Welcoming Address
By Major General (rtd.) Ekkehard Richter
Hour of Remembrance of the “Market Garden” Committee
Sectie Grave, NL
17 September 2005  

I was deeply touched to receive your invitation to participate at the event today here in Grave to remember the action of British, American, Dutch and Polish soldiers in September 1944 and in remembrance of all soldiers who died in action then.

We German soldiers are very moved by the friendly way in which you, the veterans of the Second World War, have received us. This day is another reminder for us Germans of the unlawful invasion of the Netherlands and of the crimes committed by Nazi Germany before and during the Second World War against the people of the Netherlands, Great Britain and all the members of the Alliance against Germany’s national socialist dictatorship. We are well aware that the scars left by that are still not completely healed and that especially on such a day the sores of

sorrow and mourning for relatives who fell are opened again.
For many years now we Bundeswehr soldiers have set ourselves the task of playing an active part in the efforts to achieve international reconciliation particularly with our allies, and of making our contribution to “Conciliation across the graves” by participating in activities which bring nations together and by supporting the German War Graves Commission.

We Germans have learned from our history. It is with deep regret, shame and sadness that we recall the crimes committed by Germans at that time. Even though we were not involved in those events, they remain a bitter reality of German history and a solemn reminder and appeal to all Germans of all ages to strive with all their might for peace in freedom and justice and for the reconciliation of peoples. It is our conviction that Germany will never again give rise to war and aggression, as our constitution requires.
Today, we are firmly established with the free community of shared values of the democratic nations. Our soldiers serve together with your soldiers, our allies, in Afghanistan, on the Balkans and on many other places in the world to guarantee peace and stability and our thoughts are with your soldiers and the people in that bloody war in Iraq.

Today we German soldiers take up the call of those who fell in the Second World War and of the victims of the despotic Nazi regime in power at that time and we are aware of our responsibility. We will continue to stand up for freedom and for understanding between nations across all borders: we owe this to the millions who fell and were murdered in the KZ’s during the Second World War.
You have liberated Europe and Germany from the Nazi-dictatorship, thank you for your sacrifices.
I would like to express once more our heartfelt thanks for this invitation; we regard it as a gesture, an outstretched hand in “reconciliation across the graves” of the soldiers who fell in the Second World War and as a token of our commitment to peace, to understanding and to friendship and comradeship between peoples, but most of all between soldiers of our countries.

We remember with much grief the soldiers who fell, and all who were killed both during the war and at the hands of a despotic rule.

You did not die in vain: We will never forget you and take up your call for peace and reconciliation as an obligation for us, the living.

We bow our heads in mourning before the fallen and the dead and grieve with those who lost their beloved and their faithful comrades at that time.