Warsaw (dpa) – On the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has acknowledged Germany’s responsibility for theextermination of the Jews and asked for forgiveness. At a commemorative event in Warsaw that he attended together with the presidents of Poland and Israel, Andrzej Duda and Isaac Herzog, he also expressed his gratitude for both states’ reconciliation with the former perpetrators. At the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in the Polish capital, Steinmeier described this as an “infinitely precious gift”.
He said that Germans had meticulously planned and carried out the crime against humanity that is the Shoah. “Germans persecuted, enslaved and murdered Europe’s Jews, and the Jews of Warsaw, with a barbarity and inhumanity that render us speechless,” said Steinmeier. “I stand before you today and ask for forgiveness for the crimes that Germans committed here.”
The Warsaw ghetto was set up by the German occupying forces in autumn 1940. The uprising began when SS units marched into the ghetto on 19 April 1943. The fighting continued until mid-May. In total, more than 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto were murdered, either during the fighting or in concentration and extermination camps.