Posted on 06/06/2004 1:39:03 PM PDT by freedom44
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."
It's up to the perpetrators to do that.
Agreed. The time to do it was 50 years ago. Now it is meaningless.
I do not agree with racial or generational guilt.
If he wanted to say something meaningful he could have said that they have learned from it and his generation pledge to fight against any recurrence.
"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."
Uh-huh. Pull the other one.
Germany sure did a good job of protecting Saddam's "human right" to practice atrocities on the Iraqis and Kurds.
....and I wish to apologize for the raids of Attilla the Hun, and the bloody Romans too....
How many times do they have to apologize or for how long?!? Enough already!
With "allies" like Chirac, (and Schroder too, but less so) who needs enemies?
" Germany does not shirk its responsibility to safeguard peace and protect human rights."
Unless those whose rights are being violated, and who are being slaughtered, are untermenchen, like Kurds or Sunnis, one must conclude.
I don't think they should apologize but neither should they ignore the past. They need to be reminded on occasion as do the rest of us.
At least the Emperor of Japan apologized for their actions in WWII. He did so some 20 years ago.
When may we expect an apology from the British to the Irish?
Agreed. Today's generation of Germans have no need to apologize for Hitler's Germany.
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.