In World War II, the Persecution of Jews by the Germans was heinous, and various means emerged in an endless stream, especially the persecution of Polish Jews, which was the most brutal.
After the German occupation of Poland, they ruled the Jews with very harsh means. Jews were collectively driven into very harsh Jewish quarantines, forbidden to go out and had to wear Jewish asterisks to identify themselves, and to engage in long slave-like work.
Many Jews were robbed and massacred, their churches destroyed, and fined unjustifiably. They could not even guarantee the safety of their lives, and German Nazi soldiers could rush into the ghetto at any time and kill people at will for fun.
After the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, the Nazi persecution of Jews also entered a more brutal and crazy mode.
They launched the Gestapo to hunt down Jews in Europe, set up 6 concentration camps, and in the Holocaust concentration camps, the SS used gas chambers to massacre Jews en masse. Every time the Germans occupied a piece of land, they shot the local Jews in a concentrated manner and then threw them into a mass grave full of bones.
More than 5.5 million Jews, including 1 million children, were killed under the Nazi German Genocide Order, and the number of Jews living in Europe plummeted to one-third after World War II.
First, the economic take-off of the Federal Republic of Germany
In 1945, Germany, which had just emerged from World War II, was in ruins and waiting to be rebuilt, but in less than 5 years, they surpassed the pre-war level.
Under the leadership of Adenauer and Ahad, the Federal Republic of Germany actively participated in the Marshall Plan, introducing foreign investment on a large scale and introducing new technologies and equipment. The emphasis on high-level universities and vocational training has greatly improved the technical and cultural level of German workers. Coupled with the Germans' own rigorous work spirit, Germany's industrial capacity has been restored.
Externally, it eased the contradictions with France and promoted the process of European integration. In 1956, based on France and Germany, the six European countries organized the European Community, and Europe's economy and politics have since gradually become independent, and have gradually become an important pole of world power in addition to the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union. Due to the strengthening of European economic connectivity and the improvement of discourse power, Germany's own economic level has gradually improved.
From 1950 to 1966, the average growth rate in 17 years was close to 8%, creating a world-renowned economic miracle, the unemployment rate was only 1.3%, which was the first time in the world to achieve full employment; the basic income of workers doubled continuously, but there was no increase in prices, social production of goods far exceeded people's needs, once regarded as luxury high-end durable goods, such as cars, televisions, etc., gradually became popular consumer goods,
The victorious Allied side suffered a certain blow to its international reputation due to the defeat in the Korean War, and the Allies at that time could not help but wonder: Who won the war?
But in addition to the superior material enjoyment, the Germans have always been inferior in the world, and the Europeans' fear of Germany, which launched two wars, has outweighed the envy of the post-war German economic environment.
Witnesses to Nazi notices
Born in 1913 in the Baltic coastal city of Lübeck, Wieli Polant was the illegitimate son of a 19-year-old salesman who was fostered in the spuns of his maternal grandfather because his mother married else, and in 1931, under the influence of his grandfather, at the age of 18, Polant joined the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany
In 1933, Hitler used the Reichstag arson to seize power, so Brandt fled to Norway and joined the Norwegian Workers' Party, where he became an editor-in-chief, writing a column for the Norwegian newspaper "The Workers" to expose the tragic situation in Germany under Hitler's rule.
After the outbreak of World War II, as a war correspondent, he followed the army to participate in many wars such as Spain and Norway, actively reported on the Invasion of the Germans, witnessed the cruelty of the war, and after the end of World War II, he returned to Germany and vowed to help Germany get rid of the shadow of the Nazis and embrace a brighter future.
In 1958, the Berlin Crisis broke out, which marked the beginning of the Cold War, during the two Berlin Crises, a very fierce conflict broke out in the East and West Camps of Berlin, a large number of East German people poured into West Berlin, the scene was very chaotic, the US Army and the Soviet Army repeatedly carried out large-scale military exercises in the Berlin area, stepped up preparations, and almost led to war.
At that time, Brandt was the mayor of West Berlin, the Federal Republic of Germany, participated in the mediation of the two sides with a gentle and rational posture, called on the citizens to remain sane, and took a series of measures to resettle the influx of refugees, which avoided further deterioration of the situation. Because of his outstanding performance, Brandt became famous, and many people at that time felt that even German Chancellor Haddner could not compare with him.
