German president asks for forgiveness for wartime crimes

[InTime News]

On the final day of his three-day official visit, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has asked for forgiveness for the crimes committed by occupying German forces in Greece during World War II.

"The brutality, the savagery, the contempt for human life shown by the German occupiers still leaves me speechless," Steinmeier told a commemoration for the victims of a massacre perpetrated by German troops in the village of Kandanos in Hania, Crete.

"I would like to ask for your forgiveness today on behalf of Germany," he said, speaking in Greek.

"I ask you, the survivors and descendants, for your forgiveness for the heinous crimes perpetrated here by Germans. I ask for forgiveness for the fact that over many decades my country failed to punish these crimes. That after the war it initially turned a blind eye and remained silent.

"We cannot undo the...

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