The Presidents of Germany and Poland met yesterday in the Baltic city of Gdansk, formerly Danzig, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Hitler's invasion of Poland, an attack that launched the second World War.
President Johannes Rau of Germany, who was accompanied by former Wehrmacht servicemen, said that a common future of peace and prosperity must replace the brutality of his country's past relationship with Poland.
"Our countries have a chance to jointly shape the future. Today we are allies in NATO and we want to be partners in the European Union in the near future. The century coming to an end was one of wars. Let us work together so that Poles, Germans and all Europeans are able to say at the end of the 21st century that it was a century of peace," he said.
His Polish counterpart, Mr Aleksander Kwasniewski, expressed the hope that Germany would continue to support Warsaw's early EU membership, the country's major foreign policy goal following its accession to NATO last March
"Today, Poland and Germany are good neighbours, and for several months now, for the first time in our histories, we are members of the same alliance," he said.
Hitler's invasion of Poland began at dawn on September 1st, 1939, when a German battleship, the Schleswig Holstein, launched an artillery attack on a Polish garrison guarding the approach to Danzig.
It marked the start of a German blitzkrieg, or lightning war, that saw thousands of German troops sweep through Poland in tanks and other armoured vehicles, supported by powerful aircraft.
The attack was the boldest in a succession of steps Hitler took in the late 1930s to create what he called lebensraum, or space to live, for Germany by expanding its borders into central and eastern Europe.
The timid response of France and Britain to his annexation of Austria and the predominantly German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia in 1938 encouraged him in his expansionist plans.
Germany had been preparing for war since 1936 but it was not until Hitler sealed a deal with the Soviet Union under Stalin in August 1939 that he judged an invasion of Poland to be safe. Under the terms of the pact, Stalin could behave as he chose in eastern Europe, while Poland would be divided between Germany and Russia along the lines of the rivers San and Vistula.
The attack on Poland was originally planned for August 26th, but Hitler delayed it for five days while he attempted to persuade Britain to force the Poles to capitulate. Two days after the first German troops marched in, Britain and France declared war on Germany, but were unable to save the Polish army, which was vanquished after a few weeks of heroic resistance.
Speaking in Berlin yesterday, the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder described the invasion of Poland as one of the worst crimes in human history. "I think it is appropriate on this occasion to remind ourselves of our responsibility to not forget our history, and also to not repress it," he said.
Mr Schroder, who announced that the first official foreign visit to Germany's restored capital of Berlin would be made by Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, later this month, will himself travel to Warsaw tomorrow.
Yesterday's anniversary passed almost unnoticed in Germany and the Mr Schroder's visit to Poland is likely to focus on the future rather than the past.