Germany publicly apologizes to Belarus for Nazi crimes
The representative of the German government has appealed to the relatives of the Belarusian victims and survivors of the Second World War.
On behalf of the federal government, Commissioner for Civil Initiatives of the German Foreign Ministry, Gernot Erler, has apologized to the relatives of victims and survivors of the crimes of the Nazi regime in Belarus.
The German official did this on May 4 in Minsk, in the presence of about 200 participants of the memorial trip "Memory for the European future" from Austria, Belarus, Great Britain, Germany, Israel and the Czech Republic. The trip was organized by the Minsk and Dortmund international educational centers, a number of European funds, initiatives and churches.
Erler noted that he became the first representative of the German authorities, who officially apologized to Belarus for the actions of the Third Reich. He also said that Belarus took the full force of the first blow after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and lost 2.5 million people during the war.
"It's a crime that we cannot and will not forget, said Erler. It has no equal, and this dark history still worries us. As before, it casts a shadow on relations between many peoples of Europe. Today, my country is fully aware of its historical responsibility for what happened then," BelaPAN quoted the representative of the German government.
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