BRANDT LAYING WREATH, KNELLING IN PRAYER. SHOTS OF BRANDT AND POLISH PRESIDENT JOZEF CYRANKIEWICZ SIGNING PEACE ACCORDS WHICH FORMALIZE THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN POLAND & WEST GERMANY SET AT THE END OF WORLD WAR II.




Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: West German Chancellor Willy Brandt laid a wreath at a memorial to Jews who died in the Warsaw Chetto massacre 27 years ago in ceremonies in Warsaw on Tuesday, (Dec. 8).

Brandt also signed a treaty of reconciliation with Poland, calling the document the "closing of the books on the suffering and sacrifices of an evil past."
Premier Jozef Cyrankiewicz signed the accord for Poland at the Radziwill Palace in downtown Warsaw.

On hand to witness the ceremony were Polish Communist Party leader Wladyslaw Gomulka and some 100 Polish and West German officials.

Under the terms of the agreements, West Germany recognizes that territory given to Poland at the end of World War II permanently becomes Polish territory.

The treaty clears a diplomatic hurdle that has separated the two countries for more than a quarter of a century.