Address by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, Professor Adam D. Rotfeld
at the special meeting of the UN General Assembly convened to
commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II
(New York, (th May, 2005)

I stand before you as a representative of a nation that suffered unimaginable losses in World War II. It brought the deaths of over six million Polish citizens, among them over three million Jews and Poles of Jewish descent. By decision of the great powers, taken at the conferences in Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam, the territory of Poland was moved westward. The population of Poland decreased from 35 million in 1939 - to 24 million in 1945, the country's territory shrunk by 20 per cent, from 389 thousand square kilometers in 1939 - to 312 thousand square kilometers in 1945. We lost (some) 40 per cent of the national assets, with many cities and towns completely destroyed. Those are just dry statistics. They conceal untold tragedy. I speak of that as someone who, as a child, witnessed and still remembers the most extreme cruelties. During the war, the Nazis murdered my parents and whole family. I mention this, because in Poland my wartime fate was typical. It was shared by millions of people - the whole Polish society. So, when I bow my head today before those who vanquished the Nazi Third Reich, it is not an empty gesture, but an expression of awareness that the victory saved millions of human lives.

Mr. President,

Historic memory is enlightening and creative only when it expresses the truth. Without omissions, without exaggerating certain themes and glossing over others. That is how we should talk about the years of the war and Victory Day itself. We want reconciliation based on truth - because it is only possible through truth and a common understanding of history.

Sixty years have passed since the fall of the Third Reich. The end of the Nazi tyranny was a day of joy for all Europe. To commemorate that day, the leaders of our states are meeting today in Moscow. They are paying tribute to the millions of soldiers who perished. Millions of young Poles and Russians, Englishmen and Americans gave their lives so that democratic nations could live in conditions of peace, security and respect for human rights. The need for founding our organization was born out of the experiences of the war. We often repeat the first words of the preamble of the UN Charter: “ We the people of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind…”.

We remember that it was the goal of the United Nations to ”reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small…”. Another goal stipulated in the Charter was “to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained….”.

I cite these well-known and frequently repeated words of the Preamble because 60 years ago, when they were being formulated, it seemed that we were entering a world of respect for law, justice and human dignity. For the nations liberated by the armies of the democratic members of the anti-Nazi coalition – that is for France (and part of Germany), for Norway and Greece, for Belgium and Holland, for Denmark and Austria - that promise turned into reality. Unfortunately, fate was not as generous to Poland and other states of Central and South-Eastern Europe. The end of the war and the fall off the Third Reich did not bring Poles the independence they had yearned. The 1945 treaty of Yalta, concluded over the heads of Poles by the three major powers of the anti-Nazi coalition, in effect allowed the subjugation of Poland by Stalinist Soviet Union. The same fate was shared by other nations of Central and Eastern Europe. The first days of joy at the regaining of freedom gave way to 45 years of the subjugation of those states to an imposed regime of violence and lawlessness, of trampling human dignity and total subordination to Stalin. Those were very long years filled with a reign of terror and fear. The Polish people felt that even though they belonged to the victorious coalition it had been a Pyrrhic victory.

I do not stand at this rostrum to present some bill of wrongs. On the contrary, I wish to pay tribute to all the soldiers from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other nations who fought in the ranks of the Red Army - for their heroism, dedication and sacrifice. Let me assure you that the valiant deeds of these hundreds of thousands of nameless heroes are held in Poland in the highest esteem. Their graves are properly cared for, their memory is kept alive. Hence, it hard for us Poles to accept that the contributions of Polish soldiers to victory in World War II are often relegated to obscurity. The victory of sixty years ago was also the work of Poles. We have a prominent place among the defenders of the free world and we shall do everything to ensure that this is known and appreciated by all nations!

Mr. President,

Not everyone remembers that Poland fell victim to two aggressions: on September 1 1939 we were treacherously attacked from the west and south by Nazi Germany, and two weeks later - on September 17 - aggression from the east was committed by the Soviet Union. That invasion marked the fulfillment of an infamous collusion known as the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, which had been signed in Moscow on August 23, a week before the German attack. It was the most tragic period in the history of the Polish state. That collusion resulted in untold human and material losses. The list of the Nazi crimes is long and terrifying. Hitler’s regime created apparitions unseen before even in the worst of nightmares. Genocide, the Holocaust - they branded the history of the 20^th century. The names of the camps - Auschwitz-Birkenau, Be³¿ec, Che³mno on the Ner, Majdanek, Sobibór, Treblinka, Dachau - they will forever bring to mind the vilest side of the human nature. The crimes of Stalinism are also horrific. For us, Poles, their most shocking example is the murder of twenty two thousand Polish officers, whose ashes lie in the cemeteries of Katyn, Miednoye and Kharkov.

Today we are told that the criminal plot of the two dictatorships - Stalin’s and Hitler’s -  was legitimate under the international law of the time. What’s more, it constituted a justified or even essential defense in view of the Munich Treaty adopted in October 1938. That treaty was designed to channel German aggression eastward. True, it was a shameful Treaty conceived to appease the aggressor at the expense of Czechoslovakia. The Munich Treaty has found a permanent place in the histories of foreign affairs as an example of an unjust treaty imposed upon a third party against its will. It should be noted here that all its signatories ultimately recognized that it had been invalid from the very beginning.

It would be highly desirable if sixty years after the war and sixty-six years after the signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, today’s Russia reaffirmed its earlier declaration that it considers the Pact as being contrary to law and justice, and that it recognizes all its consequences as invalid from the very beginning. This would be concordant with the London Convention of July 3 1933 defining what constitutes an attack. Let me add here that 8 states were signatories to that convention: the Soviet Union, Poland, as well as Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Turkey, Persia and Afghanistan. Pursuant to the Convention, no attack could be justified by any of the circumstances that are being invoked by present-day interpreters of Stalin’s policy of aggression and incorporation. The attempts to defend the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact constitute a startling combination of legal ignorance and political arrogance.

Mr. President,

It so happens that 2005 will be replete with anniversaries: 60^th anniversary of the end of World War II, 30^th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Final Act, and 25^th anniversary of the founding of the Solidarity movement in Poland - which set off the process of peaceful and democratic transformations in many states in our part of the world. It is a year that induces reflection and drawing of conclusions. I believe it is high time that we shaped our relations with respect for the truth. Let me assure you that the people of Poland will not be short of commitment to reaching understanding and reconciliation with all nations, particularly with our largest nations -  the Germans and Russians. Reconciliation is possible only when there is mutual striving and will. I repeat -  we shall not be short of either of them.