BEIJING -- China on Wednesday praised German leaders' acknowledgment of its past mistakes, namely the Holocaust.

"We appreciate German leaders' sincere attitude toward World War II," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a daily press briefing on Wednesday.

Hua's comments came one day after German President Joachim Gauck urged not to forget Germany's Holocaust history and called for a continued coexistence of different cultures and religions in his country.

Gauck made the comments as Germany's Parliament convened in Berlin on Tuesday to pay tribute to the estimated 1.1 million people murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also made similar remarks.

As this year is the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Hua called for lessons to be learned from history.