ROME (ITALPRESS) – “It is a difficult path to come as German president to this place of horror and speak to you. I stand before you today as German federal president and I feel only sorrow and shame. I bow before the dead. On behalf of my country today I ask for your forgiveness.” Thus German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in his speech at the ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the Marzabotto massacre, in the presence among others of Italian President Sergio Mattarella. “Dear family members, dear descendants, that I can speak here today is possible only because you all have granted us Germans reconciliation,” he added. “We must remember: we owe it to the victims and to you descendants. Remember so that what happened does not return,” Steinmeier stressed. “This whole area around Monte Sole is still marked today by deep and visible scars,” the German head of state continued. “And I know that the pain is even greater because most of the crimes went unpunished. This is the second guilt of which we Germans have been guilty. Dear family members, dear descendants, that I can speak here today is only possible because You all have granted us Germans reconciliation. What a most precious gift! You are living this reconciliation very concretely here in Marzabotto and in the neighboring municipalities. In Your School of Peace, in close exchange with German youth, in the twinning with Bremen-Vegesack and its International School of Peace.”
– Quirinal press office photo –
(ITALPRESS).
