Gernot Erler, Commissioner for Civil Initiatives of the German Foreign Ministry, offered the formal apology on behalf of the federal government during Mondays’ meeting in Minsk of participants in the memorial trip "Memory for the European future" from Austria, Belarus, Great Britain, Germany, Israel and the Czech Republic, Euroradio FM reported.
Erler said he was the first representative of the German authorities, who officially apologized to Belarus for the actions of the Third Reich.
He also mentioned the Nazi genocide of the country’s 800,000 Jews, many of whom were killed in the Maly Trostenets death camp outside Minsk.
"It is a crime that we cannot and will not forget,” Erler emphasized.
