Televised address from Warsaw on the German-Polish Treaty, 7 December 1970

Schwarz-Weiß-Aufnahme Willy Brandts und des polnischen Ministerpräsidenten Józef Cyrankiewicz, die jeweils eine Version des Warschauer Vertrags 1970 unterschreiben. Im Hintergrund sind einige gespannt blickende Politiker zu sehen. — © Bundesregierung/Engelbert Reineke

After signing the German-Polish Treaty, Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt explains to his fellow countrymen in an address on German television the significance of the accord. The most important point in it is the determination that the Oder-Neisse border will form the western national border of Poland. Brandt names as the principal cause for the loss of Germany’s eastern territories the million-fold crimes of the Hitler regime which inflicted the worst suffering mainly on Poland.
Read the full text.