German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier asked for forgiveness on Thursday during a visit to a village that was razed by Nazi troops during their occupation of Greece in World War II.

Steinmeier is the first German head of state to visit the village of Kandanos on the island of Crete.

"I ask forgiveness from you, the survivors and descendants, for the grave crimes that the Germans committed here," he said.

Kandanos was razed on June 3, 1941, as a reprisal against the Greek resistance for the death of 25 German paratroopers and troops. It came days after Nazi troops captured the island. It is among some 120 "martyr villages" across Greece.

What did Steinmeier say?

The German president described the village as a "place of German shame," stressing it was a "difficult path for a German president to come to this place and speak."

"The brutality, the cruelty, the inhumanity of the German occupiers, they take my breath away, especially today," he continued. "And yet you offered us the hand of reconciliation, and for that I am grateful to you."

Steinmeier apologized as well for Germany having "dragged its heels for decades when it came to punishing the crimes" and that post-war governments "looked the other way and remained silent."

The German president was greeted by survivors of the Nazi massacre. Some of the crowds shouted slogans addressing Berlin's continued refusal to pay wartime reparations, amid shouts of "justice," and "the fight continues."

Among the survivors Steinmeier spoke to was 97-year-old Despina Fiotaki, still dressed in black as a sign of mourning.

"The Germans burned us, they destroyed us," she told the French AFP news agency, remembering the "dark days" of Nazi occupation.

The Nazi occupation of Greece lasted between 1941 and 1944 and was among the bloodiest in Europe, amid famine and the extermination of some 90% of the Greek Jewish community. The Nazis imposed a forced loan on Greece's central bank, which was never repaid.

Calls for reparations dismissed

Steinmeier's visit was marked by loud calls for Berlin to pay reparations for the Nazi crimes against Greece.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed on Wednesday that the reparations issue is "still very much alive."

"We hope that at some point we will resolve them," Mitsotakis said.

Steinmeier meanwhile maintained that Berlin considered the issue of reparations "closed under international law." He added that Germany remains "committed to our historic responsibility" over the occupation.

Later in Kandanos, the German president insisted on the need to "keep the memory of these events alive so that what happened, never happens again."

rmt/wd (AFP, AP, dpa)