In the 1960s, Brandt competed three times for the German chancellorship, and finally succeeded in the third time, he was the first German chancellor from the SPD. Under the governance of the previous three presidents, the Federal Republic of Germany not only stood firm in internal and external troubles, but also became a powerful pole among European countries.
By the time he took office as Chancellor, the most important problems of survival and development had been solved, and the conundrum before him had become reconciliation with the victims and the complete normalization of the Federal Republic of Germany. This is no simpler than leading a nascent Germany to survive, because germany's black history of two world wars, the suppression of the two camps of the United States and the Soviet Union, and the estrangement between Eastern and Western European countries have made it extremely difficult to enhance the reputation of the Federal Republic of Germany.
3. Century Warsaw kneels
In order to gain the approval of the socialist countries, Brandt proposed the New Orient Plan, including making peace with the Soviet Union, exchanging trade representations with Czechoslovakia and Poland, and establishing diplomatic relations with Romania and Yugoslavia.
But this was not enough, having seen firsthand the brutality of the German Nazi army, Brandt knew that it was necessary to get the Germans to stand up completely and to obtain the forgiveness of the largest group of victims.
In December 1970, with bitter winds, Brandt traveled to Warsaw, Poland, to sign the Warsaw Pact with the Polish government on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany. For the first time, the treaty defined the dividing line between the Federal Republic of Germany and Poland and guaranteed that the two sides would not claim territory against each other in the future. After the signing ceremony, he suddenly offered to lay a wreath at the Monument to the Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto.
The Warsaw Ghetto was one of the largest ghettos during World War II, and due to the brutal rule of the Nazis, Jews once broke out in a large-scale revolt here, tens of thousands of Jews hid in underground fortresses, and used backward weapons to fight with the Nazi German army for more than a month of guerrilla warfare, after the defeat, the surviving 60,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps for centralized execution.
After the end of World War II, Warsaw erected the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Monument in the Jewish Ghetto, a huge bluestone monument that depicts the persecution of Jews in the ghetto.
Brandt slowly lowered the wreath, and suddenly made a move that surprised everyone, and he knelt down to the monument to express his sincerest remorse for the victims.
The accompanying reporters, Polish officials and people, after a moment of shock, pulled out their cameras and filmed the scene, and then Brandt's Warsaw knelt down and became the headline of the major newspapers. In a subsequent interview, Burrant said:
We cannot avoid facts, nor can we keep historical choices secret. Morality must be part of international politics.
After the kneeling of the Warsaw Century, Germany generally achieved the understanding of Jewish survivors, and some Jews said in an interview with reporters that they did not resent the Germans because the Germans were a bright and honest people.
Brandt was elected to the Nobel Peace Prize the following year, and he represented the Germans through a thorough repentance and sincere apology for the past, and since then completely cut off from the Nazis, and Germany's history has since turned a new page and marched towards the future
4. War reparations
The confession of the Germans is not only reflected in the prime minister's kneeling in court, but in the long-term compensation. In 1952, Germany and Israel signed the Treaty of Luxembourg, which stipulated that the Federal Republic of Germany would pay 3.45 billion marks in compensation to Israel and the Jewish world from 1952 to 1966, which played an important role in Israel's economic development.
After the reunification of Germany and the end of the Cold War, a large number of victims of World War II in Eastern European countries also received reparations from the German government. In 2000, the German government and businesses jointly established a compensation fund for the victims of world war II, which means that the Compensation of the Victims of World War II by the German government continues, and to this day, the victims of World War II can still receive compensation through the foundation.
Behind the kneeling in Warsaw is the attitude of the Germans to atone for their past sins for more than half a century, which has won the understanding of most of the victims, while Japan, which is also the initiator of World War II, categorically denies the existence of comfort women and ignores the fact of the Nanjing Massacre.
It is precisely because of the existence of Japan that the attitude of the Germans seems precious, and today the Germans have come out of that dark history and are moving towards the international status of the European powers, towards a better future.
Text/Dream
Reference: A Study on the Model of Economic Unification between Germany and Germany in the Process of German Reunification, Hu Kun