During ceremonies to mark the 80th anniversary of the war breaking out, Steinmeier said, speaking in Polish: "I bow my head before the Polish victims of German tyranny. And I ask for forgiveness."
He was speaking in Wieluń, the first Polish city to be bombed by the Germans, where he took part in commemorations alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Steinmeier said that the attack on Poland "was followed by destruction, humiliation, all kinds of persecution, torture and the murder of millions of Polish citizens and Polish and European Jews."
The attack on Wieluń was carried out at 4:40am on September 1, 1939. In all, the Germans killed 1,200 to 2,000 civilians in the city that day, according to estimates.
Wieluń, in central Poland, was located close to the Polish-German border before national boundaries shifted after the war.
Later on Sunday some 20 presidents and officials from around 40 countries were to mark the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in the Polish capital.
Last month, at commemorations of the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising against Poland’s Nazi German occupiers, Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, asked the Polish people for forgiveness for the horrors their country suffered during World War II.
Nearly 6 million Polish citizens were killed throughout World War II, which broke out when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.
(pk)
Source: IAR