German president asks for forgiveness on Warsaw Ghetto Uprising anniversary

Frank-Walter Steinmeier becomes his country’s first head of state to speak at commemorations in Poland’s capital

Germany’s president has asked for forgiveness for the crimes his country committed in the second world war on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the first German president to speak at the commemorations in Poland’s capital, joined his Polish and Israeli counterparts to mark 80 years since Jewish insurgents’ doomed uprising against Nazi German occupiers.