Speech of Polish President Kaczynski

Speech of Polish president Kaczynski ,Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Two generations have passed but the Second World War still requires reflection

Dear Prime Minister, Chancellor, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Marshals, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Today we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the most horrible war - the Second World War. We are at Westerplatte, a symbol of heroic resistance against a stronger enemy. Several hundred kilometres from here lies Wieluń, a city where the first bombs were dropped and where more than a thousand people died. This is the second symbol – a symbol of the totalitarian nature of this war.

Two generations have passed but the Second World War still requires reflection. A question arises about the causes of the Second World War. Certainly these were totalitarianism and nationalism or, in fact, it was (one could say) chauvinism. I am as certain of this statement as I am of the statement that the order established in Europe after the First World War, the order established by the Treaty of Versailles, was the first attempt at maintaining peace both on our continent and in the world, even though it proved to be unstable. The Treaty of Versailles confirmed the independence of my country, but it is worth reminding that not only my country, but also Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and eventually Slovenia and Croatia – as a part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and later on of Yugoslavia. The Treaty acknowledged the rule of independence of nations as well as explicitly acknowledged the rights of minorities. The order established by the Treaty proved to be transitory for numerous complex reasons. The first reason was the emergence of totalitarian political systems and, most importantly, the rise of the Third Reich which propagated an aggressive and vengeful ideology, opposing the achievements of European civilisation with its Nazism.

For several years, between 1933 and 1938, there were attempts, on the part of Western states such as France and Great Britain, at parleying with this totalitarian state. Poland proposed, as early as in autumn 1933, that a preventive war be started but this was to no avail. The situation being as it was, we concluded a non-aggression pact with Germany, we had also previously concluded such a pact with the USSR. A non-aggression pact was a necessity then and it is by no means comparable to the Russian-German Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed six years later. A policy of concession eventually led to the Anschluss and then to the Munich Agreement. This was an agreement that requires a moment of thought. Winston Churchill was right in saying that a choice was made in Munich between honour and shame; shame was chosen but there was war anyway. A question of the role of our country arises here. We were not present in Munich. We were not present in Munich, but the Agreement resulted in violating the territorial integrity of Czechoslovakia. A violation of territorial integrity, which is always evil.

This is not a problem stemming only from totalitarianism, the problem lies in all imperialistic and neo-imperialistic tendencies. We have learnt that last year. Taking part in the partition of Czechoslovakia, in reducing its territory, was not only a mistake, it was a sin. We, Poles, can admit that and we seek no excuses to justify it. Seek no excuses even if there were any to be found. We have to draw conclusions from the Munich Agreement and apply them to the present, we must not yield to imperialism. We must not yield to imperialism, nor even neo-imperial tendencies. Such behaviour does not always bring such quick and tragic results as in the case of Munich. But it always brings similar results. This is a great lesson for the whole of modern Europe, for the whole world. A year after the Munich Agreement the war broke out preceded by the pact of 23rd August 1939 called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It was not only a non-aggression pact, but also a pact for division of influences in a major part of Europe.

What was the situation in our country at that time? I would like to repeat once again what I said this morning: Poland was proposed to sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, we were also suggested or even convinced to march to the East, but we rejected it. We rejected it explicitly and we met our allied commitments. We know what the course of the war in 1939, in September and October 1939, was, we commented on that this morning. The war finished for our country with a defeat as it had to finish like that. Then, years of occupation, very tragic years, not only in Poland, began. Five and a half million Polish and Jewish people, even up to 5 million 800 thousand, perished in my motherland during the war. They were only a part of the 50 million victims of the war worldwide. Holocaust crimes were committed, but there were also other crimes committed before the war between Russia and Germany began.

We must devote a moment of reflection to Katyń not only because of the facts, with which we are familiar today, but also because of the causes. Why did over twenty thousand Polish police, army and border guard officers suffer such a fate? It was because of revenge, yes, this was a revenge for the year 1920, for the fact that Poland managed to repulse the aggression then. One might say – this is communism. No, it was not communism but chauvinism. Chauvinism was an integral feature of this political system at that time. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was not a pact signed in good faith. One party tried to outwit the other party. Stalin thought that the Germans would bleed to death in the war with France and Great Britain and would fall prey to them easily. On the other hand, Hitler believed that he would defeat the West and be free for an offensive to the East. But both of them were wrong. A terrible war broke out, a terrible war where Nazi Germany was defeated. Several million soldiers serving in the Soviet Army died in the war, I have already talked about it today: Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Georgians, Azerbaijanis and representatives of other nations. We should pay tribute to them as they constantly proved their extraordinary bravery. The Nazi regime was defeated, but Poland did not regain full sovereignty.

Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain. On the other side of the Iron Curtain, not the one our country was behind, a period of reflection, a fruitful reflection started. As a result of this reflection the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created – the pact that during 60 years of existence has become an exporter of stabilisation, freedom and at least, in most cases, democracy. It has been one of the most successful experiments. Yet, we must remember that the alliance obliges. Today, both Poland and Germany are parts of the alliance and both of the countries are obliged to respect their elementary interests. The alliance was necessary; it is and will be necessary, it is even very important. But the fathers of the unifying Europe have not limited their actions to the concept of a defence pact. They have also laid down foundations of what is today called the European Union. This is, indeed, maybe an even more interesting experiment in the history of humankind. And so far it has been successful as well.

As a part of this community, the principle of balance of power has been substituted, at least to some extent, by a principle of cooperation. What were the conditions of this success? The first condition was a community of values (at least relative) such as freedom, democracy and pluralism. The second condition was resignation from imperial dreams, at least partial resignation from the rule of influence zones. We would not have a unified Europe without this as well. That is why we have an absolutely new quality in the form of the 27 countries of unified Europe, and I think that in the future there will be even more of them. This quality should be available also for other countries; however, under one condition – acceptance of a new system of values. A system where there is no place for dreaming of the past and where the thinking process is based on the principle of equality. A cooperating Europe does not require scaffolding based on two countries, but it requires broad, multilateral cooperation. And it requires democracy not only at the level country- citizen, but also in the relations between particular countries. If this is what happens in the future, we can say that we have fully succeeded in drawing conclusions from the unimaginable tragedy, unimaginable crime of the years 1939-45.

However, there is still a long way ahead to achieve it. Yet, today, I would like to express my hopes that we will manage to achieve our goal on the basis of the world of values, on the basis of truth. A truth, which is often painful, must be revealed both by the winners and the defeated. We cannot agree that those who were defeated must talk about issues most painful for them and those who won – do not have to. There is only one truth. According to us, Christians, even the worst truth releases from captivity, liberates and not humiliates, provided that it relates to all of us.

We, Poles, have the right to know the truth, to know the truth about tragic issues for our nation and we cannot ever resign from it. I am deeply convinced that Europe, the whole of Europe, is moving in this direction - towards pluralism, freedom and democracy and towards the truth even when it is very tough. Because we can admit our mistakes, as I have already said. We should also be able to confess our sins and never put the decision of murdering 30 thousand people on par with a typhoid epidemic or another disease. This is not the right track to reconciliation. Reconciliation which is necessary not only for my country, but also for the whole of Europe. Thank you very much.