East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow, reversing a 40-year government policy, said in a letter to the World Jewish Congress that his nation accepts moral responsibility for the Holocaust and agreed to provide "material support" to Jewish victims.
Modrow's one-page letter delivered Thursday to the congress's New York headquarters said East Germany acknowledges "the responsibility of the entire German people" for crimes committed during the rule of Adolf Hitler.He said East Germany recognizes "its humanitarian duty with regard to the survivors of the Jewish people who suffered under Nazi oppression and confirms its readiness, in a spirit of human solidarity, to provide material support to former persecutees of the Nazi regime of Jewish origin."
Last week East German and Israeli representatives met in Copenhagen, Denmark, for exploratory talks on the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Israeli officials and members of the World Jewish Congress, an umbrella group of Jewish organizations in 70 countries, have said East Germany must accept moral and historical responsibility for crimes committed by Germans against Jews during the Holocaust and agree to make material amends for such damages.
A spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry Friday repeated its insistence East Germany shoulder its share of blame for the Holocaust and said the announcement would be studied.