Many
asked whether it was appropriate for German President Joachim
Gauck to speak in the Netherlands on Liberation Day, which
marks the end of Nazi occupation. Gauck praised the Dutch
resistance as role models.
German President Joachim Gauck's Liberation Day address in the Netherlands raised
some eyebrows both at home and in the Netherlands, though
Gauck also found his share of support.
Passing through the streets of Breda,
the southern Dutch city where the speech was held, one person
refused to discuss the issue at all. Another found it odd
to hear from a German on the holiday.
"I find it strange. So
many people died back then, and now a German politician comes
to mark this particular day," said Jürgen Reiter, a local restaurant owner.
'Looking ahead, not back'
Lago Picard, a shopkeeper in Breda, saw things differently.
"Only a small part of the German population wanted the war back then; the majority
didn't. It's great that Gauck is here," Picard explained. An older woman agreed, saying she was a child during the war,
and Liberation Day means a lot to her. Nonetheless, she was
glad to see Gauck come to Breda to speak.
"Today's generation cannot
do anything about it. You shouldn't look back but rather
ahead - and make peace with everyone," she commented.
Several hundred people gathered in
Breda's biggest church. They watched films featuring survivors
of World War II, who talked about what they experienced during
the liberation. They were joined by eye-witness accounts
of other revolutions, including in the Arab world or in South
Africa. The German President sat with them, clearly moved
by the films.
Far from 'self-evident'
In his speech, Gauck went straight for the question as to whether a German should
be holding a speech in the Netherlands to mark the event.
"I was born in 1940, the year in which the Netherlands became the victim of Germany's
politics of power and racial fanaticism. For Germans, and
certainly for me, it's not self-evident that I should be
standing with you here and talking to you," Gauck said.
The German president went on to speak
about the victims of the Nazis in the Netherlands, including
more than 100,000 Jews. He highlighted specific events from
the past like the 1941 February Strike in the Netherlands.
"I read with immense admiration
that stores remained closed, and that the workers on the
docks, the factory workers, and the schoolchildren all stayed
home in order to follow a call to strike by the outlawed
communist party in the Netherlands - as a means of protesting
the deportation of the first 400 Jews from the Netherlands
into the Mauthausen Concentration Camp," Gauck said, calling the strikers important role models for people facing political
oppression and crises of all kinds.
Praise for the resistance
Gauck went on to sketch the fates of a few of the Netherlands' famous resistance
figures. They were people who helped others, often paying
with their lives for their fight against the Nazis. Gauck
said these people proved that an ethical response always
remains on the table.
"In times of war and terror, we may not be able to make every choice, but even
under such conditions people can defend human dignity - as
history shows us."
Gauck praised the Netherlands' respect
for freedom, calling it a foundation for European history.
"In our mutual European
project, it is no longer a matter just of internal concern
when freedoms are curtailed or citizens' basic rights are
ignored."
Still a minefield?
Europe can be proud that it is able to turn to the European Court of Human Rights
and the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Gauck
said, adding, "The rule of law must triumph worldwide over rule through strength."
Ahead of the president's visit in Breda, the International Dachau Committee staged
protests against his presence on Liberation Day, pointing
to the fact that Germany has for decades not extradited Klaas
Carel Faber, a World War II war criminal convicted in the
Netherlands who then fled to Germany.
"A scandal," said
Pieter Dietz de Loos, chairman of the International Dachau
Committee, of the legal quarrels involving the now 90-year-old
Faber.
But Gauck did not take that topic
on in his speech. Perhaps that is because the German-Dutch
relationship is still somewhat of a "minefield," as a German journalist in the 1950s once called it. In a German television interview
after his speech, Gauck did not speak at length about the
subject. As president, he noted, he is bound by Germany's
legal system and hopes to have inspired trust in it.
"Germany has no interest
in protecting war criminals," he said, noting also that the German Justice Department has looked for ways
to reopen the case.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it was very important for the German president
to speak on Liberation Day, nearly 70 years after the Second
World War.
"Especially this president
with his past - that has a special significance," Rutte said.
Those in attendance for the speech
offered praise for Gauck's words. Wilhelm Wielandseck, who
experienced the liberation of Breda first-hand, found Gauck
struck the right tone.
"I am happy that I was
able to be here for this day," the 96-year-old said with a smile. dw.de
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