German President Steinmeier at nazi-razed village of Kandanos: ‘I ask you for your forgiveness’
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday attended an event commemorating the victims of nazi atrocities perpetrated by German troops in the village of Kandanos in Chania during World War II.
“The brutality, the savagery, the contempt for human life shown by the German occupiers still takes my breath away today,” the German president said. Speaking in Greek, he apologised on behalf of his country for the grave crimes committed by the Wehrmacht: “I would like to ask for your forgiveness today on behalf of Germany.”
“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 suffering. We will never be able to properly make up for it. But we must keep its memory alive to ensure that what happened once does not happen again. Without remembrance, there is no future. No future together and in peace. That is why it is so important for us to gather today to remember the crimes of that time. And for us to pass on this remembrance to the next generations. The German-Greek Future Fund has been working since 2014 to this end, to establish a common culture of remembrance, a common future,” Steinmeier said.
He emphasised that it was essential to preserve the memory of these atrocities, whose full horror even the photographs could not fully convey, so that humanity never has to experience such moments again.
Addressing the residents of Kandanos, he thanked them for their generosity in welcoming him, saying that he recognised how difficult it was for a German President to come to this village, one of the first razed to the ground by German soldiers, and expressed his gratitude for the event.
Without mentioning the German war reparations and the occupation loan, Steinmeier expressed the hope that humanity will never again experience such crimes.
In his intervention, the mayor of Kandanos, Antonis Perakis, focusing on the issue of German reparations and the occupation loan, pointed out that Thursday’s highly symbolic visit by the President of Germany can lay the foundations for the start of a dialogue between Greece and Germany on this matter. In any case, he underlined, it is an issue that cannot be resolved unilaterally by the German side, but continues to be pursued by the Greek side.
Earlier, Steinmeier laid a wreath commemorating the fallen in Kandanos and talked with the survivors of the atrocities, who once again raised the issue of reparations and the occupation loan, asking for justice for the nazi crimes in the village.
source ANA-MPA
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