January 26th, 2010

Speech given by German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel

Dear Mr Flug, dear ladies and gentlemen, and dear trainees,

I’m naturally very happy that you are here today in the Federal Chancellery, and that I am able to welcome you, because that’s why you have been invited. Your project is indeed a most outstanding one and a remarkable model example for the culture of remembrance. We all know, and recognize the obligation resulting from the Shoah’s break in civilization. Germany has to assume an eternal responsibility for this part of our history. I am firmly convinced that this is the only way we can possibly shape our future, and of course this is why we carry the responsibility into all generations, the responsibility to ensure that the act of remembering the victims is relived from generation to generation.

I have just come from a press conference with the Israeli President. That’s why I said there, and am happy to repeat here, that part of my country’s reason of state is to bear this responsibility, and that we also bear responsibility for the existence and the future of Israel. And this is why I also believe it is important that a few weeks ago the Federation and the individual states of Germany decided to make 60 million euros available to the International Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, so that the interest from this capital stock ensures the permanent preservation of the Memorial, rather than always taking simply a step-by-step approach. However, this alone is not enough. What really counts is widespread involvement on the part of our whole society, so that the culture of remembrance is not simply lived by a few, but that it is integrated into as broad a section of our society as possible and becomes a living part of our society. It’s not a question of doing things by issuing state decrees and instructions or top-down organization – that’s why a project like yours is so important.

Projects like that of the International Auschwitz Committee and the Volkswagen Company are essentially a kind of promise to the victims: we will never forget you. The message “never again” has not only to imprint itself on people’s minds; it also has to be alive in their hearts. I believe that this has happened with the trainees who are gathered here today. To them, it is not just a matter of the intellect, but also a matter of the heart. I imagine that the experiences from your project work at the Auschwitz Memorial will stay with you for a long time, and I think they may well give you the strength to talk with others about them – when people ask you “What did you do there?” and “Was it worth it and important?”, and a voice emerges against forgetting and for the peaceful coexistence of people, no matter where they come from. Of course, such experiences are also important today, because they are founded on testimonies of those times. In this respect the accounts provided by survivors play a major role as witnesses of the truth, voices of warning and reconciliation – an outstanding role. For me it was also a moving experience just a few days ago, during the second German-Israeli government consultations with Israel’s Prime Minister and a major part of his cabinet, to be at the place of remembrance – the place of remembrance at the Holocaust Memorial here in the heart of Berlin. That’s why we all need such experiences time and again, to enable us to then talk about it with others.

Dear gentlemen, and dear Frau Haber, despite, or rather especially because of the unspeakable suffering you have experienced, you have spared yourselves no effort in keeping the memory alive – not only keeping it alive but also sharing it with others. And I would like to thank you for doing this, because I think that learning to speak is not always easy, learning how to share such terrible memories with young people who can then transmit them further. Such a great achievement should not be taken for granted, that’s why I would like to express my personal thanks to you for reaching out and for saying: “For a better future we are prepared to talk about the horrors we have experienced.” And to the trainees, I would like to say: Be happy and proud that you are able to help with such a project. Never forget the responsibility for history when doing other things later. Always seek contact with history. It does us good and it gives us strength to prevent horrors of the past from being repeated. When we look carefully, we can recognize many such projects in many places throughout our country, especially projects like the “Stolpersteine” (Stones of Remembrance), which continually remind us of what was. With your project, which I consider to be a shining example, you can definitely say: “We have been involved in ensuring that this will not be forgotten and that strength grows from remembering.”

Thank you very much.

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