Gauck’s Polish war guilt

Germany’s new president yesterday praised Poland as a land of freedom and expressed remorse over the cruelty inflicted on it during the Second World War, in his first foreign visit.

Joachim Gauck’s words of reconciliation were made in Warsaw four days after his inauguration. Though the two countries are allies today, many animosities remain. Mr Gauck, 72, noted that he remained conscious of German “guilt”.

“It’s been a big joy for me to be received here with an openness and warmth that I would never take for granted,” he said. “I [was] born during the war and deeply remember the changing history and the brutality of Germans before my time toward Poland.”