Baku, April 20, AZERTAC

Wednesday marks eight decades since the Jewish resistance took on Nazi soldiers in Warsaw. Frank-Walter Steinmeier is the first German head of state to give a speech at the commemoration, according to Deutsche Welle.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has joined his Polish and Israeli counterparts, Andrzej Duda and Isaac Herzog respectively, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when the Jewish resistance movement rose up against the German Nazi occupation of the city.

"As German Federal President, I stand before you today and bow to the courageous fighters in the Warsaw ghetto," Steinmeier said. "I bow to the dead in deep sorrow."

"I stand before you today and ask for your forgiveness for the crimes committed here by Germans," he added.

He also stressed how remarkable an achievement reconciliation was after those unprecedented crimes against humanity.

"Dear President Duda, dear President Herzog, many people in your two countries, in Poland and in Israel, have granted us Germans reconciliation despite these crimes," Steinmeier said.

"We must and we will preserve the miraculous achievement of reconciliation and carry it forward into the future," he underlined.

Wednesday's ceremony marked the first time that a German head of state gave a speech at the remembrance event.

Herzog and Duda also gave speeches.

Duda paid tribute to those who took part in the uprising.

"For me and for many Poles, they are above all a symbol of bravery, determination and courage," Duda said, adding that they "are the heroes of Israel, the heroes of the Jews all over the world, they are the heroes of Poland and the Poles."

Herzog described the uprising as an "emblem of heroism during humanity's darkest hour."

"The heroism of the resistance and the rebels and the imperative to remember that terrible chapter of history... offer a platform for important dialogue between Poland and Israel and for the advancement of friendship between our peoples," he noted.

The three presidents are set to hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the event.