On anniversary, German cardinal praises Poles for resisting Nazi rule

Published: 2004-07-21

BERLIN (CNS) -- On the 60th anniversary of a Polish uprising against the Nazis, a German cardinal said his country owed thanks for the "bitter sacrifice Poles made for freedom." "The whole of Europe, and we Germans too, owe unceasing gratitude to the Polish nation's robust will to resist. We all owe it to history to commemorate the bitter sacrifice Poles made for freedom. It is precisely we, the Germans, who cannot in any way relativize it," Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz, chairman of the German bishops' conference, said at a July 19 ceremony in Berlin's cathedral. The ceremony commemorated the 1944 uprising in Warsaw, Poland. "Lasting from August to October, the heroic and desperate Warsaw Uprising was an event of tragic dimensions," said Cardinal Karl Lehmann. The uprising was led by the Polish Home Army, which tried to wrest control of Warsaw from a weakened German army. German leader Adolf Hitler sent in reinforcements, crushing the rebellion; some 200,000 Poles were killed, and Warsaw was left in ruins.

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