Merkel: Germany guilty of Holocaust

berlin - In a video message, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel pointed out the historic debt that Germany has to the Holocaust. 'As Germans, we are responsible for what happened during the Holocaust, the Shoah, in National Socialism.'

Merkel reacted to the introduction of the controversial Holocaust law in Poland. This law makes it, among other things, punishable to use the term 'Polish extermination camps' when it comes to concentration camps of the Nazis on Polish territory. Israeli politicians and historians fear that the law will be misused to plead with Poles involved in the persecution of the Jews.

Last week Minister Sigmar Gabriel of Foreign Affairs had already pointed to the historic debt of Germany. 'There is no doubt about who was responsible for the extermination camps and the murder of millions of Jews: the Germans.

The Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki will visit Berlin on Friday.