West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, ending a visit designed to heal wartime emnity between Poles and Germans, visited the Auschwitz death camp Tuesday and vowed there would never be a repetition of the ”unspeakable harm” perpetrated by the Nazis.
Before he returned to Bonn, Kohl and Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki signed a joint declaration that pledges respect for all postwar European borders, and Kohl presented Poland`s first non-Communist-led government with a massive aid package worth at least $2.3 billion.
The West German package is by far the biggest infusion of hard currency for Poland`s moribund economy and consists mainly of loan insurance, debt forgiveness and a contribution to President Bush`s stabilization program for Warsaw.
Kohl traveled early in the day to the southern town of Oswiecim, better known by its German name of Auschwitz, the notorious death camp where the Nazis killed 4 million people, mainly Jews, during World War II.
The chancellor laid a wreath at the infamous execution wall outside Cell Block 11, known as the death house, and stood in silence staring at the pockmarked stone wall where 30,000 prisoners are estimated to have been shot. Kohl listened as Poland`s chief rabbi, Menachem Joskowicz, his hands pumping up and down in rhythm with his lament, asked, ”Why does the world hate the Jews?”
”What evil did we do the world?” the rabbi asked. ”We gave the world music, culture and science. We demand no medals, no awards, no love. We need love from no one, but at the same time we need no hatred.”
Kohl, accompanied by Joskowicz and Heinz Galinski, West Germany`s most prominent Jewish leader, later viewed the camp crematorium. The doors to its bullet-shaped ovens were hung with floral wreaths.
The chancellor emerged solemnly from the crematorium into the mist of a cold November morning and wrote in the camp`s visitors book that the warning that emanates from Auschwitz must never be forgotten.
”Unspeakable harm was inflicted on different peoples here, above all European Jews, in the name of Germany,” Kohl wrote. ”We vow here once again to do everything to ensure that life, dignity, justice and freedom for all people-regardless of what God they worship, what nation they belong to and what heritage they have-remain unviolated on this Earth.”
His visit was the second by a West German chancellor to Auschwitz. His predecessor, Helmut Schmidt, visited the camp in November, 1977.
Later Kohl returned to Warsaw where he and Mazowiecki signed a 79-point joint declaration, which the chancellor defined as ”our timetable for the future.”
Kohl said he hoped the document-which declared that inviolable borders are ”a fundamental precondition of peace”-could provide the framework for annual meetings between Bonn and Warsaw, just like those between West Germany and France, also wartime enemies.
The joint declaration does not include one much-sought concession from Bonn: a formal legalization of Poland`s postwar borders, which include large tracts of land that formerly belonged to Germany.
West Germany has repeatedly said it has no claims to the border areas but says it lacks legal authority to confirm postwar European borders pending conclusion of a general peace treaty ending World War II.
Kohl caused a diplomatic row with Poland`s Communist Party by failing to meet with party leader Mieczyslaw Rakowski. It was believed to be the first time since the Communists came to power after World War II that a visiting head of government did not meet the party chief.
Kohl, who interrupted his visit for a day to visit the newly opened Berlin Wall, attributed the problem to a lack of time. Party officials said in a statement that protocol required Kohl to visit Rakowski at party headquarters but the chancellor wanted the meeting at Rakowski`s Warsaw residence.
