Hello, I'm Karina from Torgau.
Perhaps you remember this photo from the history book.
It shows Russian and American soldiers shaking hands on the Elbe in Torgau in April 1945.
This went around the world at the time and symbolized the end of the Second World War.
As a child in the GDR, I experienced Joe Polowski and other war veterans live here, as there was a culture of remembrance.
[I personally believe that every human being carries the dignity of the divine within them.
That's why I don't like the murder and the unspeakable propaganda that sets us against each other.
I resist the expectation of taking sides.
Because in every war, sons and fathers die on both sides, but never those who are responsible for the war.
The encounter on the Elbe was less than 80 years ago, and Defense Minister Pistorius is beating the war drum again.
He said: "We have to be ready for war by 2029."
And I quote former Minister Gabriel: "We need to send a clear signal to Putin: stop this war - or we will take it to you."
So I ask myself: who are "we" anyway?
Certainly not Gabriel and Pistorius.
It's more likely to be my husband and my sons.
This is what drives me, because I know the events of the war and the end of the war from
the accounts of my grandparents and relatives.
Here are a few examples:
My uncle was drafted into the Wehrmacht at the age of 17.
Against his will, because he had finished his apprenticeship and wanted to take over his father's mill.
He died at the age of 19 in Russian captivity.
My mother always remembered him crying as he walked out of the yard in uniform with tears in his eyes.
They never saw each other again and she never found out where he was buried.
She herself sat on the lap of a Russian officer as a little girl towards the end of the war.
Her name was "Irene" and he liked her very much because she reminded him of his own
daughter "Irena" at home, whom he missed very much.
She had fond memories of him.
At the same time, her older sister (my aunt) hid for days behind a pile of wood in an attic from the soldiers of the
Soviet army who had committed horrific rapes in her village.
The soldiers kept taking wood from this very pile, while she tried to pile up new wood from behind.
At over 80 years old, she told me: "That's where I learned to pray!"
And she described to me numerous war crimes that had been committed by all warring parties without exception.
The Greek philosopher Antisthenes was probably right when he wrote: "War makes more bad people than it takes away."
My mother also told me that the sky glowed red when Dresden was bombed, which her family
could still see in a neighboring town of Torgau.
My father remembered the sound of the shootings that always took place in the morning here in Torgau.
German soldiers who had refused orders were among those executed in Torgau.
It was probably the period between 1943-45, when the Reich Court Martial was moved from Berlin to Fort Zinna in Torgau.
My father was about 13 years old at the time.
My grandfather was first drafted into the Volkssturm due to an accident.
He was taken prisoner by the Americans in Limburg an der Lahn.
When he returned, he still weighed 54 kilograms and was about 1.80 meters tall.
He found his wife, whom he had left as a blonde woman, with gray hair.
It is the fact that we as Germans have learned from two world wars and that there was a kind of culture of remembrance in the
former GDR that drives people in Torgau today to work for peace.
Even if it sounds utopian and perhaps has never worked in history, I dream that one day there will be no more
war because we humans refuse to be enemies to each other.
We are one human family, one big human organism.
And I appeal to all mothers worldwide: Tear up the call-up orders!
[I appeal to all men around the world: when they start beating the war drums again, don't go!
Maybe you'll write to them now to let them know that you won't be competing.
[And I appeal to each and every one of you: Do not allow yourselves to be incited against other peoples!
[Do not listen to their lies and their propaganda, but to your heart!