"We gathered yesterday morning with my counterparts from France, Germany and other European Union Consulates at the Legion of Honor Holocaust Memorial in San Francisco to commemorate the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
I'm very grateful for continuing this important tradition.
The Holocaust memorial ceremony is always a special moment for me, as an Israeli diplomat, and a strong reminder that just 80 years ago we didn’t have our Jewish state—a safe haven for the Jewish people which six million of my sisters and brothers didn’t have.
These days, the increase in anti-Semitism globally and terror attacks in the past several years like the one two weeks ago in Texas, obliges us to fight anti Semitism in any possible way, motivated by the knowledge of what happens when hatred and racism take over.
For this purpose, and for the memory of the six million Jews slaughtered in the holocaust, I’d like to quote Elie Wiesel's poem:
'Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as God Himself.
-Consul General Shlomi Kofman
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Let’s all remember what hatred can lead to.