German President: "Never again" also applies to war in Ukraine

Wednesday, 19 April 2023, 19:25

During a speech in Warsaw to mark the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has emphasised that a war like the one caused by the Russian Federation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine must never happen again in Europe.

Source: European Pravda

Details: In his speech, the President of Germany noted that the representatives of Poland and Israel present at the event share a belief in a common future and common values, which Russian leader Vladimir Putin has "made a mockery of" by invading Ukraine.

Quote: "Yet we Germans, too, have learned the lessons from our past. Never again: that means that there must be no brutal war of aggression in Europe like that waged by Russia against Ukraine. Never again: that means that we stand firmly by the side of Ukraine – together with Poland and our other allies."

Steinmeier added that Germany, Poland and other allies "are providing Ukraine with humanitarian, political and military support".

"This is what I mean when I speak of the responsibility imposed by our history. We Germans will fulfil this responsibility for defending peace and freedom," the German president emphasised.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier is the first German president to attend the memorial ceremony for the victims of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in the Polish capital and to ask for forgiveness for the crimes committed by the Nazi regime in Germany at the time.

About 450,000 people were held in the Warsaw Ghetto set up by the German occupiers in the autumn of 1940. In 1942, the Nazis began deporting Jews to death and labour camps, killing between 250,000 and 280,000 people.

The uprising by the poorly-armed Jewish resistance began in the Warsaw Ghetto on 19 April 1943 and went on until mid-May. As a result, more than 56,000 Jews were killed or deported to concentration camps and death camps.

Journalists fight on their own frontline. Support Ukrainska Pravda or become our patron!