Herzog took office as Federal President on 1 July 1994. He participated in the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising during the Nazi occupation of Poland in 1994. In a widely commended speech, he paid tribute to the Polish fighters and people and asked Poles for "forgiveness for what has been done to you by the Germans". In the speech, he strongly emphasized the enormity of anguish the Polish people suffered through Nazi Germany but he also made an indirect reference to the sufferings that the Germans experienced in World War II.