(ANSA) – BERLIN, APRIL 19 – “The Germans persecuted, enslaved and murdered the Jews of Europe and the Jews of Warsaw with a cruelty and inhumanity for which we cannot find words. Today I stand before you and ask your forgiveness for the crimes that the Germans committed themselves here”. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said this today in Warsaw on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the ghetto uprising in the Polish capital at a celebration together with the Presidents of Poland, Andrzej Duda, and Israel, Izchak Herzog. Steinmeier is the first German head of state to take part in the commemoration.
Steinmeier began his speech in Yiddish, quoting the diary of a woman who was deported with her daughter to the Treblinka concentration camp and killed. The Federal President honored the ghetto rebels of April 1943, who had shown “unimaginable courage in the darkest night”. He then quoted several Jewish authors, including “the great Primo Levi.”
“For us Germans, the responsibility knows no end given our history. For us, it remains a reminder and an order, both now and in the future,” continued Steinmeier, who then praised the “miracle” of friendship between Germany, Poland and Israel after the Nazi crimes. “The appalling crimes committed by the Germans here fill me with deep shame. At the same time, it fills me with gratitude and humility to be the first German head of state to take part in this commemoration ceremony,” said Steinmeier. (HAND).
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