WARSAW, Poland — Prominent American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum urged it continued support to Ukraine when she accepted a prestigious German award on Sunday, arguing that pacifism in the face of aggression is often nothing more than reconciliation.
Applebaum made her appeal before an audience in Frankfurt, where she was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. She was accompanied by her husband, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, who like his wife is a strong voice on the international stage in supporting Ukraine in its defense against The brutal invasion of Russia.
“If there is even a remote chance that a military defeat can help put an end to this heinous cult of violence in Russia, just as military defeat once ended the cult of violence in Germany, then we must take that chance grab,” Applebaum said.
Many Germans have embraced an ethos of pacifism as a result of their country’s aggression under Adolf Hitler during World War II. And many now have doubts about that supplying weapons to Kiev, they feared Russia and worried that this could lead to the war spreading beyond the borders of Ukraine to the rest of Europe.
“Some even call for peace by solemnly referring to the ‘lessons of German history,’ Applebaum noted, according to a transcript of her speech published by the prize organization.
“As I am here today to accept a peace prize, this seems an appropriate time to point out that ‘I want peace’ is not always a moral argument,” Applebaum said. “This is also the right time to say that the lesson of German history is not that Germans should be pacifists.”
“On the contrary, we have known for almost a century that a demand for pacifism in the face of an aggressive, encroaching dictatorship can simply represent the appeasement and acceptance of that dictatorship.”
She argued that the “real lesson” from German history should be that Germans “have a special responsibility to stand up for freedom and take risks in doing so.”
The prize, which carries a cash prize of 25,000 euros, was presented at the end of the Frankfurt Book Fair in St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt – considered the birthplace of German parliamentary democracy.
The prize has been awarded since 1950. He honors individuals who have contributed to realizing the idea of peace through literature, science or art. Last year the prize was awarded to the British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie for his perseverance despite decades of threats and violence.
German news agency dpa reported that Applebaum’s strong support for continuing to arm Ukraine prompted some criticism, citing Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, the head of the German Association of Publishers and Booksellers, which presents the award.
Nevertheless, she received a strong applause for her speech, dpa reported from Frankfurt.
Following pacifism to its logical conclusion, Applebaum argued, would “mean acquiescing in the military conquest of Ukraine, in the cultural destruction of Ukraine, in the construction of concentration camps in Ukraine, in the kidnapping of children in Ukraine .”
Applebaum writes for The Atlantic magazine. She has written books focusing on totalitarianism in Eastern Europe, including ‘The Gulag’, ‘The Iron Curtain’ and ‘Red Famine’, about dictator Joseph Stalin’s war against Ukraine. She recently published ‘Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World.” In 2004 she received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize.
The prize jury said Applebaum’s analyzes of communist and post-communist systems in the Soviet Union and Russia “reveal the mechanisms by which authoritarians seize power and maintain their control.”
The eulogy for Applebaum was delivered by Russian historian Irina Scherbakova, one of the founders of the human rights organization Memorial, which is now banned in Russia and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.
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