Mr. Benjamin Orenstein,
Director General Moller,
Madam High Commissioner,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Last year, at this very day, at the United Nations in New York, Noah Klieger, a Holocaust survivor and famous Israeli journalist, said:
“When I was in Auschwitz, the only thing you could do freely was dreaming. And so I had three dreams:
The first one was to Be Free.
But how will you ever leave this hell on earth?
And I was convinced I could not leave this hell on Earth, because NO Jew was brought to Auschwitz in order to survive.
I was lucky, very lucky and I survived.
My second dream was: “Should I survive, I will start telling what happened in the camps. I will go on a Mission all over the world.”
No one sent me, but I have been to most countries in the world to tell my story.
My third dream was: “If all this were to happen, I will try to help the Jewish People to be again an independent Nation, to have an independent country.” And so, I became a Zionist.
Now I can say proudly: I reached all my goals.”
Noah Klieger passed away one month ago, on December 13, at the age of 92. He dedicated his life to the remembrance of the Holocaust, to the defense of the Jewish People. He also did so on Holocaust Remembrance Day, in this very same room, in January 2010. May his memory be blessed.
Tonight, we are privileged to hear first-hand testimony from Benjamin Orenstein.
In our comfortable seats, in our daily lives, we cannot truly grasp the horrors you have endured, Benjamin. How can we picture 6 million victims? How can we ever imagine the smell of burning bodies? How can we see the fear and the despair in the eyes of those children walking to their death?
No movie, no book, no visit to those remembrance sites will ever get close enough to what you have lived. But your testimony is essential, because it is undeniable. Every day, Holocaust deniers, try to rewrite history, to negate what really happened in the Nazi camps of Treblinka, Majdanek, Sobibor. We should never back down in front of these individuals.
The Holocaust indeed seems unconceivable. So much hatred, so much tyranny, so many deaths. How could such a genocide have ever happened? This is why, more than ever, we must listen to Holocaust survivors, learn from them and teach the younger generations.
Mr. Orenstein,
In a few minutes, you will travel into your darkest memories. But tonight, you are our Shamash, the torch that will enlighten all of us. Then, it will become our responsibility, our duty, to pass your story on to those around us, and to those who will survive us.
74 years after the Holocaust, it is difficult to comprehend the level of intolerance, of racism, of antisemitism that rages within our societies even today.
The anti-Semitic attack in the Tree of Life congregation in Pittsburgh and the killing of 11 of its congregants is the latest of a long series of deadly anti-Semitic attacks that happened over the last several years. Therefore, fighting antisemitism remains a daily task.
- A struggle against racist individuals who believe in the supremacy of a race.
- A fight against those who endorse conspiracy theories, and use Jews as scapegoat for their sufferings.
- A fight against those who view attacks against Jews as a legitimate way to oppose the State of Israel.
- A battle against radical-extremist Islamists who preach for the annihilation of Jews, of Westerners, of democracy.
None of these are tolerable! It is unacceptable for any State to let part of its population live in fear of an attack; or else, to forbid them the practice of what is the foundation of their faith.
Even in the darkness of Auschwitz, of the Lodz Ghetto, Jews struggled to preserve their Jewish identity, culture and religion. So many testimonies recall the hidden prayers on Shabbat and on the Holy days, the books written and the liturgical melodies that were composed there; and we will soon hear some of these beautiful pieces.
Aharon Appelfeld, one of the greatest Israeli novelists and a Holocaust survivor, once said: “The diaries written during the Holocaust are undoubtedly the most scorching outcries ever expressed by the human soul. These cries were uttered by people of different ages, and different degrees of religious faith or secularity. This was their final attempt to preserve their identity before it was seized from them.”
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
As difficult as it is to believe, a sense of profound insecurity is yet again a fact of life for European Jewry:
- According to the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, 89% of European Jews feel that antisemitism increased in their country in the last five years.
- Almost 30% of people surveyed have been harassed, with those being visibly Jewish, most affected.
- Almost 80% do not report serious incidents to the police or any other body. Often, because they feel nothing will change.
Recently published reports also show the level of ignorance when it comes to the Holocaust. The numbers are shocking.
- 66% of millennials do not know what Auschwitz is.
- 1 European in 20 has never heard of the Holocaust.
This ignorance represents a collective failure.
Learning the lessons of the past helps prevent the horrors of tomorrow. It is the responsibility of States and public institutions, to teach the facts, to educate younger generations.
However, education is not enough. Laws must be enacted, and enforced whenever necessary. Public figures and citizens alike must speak up whenever they see or hear antisemitism showing its ugly head, or any kind of discrimination.
Outside this room, you can view an exhibition about the “Righteous Among the Nations”. More specifically, the exhibition recounts the stories of diplomats who defied their governments’ policies and risked their own lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. This exhibition is called “Beyond Duty”, because these remarkable diplomats acted and went beyond what anyone was expecting, in order to protect and save even one life.
These Righteous among the Nations should be our moral compass.
For the sake of Humanity, we should not only remember them but follow their example and their legacy!
Claims Conference, The Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness Study, (New York, 2018),