Nobody in Europe will be abandoned. Nobody in Europe will be excluded. Europe only succeeds if we work together.
Angela MerkelRead
I can say that we are very clear in our mind about the responsibility of the national soldiers for the break with civilisation that was the Shoah. We are firmly convinced that this is something that will have to be handed over to generations to come... so we don't see any reason to change our view of history.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the enduring responsibility of acknowledging and teaching about the Holocaust across generations.
Angela Merkel reflects on the moral obligation to remember and convey the lessons of the Holocaust (Shoah) to future generations. She asserts the importance of maintaining a clear historical perspective on the actions of national soldiers during this tragic event, highlighting a commitment to truth and education about this dark chapter in history.
Themes
HolocaustResponsibilityHistoryEducationMemory
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing a conference on human rights, one could cite this quote to emphasize the importance of historical awareness.
More from Angela Merkel
All quotes →Let us answer the terrorists by living our values with courage.
Angela MerkelRead
It certainly is dangerous that there are only a few clubs left in Europe that can afford to pay millions. At the end of the day however, the spectators decide the rates of pay - by watching the games and consuming the goods and services advertised on sports TV programmes.
Angela MerkelRead
In many regions, war and terror prevail. States disintegrate. For many years, we have read about this. We have heard about it. We have seen it on TV. But we had not yet sufficiently understood that what happens in Aleppo and Mosul can affect Essen or Stuttgart. We have to face that now.
Angela MerkelRead
We need... to say to people that this is a temporary residential status, and we expect that, once there is peace in Syria again, once IS has been defeated in Iraq, that you go back to your home country with the knowledge that you have gained.
Angela MerkelRead
During the course of 1989, more and more East Germans lost their fears of the state's repression and chicanery and went out on the streets. There was no turning back then. It is thanks to their courage the Wall was opened.
Angela MerkelRead
Similar quotes
The Edmund Pettus Bridge - which in 2013 was declared a National Historic Landmark - isn't symbolic of the Civil War in a meaningful way. It is, however, the modern-day battlefield where the voting rights movement was born.
Douglas BrinkleyRead
Negroes could be sold - actually sold as we sell cattle, with no reference to calves or bulls or recognition of family. It was a nasty business. The white South was properly ashamed of it and continually belittled and almost denied it. But it was a stark and bitter fact.
W. E. B. Du BoisRead
History is the queen of the humanities. It teaches wisdom and humility, and it tells us how things change through time.
Gordon S. WoodRead
Thousand got away to other countries; thousands returned to Spain tempted by false promises of kindness. By the tens of thousands, these Spaniards died of neglect in the concentration camps.
Martha GellhornRead
Young women today often have very little appreciation for the real battles that took place to get women where they are today in this country. I don't know how much history young women today know about those battles.
Sandra Day O'ConnorRead
Also, what mountains of dead ashes, wreck and burnt bones, does assiduous pedantry dig up from the past time and name it History.
Thomas CarlyleRead