The issue of German reparations was reported by Alexis Tsipras and Franck-Walter Steinmeier in their discussion before the cameras before their own meeting.

The Prime Minister said that the momentum may be a beginning for Greek-German relations but “this does not mean that we have to forget or hide under the carpet any differences that come from the distant past”.

“We have to define together and with mutual respect their solution based on the international law we all respect”, added Tsipras.

For his part, the German president, stated from the camp at Chaidari that he visited, that it is “a concentration camp where atrocities took place, from where they were displaced to Auschwitz and Dachau. What we are doing is honoring the dead and apologize for these atrocities”. He stated that “we do not want to forget the past or to overlook the moral and political culpability that we have”.

“Regardless of the legal positions we have, we consider our obligation to do something that will work as a counterbalance to the acts coming from the German side. We do not want to forget what we have done, but rather we want to give to the new generations our lessons from this period, letting people coexist without one hating the other”.