German President Asks Forgiveness 80 years After Start Of WWII

[Stuart G]

Source: CNN

Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has asked for Poland's forgiveness 80 years after the start of World War II.

"I stand before you, those who have survived, before the descendants of the victims, the old and the young residents of Wielun, I am humbled and grateful," Steinmeier said during a ceremony in the Polish city of Wielun, the site of one of the first Nazi bombings in the country on September 1, 1939.

"I bow to the victims of the attack in Wielun, I pay tribute to the Polish victims of German tyranny and I ask for forgiveness," he said.

Nearly 6 million Poles died during World War II, which remains the bloodiest conflict in history

More than 50 million people were killed in the conflict overall, including some 6 million Jews, half of whom were Polish.

At a ceremony in Warsaw, Polish President Andrzej Duda spoke of the atrocious history suffered by Polish people during WWII and the "trauma" that they still carry today.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/01/europe/germany-poland-ww2-forgiveness-grm-intl/index.html

[underpants]

1. I'll admit it. I didn't know Germany had a President and a Chancellor

[Fla Dem]

18. I didn't either. Found this.....

The president is not really all that important for German people. He has no real power in the executive part of the government. He does have a right to veto but he can't really stop any laws, only pass them on to the Federal Constitutional Court where it can be checked if the law is constitutional.

Although the president is the head of state the real power is held by the chancellor and therefore people are much more interested in him (or her).

In the Republic of Weimar the President of Germany had a lot more power. He was head of the military and could bypass the parliament in case of emergency. This power was misused a lot, even before the rise of Hitler. Because of this the founders of the GG decided to greatly reduce the powers of the President.

https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/2911/what-is-the-difference-between-the-chancellor-and-the-president-of-germany

[FakeNoose]

19. The Kaiser is gone though

Happy Labor Day underpants!

[underpants]

21. Yeah. They kicked the Kaiser.

[Voltaire2]

2. What I can't forgive is the resurgence of fascism.

[spike jones]

3. I have never understood WHY is there even a country called Germany today.

The country should have been divided among the adjacent nations after WWII.

[CTyankee]

4. But it was, wasn't it? I'm old enough to remember East and West Germany...

or was West Germany just called Germany?

[Jedi Guy]

5. It was East and West Germany.

The country was divided between the Allies, with the Soviet Union's piece becoming East Germany. Oddly enough, Berlin was partitioned among the Allies despite being located smack dab in the middle of the Soviet Union's chunk. I guess everyone wanted to be able to claim it as their capital.

[CTyankee]

6. That is strange...some good movies about that partioning, though...

[spike jones]

8. It should have been East France and West Poland. N/T

[Igel]

9. Part of it became west Poland.

Poland was shifted. The eastern bit was part of Stalin's spoils, along with Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad). Poland got a slice of Germany, and promptly kicked out all the Germans like Stalin kicked out most of the Poles. It humiliated the Poles and the Germans and was probably calculated, among other things, to ensure that Germany would eventually want to fight Poland to get its dirt back just like it gave Russia a chunk of dirt that's a thorn in the rest of Europe's side.

Notice that Koenigsberg didn't just go to the USSR--it could have been merged with an adjacent territory. No, it went to Russia.

[regnaD kciN]

16. The original Allied (in this case, the U.S. and U.K.) plan was to break up Germany...

...and destroy its entire industrial infrastructure, rendering it a number of tiny demilitarized agricultural countries about the size and impact of Luxembourg -- even though the Allies' own estimate, hundreds of thousands if not millions of German civilians would die from starvation as a result. What put an end to that plan was the Soviets going off on their own and grabbing half of Europe as its satellites. Suddenly, every area to be reduced to permanent poverty by "the West" was at immediate risk of casting its lot with Stalin if he promised better conditions. The remaining Allies had no choice but to switch from destroying Germany to trying to win the hearts and minds of its people by helping the West German portion grow into a prosperous ally in what would become NATO (and, eventually, the Common Market which morphed into the European Union).

That's why the complete destruction of Germany in the postwar era never occurred...and, personally, I'm thankful it didn't. The strategy of pushing Germany into destitution was tried after WWI, and did much to create the conditions which allowed the Nazis to take power a couple of decades later. Who knows what the result of an even-more-brutal policy might have had in a half-century or more? Because, eventually, the parts of what was Germany would have recovered...and maybe reunited, motivated once again by revenge for what was done to them.

[MicaelS]

12. The Federal Republic of Germany.

East Germany was The German Democratic Republic.

[MicaelS]

13. Go read some history of the times...

Then you will understand.

By you logic, what should have been done to Italy and Japan?

[LeftishBrit]

22. It was divided in two.

Only unified in 1990.

[TeamPooka]

7. We'll be apologizing to the world for Trump after we win in 2020.

[Eliot Rosewater]

11. WE will and at the same time we will be dealing with what is a complete and total

annihilation of our infrastructure of our government.

Nothing works anymore and wont for a long time, as per orders from Putin.

I think putin is going to shut down our power grid and fuck with tens of millions of voter registrations.

[FakeNoose]

20. I hope we can draft some really great people to go out and make friends again

I'm talking about these people: Hillary and Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Oprah Winfrey, Madeleine Albright, George Clooney, and many others. We need the A Team to go out and earn back the Allies' esteem and polish up our tarnished image.

[fliko]

10. Nearly 6 million Poles died during World War II

Nearly 6 million Poles died during World War II?

[Jedi Guy]

14. Depending on the source, between 5.6 and 6 million Poles died in World War II, yes. N/T

[MicaelS]

15. Yes 6 million.

Nazis killed 3 million Polish Jews and 2 million ethnic Poles. USSR killed the Polish intelligentsia and leadership.

[EX500rider]

23. Poland had the greatest losses in WWII by %, around 20% of their population was killed.

[regnaD kciN]

17. One of the ironies here...

...is that the current Polish government has far more in common with the the German government in 1939 than Germany does today.