German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday, June 14, visited the memorial on the site of the former Nazi concentration camp in Sandbostel. The head of state spoke with the relatives of the Soviet prisoners of war who died there and laid a wreath. More than 300 thousand people from 55 countries were prisoners of this camp, including over 70 thousand soldiers of the Red Army.
A visit to the memorial is the beginning of a series of events with the participation of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the attack by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union. On June 18, the head of state will deliver a speech at the opening of the exhibition “The scale of one crime. Soviet prisoners of war in World War II” at the German-Russian Museum Berlin-Karlshorst. In the museum building on the night of May 9, 1945, an act of unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany was signed.
The German Bundestag previously held an hour-long discussion on the anniversary of the attack on the USSR. Germany’s commitment to European unity has been a major lesson from a tragic past for the country, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.
See also:
.