise or neglect the value of democracy, in which people perhaps no longer see the need to strive for democracy. The Ukrainians, however, are risking their lives for this. There have been so many warning signs of Putin's, Russia's actions against Ukraine since 2014 at the latest, but the West has prioritised its prosperity over any suffering and has reacted only hesitantly, if at all. Everyone thought they were on holiday, like in the film Quo Vadis, Aida. This is still true today, where we are buckling before Russia's constant nuclear threats and, unlike three years ago, can no longer be sure of protection from the USA. The rise of the far right continues to show that forces are at work that are trying to undermine Europe. If we want to give our children and grandchildren peaceful prospects for the future, we must face up to both our historical and current responsibility to respect and live by fundamental democratic values - so that conflicts can also be resolved without violence. Our former German Chancellor (1969 - 1974) Willy Brandt (* 18 December 1913, † 8 October 1992) is still right today with his statement: "Peace is not everything, but everything is nothing without peace."