Polish presidential aide Piotr Ćwik has said that Steinmeier's visit includes a ceremony in Warsaw's Wola district, which was the scene of the systematic killing of tens of thousands of Polish civilians in the early stage of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
Ćwik said in an interview with the wPolityce.pl news website that Steinmeier, together with Polish President Andrzej Duda, would pay tribute to the victims of what historians describe as the Wola Massacre.
It is estimated that German forces, acting on orders from Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and military commander Heinrich Himmler, killed anywhere from 15,000 to 60,000 men, women and children in the Polish capital's Wola district between August 5 and 7, 1944.
Up to 10,000 civilians were killed on August 5, the first day of the operation.
Wojciech Kolarski, a minister at the Polish President's Office, said this would mark the first time a high-ranking German politician, "or any German politician for that matter," visits the site of the Wola Massacre and pay tribute to the victims of the atrocity.
Talking to wPolityce.pl, Kolarski added that "in view of the fact that the German people know next to nothing about the Wola Massacre," Steinmeier’s visit "is of great importance."
Its media coverage "is likely to get across to German society," he said.
(mk/gs)
