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'We forgive and ask for forgiveness'

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Address from the Polish bishops to the bishops of Germany
Jan Józef Lipski Social activist
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Talking about various significant milestones in our most recent history, I'd like to say a few words about what happened when the Polish episcopate addressed a letter to the Germans with that famous sentence, 'We forgive and we ask for forgiveness'. From this moment on, relations between the state and the Church deteriorated sharply even though the conflict had not been all that severe since the Stalinist period. From my point of view, it was mainly the fact that... it suddenly dawned on me that someone who had real authority, someone to whom millions of people would listen, took from the grasp of the ruling elite one of their main instruments, their main propaganda opportunity for pseudo-communication with society. Poles have good reason to be afraid of Germans and so it's possible to achieve one or two things by playing on that fear. Here, for the first time, this simple method was somehow disturbed which evoked a terrible rage. As far as the kind of society I belonged to went, I remember that Mr Antoni Słonimski said at the time with amazement, ‘I didn't expect them to be so clever’. For Słonimski, that was a breakthrough moment. From then on, it was possible to co-operate with Tygodnik Powszechny which after a while we did and from that moment on, he began to think about these issues in a different way. There was a great receptiveness, a huge breakthrough, a forging of the way leading to Europe in which the Germans would be and are present anyway. Until we resolve these problems, we won't be joining Europe.

Mówiąc o różnych o tych ważnych takich „słupach milowych” tego... naszej tej historii najnowszej, ja chciałbym jednak parę co najmniej słów powiedzieć o tym, co się stało, kiedy episkopat Polski wystąpił z listem do Niemców z tym słynnym zdaniem „my wybaczamy i prosimy o wybaczenie”. W tym momencie nastąpiło to niezwykłe zaostrzenie stosunków między państwem a Kościołem, który od czasów stalinowskich tak ostro ten konflikt nie przebiegał. Z mojego punktu widzenia to było głównie to, że ja w tym momencie... nagle mnie olśniło, że oto ktoś z... naprawdę z autorytetem kogoś, kogo tutaj miliony ludzi będą słuchać, wyjmuje rządzącym z ręki ich jeden z głównych narzędzi przy... ich głównych sposobów na propagandowe pseudoporozumiewanie się ze społeczeństwem. Polacy mają powody, żeby bać się Niemców w związku z tym można wygrać to i owo na tym, jeżeli się zacznie ich straszyć. Po raz pierwszy tutaj, ten prosty sposób został jakoś naruszony, co wywołało straszliwą wściekłość. A jeżeli chodzi o reakcję środowisk takich do których ja należę, to pamiętam, że pan Antoni Słonimski wówczas powiedział trochę ze zdumieniem: „Nie spodziewałem się tego, że są tak mądrzy”. I to był moment dla Słonimskiego na przykład przełomowy. Od tego momentu była możliwa i zresztą zrealizowana po pewnym czasie współpraca z „Tygodnikiem Powszechnym”, od tego momentu on w ogóle zaczął myśleć o tych sprawach w innych kategoriach. Jakieś wielkie otwarcie, wielkie przełamanie, jakieś, no... jakieś torowanie nam drogi do Europie w której Niemcy tak czy owak są i będą. I dopóki tych problemów nie załatwimy to do Europy nie dojdziemy.

Jan Józef Lipski (1926-1991) was one of Poland's best known political activists. He was also a writer and a literary critic. As a soldier in the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), he fought in the Warsaw Uprising. In 1976, following worker protests, he co-founded the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR). His active opposition to Poland's communist authorities led to his arrest and imprisonment on several occasions. In 1987, he re-established and headed the Polish Socialist Party. Two years later, he was elected to the Polish Senate. He died in 1991 while still in office. For his significant work, Lipski was honoured with the Cross of the Valorous (Krzyż Walecznych), posthumously with the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1991) and with the highest Polish decoration, the Order of the White Eagle (2006).

Listeners: Jacek Petrycki Marcel Łoziński

Cinematographer Jacek Petrycki was born in Poznań, Poland in 1948. He has worked extensively in Poland and throughout the world. His credits include, for Agniezka Holland, Provincial Actors (1979), Europe, Europe (1990), Shot in the Heart (2001) and Julie Walking Home (2002), for Krysztof Kieslowski numerous short films including Camera Buff (1980) and No End (1985). Other credits include Journey to the Sun (1998), directed by Jesim Ustaoglu, which won the Golden Camera 300 award at the International Film Camera Festival, Shooters (2000) and The Valley (1999), both directed by Dan Reed, Unforgiving (1993) and Betrayed (1995) by Clive Gordon both of which won the BAFTA for best factual photography. Jacek Petrycki is also a teacher and a filmmaker.

Film director Marcel Łoziński was born in Paris in 1940. He graduated from the Film Directing Department of the National School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź in 1971. In 1994, he was nominated for an American Academy Award and a European Film Academy Award for the documentary, 89 mm from Europe. Since 1995, he has been a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Art and Science awarding Oscars. He lectured at the FEMIS film school and the School of Polish Culture of Warsaw University. He ran documentary film workshops in Marseilles. Marcel Łoziński currently lectures at Andrzej Wajda’s Master School for Film Directors. He also runs the Dragon Forum, a European documentary film workshop.

Tags: Tygodnik Powszechny, Antoni Słonimski

Duration: 2 minutes, 28 seconds

Date story recorded: October 1989

Date story went live: 11 March 2011