Catalogue question 181 · Question catalogue in force since 2024-07-01 · Image question

What did Willy Brandt want to express with his kneeling gesture at the former Jewish ghetto in Warsaw in 1970?

Black-and-white photograph from 1970: a man in an overcoat kneels before a stone memorial with a wreath, surrounded by onlookers and photographers.

Why — for every option

  1. A — The kneeling gesture was not a political-military gesture of submission to the Allies but a moral-historical one.
  2. B — Correct: on 7 December 1970, Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt spontaneously knelt at the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising — an internationally noted gesture asking forgiveness for the Nazi crimes against Polish Jews.
  3. C — The "Warsaw Pact" was the Eastern military alliance, not the addressee of a gesture of humility in this context.
  4. D — The kneeling took place at the ghetto memorial, not at a grave of the Unknown Soldier.

Source: www.bpb.de

Last checked: · Question catalogue in force since 2024-07-01 · Every figure on this page is checked against its primary source.