Posted on 06/06/2004 10:54:33 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
The German leader, Gerhard Schroeder, has declared that his nation accepts it was to blame for the ravages of World War II.
"German soldiers fell because they had been sent forth on a murderous campaign to crush Europe," he said at Normandy's D-Day commemoration. "We Germans know that we unleashed this heinous war."
Mr Schroeder is the first serving German leader to be invited to France for the D-Day ceremony. But he stopped short of delivering a national apology to those gathered at Caen, 20 kilometres from the beaches on which his countrymen fiercely resisted the Allies in 1944.
About 20 heads of state and government and thousands of World War II veterans gathered amid tight security in Normandy to commemorate D-Day's 60th anniversary.
The US President, George Bush, and France's President Jacques Chirac, putting aside differences over the Iraq war, honoured the thousands of Allied troops killed in the D-Day landings, saying today's leaders had a duty to honour what the soldiers died for by standing together in the cause of freedom and democracy.
"In the trials and that sacrifice of war we became inseparable allies," Mr Bush told a ceremony at the US cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, near the beach codenamed Omaha, where US troops landed and suffered heavy losses on June 6, 1944.
"Our great alliance is strong and it is still needed today," he told a crowd of war veterans.
Standing before rows of graves, Mr Chirac thanked the Allied forces for their sacrifices in the landings, which forced back German troops and helped liberate Europe from the Nazis' stranglehold.
"America is our eternal ally, and that alliance and solidarity are all the stronger for having been forged in those terrible hours."
Meanwhile Mr Schroeder made special mention of the village of Oradour, hundreds of whose residents were slaughtered and burned by the retreating Waffen SS after D-Day.
Only six villagers escaped the "inhuman fury" of the German troops on that day, and the town still lies derelict, in charred ruins as a powerful monument.
"For France, this historic day marked the beginning of the long-awaited end of the occupation," Mr Schroeder said.
"For many Germans, 6 June symbolised the inevitable military collapse of their country."
The Chancellor said the German people of today were not pacifists, because they knew that force had been necessary in the end to overthrow the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.
"But nor are we ready to take up arms without long and careful reflection. However, where military intervention is necessary, Germany does not shirk its responsibility to safeguard peace and protect human rights."
Ping
Ping
I am listening to him speaking at the moment.
ARTICLE: "But he stopped short of delivering a national apology to those gathered at Caen"
I never agree with Schroeder, but he shouldn't deliver a "national apology". I have more fingers than exist German citizens who were directly responsible for the Holocaust and the Second World War. National apologies for long gone (but never forgotten) historical events are worthless. A nation isn't a conscious entity.
Where? Who has this on?
....provided the parties involved are white and we're not making money off their misery.
Except if it's for Iraq....
It was on CNN and BBC. Funnily enough Sky News seemed to boycott him.
"I have more fingers than exist German citizens who were directly responsible for the Holocaust and the Second World War. National apologies for long gone (but never forgotten) historical events are worthless."
If a nation cannot feel shame or responsibility for past events, then it also cannot feel pride. And it's precisely because many Germans feel like you that, according to recent surveys, Germany has the highest rate of anti-Semitism in Europe, with 38% of Germans admitting to serious anti-Semitic prejudices, and just over 35% who do not believe Israel should exist.
The individuals may have changed, but the culture has, for the most part, remained the same. Jews are no safer on the continent of Europe in 2004 than 1934; and with Europe actively appeasing the Arabs, and both directly and indirectly supporting terrorism, I'm not convinced that Jews are much safer even in their own state.
Yeah, thanks a lot for freeing us from a terrible dictator, from under the boot of a vicious regime. You're our friends and we'll do anything for you......except help you free 25 million other people who were held in even worse circumstances. You see, we french deserved to be liberated, but the Iraqis don't.
When you believe in a collective form of government there is no such thing as an individual. This is the most frightening aspect of the socialist movement in Europe and America.
A person can feel pride or guilt. A nation cannot. There is no mind and no heart.
If a Jewish man isn't safe in Germany (and France) still, which I don't doubt, then why are we expecting a national apology? And what good would it do when there is still a resentment towards the Jewish race in those nations? Would it make me feel better? Or the Jewish race as a whole? Not really.
"I have more fingers than exist German citizens who were directly responsible for the Holocaust and the Second World War"
Incidentally, there are many thousands of Nazi mass-murderers and their collaborators still alive in Europe and elsewhere, hiding and being hidden in virtually every European country from Sweden and Norway, to Lithuania and Poland, from Australia and Argentina to France and Syria. Many, if not most, are probably too old to stand trial, but they are very much still here.
And what about the property they stole? While Europe still dines daily on the blood of the victims of Auschwitz, it is just as guilty as it always was.
"A person can feel pride or guilt. A nation cannot. There is no mind and no heart."
Without a sense of pride, no nation can exist.
"If a Jewish man isn't safe in Germany (and France) still, which I don't doubt, then why are we expecting a national apology? And what good would it do when there is still a resentment towards the Jewish race in those nations? Would it make me feel better? Or the Jewish race as a whole? Not really."
This makes even less sense than your previous statements.
"Without a sense of pride, no nation can exist."
You're telling me that I'm not making sense and yet you put this up on the board?
Where is this national pride? Is there a collective conscience somewhere?
Do the Democrats have national pride? The protesters? Is all the pride the same?
Do the Zimbabweans have national pride? Because without it the nation couldn't exist, right?
No news channel in this country. I had to watch the international D-Day ceremony via a Canadian channel. I live in Central New York State and Kingston, Ontario (CKWS) is about 2-3 hours north of here. They at least covered the extremely well-done international ceremony and even after they broke away to provide coverage of a wreath-laying ceremony in Ottawa, they returned and showed the remainder of the ceremony on tape. This was the one where President Bush, Mrs. Bush, Queen Elizabeth, Putin, etc. attended. They then went on to cover the British ceremony. I wrote Fox News Channel and complained that I shouldn't have to watch a Canadian TV station to watch Jacques Chirac pin the French Legion of Honor on an American D-Day vet. They really ticked me off.
Kent, your comment on the title is wrong. The German government has been apologising for the war since the 50s. They are constantly taught of the evil their country did. Germans of today are not obliged to apologize for the sins of their ancestors. They do NOT forget what happened, but they do NOT deserve to be made to apologize for it over and over again. Similarly, present day Americans and Britishers do NOT have any moral superiority over present day Germans. The greatest generation's Americans and Britisher and other nationalities (Polish, Canadian, Australian, Indian, New Zealanders, French, etc.) deserve to be honored, not their descendents
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.