The adverse reaction might have been less stinging than the response to its messy apology for not apologizing, while the city of Stolberg might have shared the blame for setting an impossible condition to the memorial going forward.

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"We ask for forgiveness that for nearly 50 years we didn't find a way of reaching out to you from human being to human being, " he said at a ceremony in the western German city of Stolberg, where the firm is based.

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