For more than twenty-five years, on January 27, the Bundestag has commemorated the millions of Jews who fell victim to the Nazis' racial fanaticism.
On January 27, 1945, the Red Army had reached the Auschwitz concentration camp and liberated the survivors of the death factory.
Since then, the name Auschwitz has stood for a crime against humanity that was unimaginable at the time – and for an imperative: that such a genocide should never be repeated.
The Auschwitz imperative was not only the guiding principle for the founding of the Federal Republic, but has also become the guiding principle for domestic and foreign policy decisions.
He is behind the declaration that Israel's security is part of Germany's raison d'etat - even if what exactly that means has so far been left open.
The Ukrainians in particular suffered from Hitler's war of extermination
But it is not only the Middle East conflict that repeatedly presents German politicians with the task of deriving concrete decisions from the lessons of the past. During the Kosovo war in the 1990s, there was a dispute as to whether Germany was not obliged precisely because of Auschwitz to use military force if necessary to interfere with "ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans. The then red-green federal government said yes, against bitter resistance in its own ranks.
In the Ukraine crisis, on the other hand, the Scholz government cited Germany's past as a reason for restraint, starting with the delivery of weapons.
During World War II, the German invaders brought immeasurable suffering to the peoples of the Soviet Union.
Among those who suffered most from Hitler's war of extermination (and later from Stalin) were the Ukrainians.
Putin is not Hitler and Russia is not Nazi Germany.
But the Kremlin is openly threatening war with Ukraine.
If you don't want to supply Kiev with weapons for deterrence and self-defense, you should find a reason that sounds less cynical than referring to your own attack.