On the second day of his Polish visit, Minister Heiko Maas together with Minister Czaputowicz laid flowers at the Victims of the Wola Massacre Memorial.

The ministers also visited the Warsaw Rising Museum, where they toured the exhibition and addressed the participants of Polish-German youth exchange programmes and Museum volunteers. “At a time when there are fewer and fewer eyewitnesses to those events, it is you who will soon take over the reins in this shift of generations.

“You will be responsible for both cherishing the memory of the heroes from 75 years ago and shaping the Polish-German partner dialogue based on truth,” Minister Czaputowicz told the young audience at the Museum. He also stressed that the courage with which the Warsaw Insurgents took up arms was a model and inspiration for the efforts of Poles to restore full sovereignty in the 1980s.

In his address, Minister Jacek Czaputowicz also referred to the current Polish-German relationship and said that the past 30 years could be considered the best time in over a thousand years of shared history. “Poland and Germany after 1989 successfully started to catch up on the missed decades, proving that reconciliation between our nations is possible,” underlined Minister Czaputowicz. “Even if we differ on specific solutions in specific areas, our two countries are linked by common values which underpin cooperation and peaceful coexistence in Europe,” he said.

At the end of the visit, the Polish and German foreign ministers lit candles at the Memorial Wall at the Warsaw Rising Museum.

MFA Press Office

01.08.2019

 

photo: Tymon Markowski / MFA