American journalist and historian calls for arms for Ukraine at the awarding of Peace Prize in Germany

Anne Applebaum, an American journalist and historian, has called for weapons support for Ukraine to achieve a military defeat of Russia while receiving the prestigious German Book Trade Peace Prize.

Source: Voice of America

Quote: "If there is even a small chance that a military defeat can help put an end to this horrible cult of violence in Russia, just as a military defeat once put an end to the cult of violence in Germany, we must seize it."

Details: Applebaum said that taking pacifism to its logical conclusion "would mean that we have to accept the military conquest of Ukraine, the cultural destruction of Ukraine, the building of concentration camps in Ukraine and the abduction of children in Ukraine".

As columnists have written, many in Germany have doubts about supplying weapons to Ukraine because they support the idea of pacifism after Hitler's German aggression during World War II. They worry that arming Ukraine could lead to the spread of war beyond Ukraine's borders to the rest of Europe.

Applebaum remarked that some individuals are even advocating for peace, solemnly citing the "lessons of German history". She also noted that, as she was accepting the Peace Prize, it seemed like a fitting moment to highlight that the statement "I want peace" does not always constitute a moral argument.

In her opinion, pacifism in the face of Russia’s cruel actions is nothing more than a willingness to accept dictatorship.

She urged Germans not to be pacifists - people who condemn wars or conflicts in any form: "On the contrary, we have known for almost a century that the demand for pacifism in the face of an aggressive and progressive dictatorship can simply mean appeasement and acceptance of that dictatorship."

The "real lesson" from German history, she said, should be that Germans "have a special responsibility to defend freedom and to take risks in doing so".

The German news agency dpa reported that Applebaum's statements about supporting Ukraine with weapons have drawn some criticism in Germany, in particular from Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, Head of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, which awards the prize.

However, her speech was met with thunderous applause during the award ceremony, the agency reports. Applebaum was accompanied at the event by her husband, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski.

For reference: The German Book Trade Peace Prize is awarded to people who have contributed to making the idea of peace a reality through literature, science or art. The award has been given since 1950 and is currently worth 25,000 euros. Last year, the British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie was awarded the prize for his persistent literary work despite decades of threats and violence against him.

The ceremony with Anne Applebaum took place at St Paul's Church in Frankfurt, the place where German parliamentary democracy is believed to have been born.

Anne Applebaum writes for The Atlantic magazine. She is also the author of a number of books on totalitarianism in Eastern Europe, including Red Famine, The Gulag, and Iron Curtain. She received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 2004 in the United States.

Her latest book was published in 2024 in English: Autocracy. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World.

Background: American journalist and writer Anne Applebaum won the German Book Trade Peace Prize for her research on political regimes of the present and recent past. 

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