Skopje, Macedonia, March 11,
2013
Ambassador Amrani's Speech on the occasion of
the 70th Commemoration
Ceremony, Macedonian Jewish Community transportation to Treblinka Death
Camp.
"There are few moments in human life when time, place and history come
together and remind us of past events, a moment in history which should never
have happened, a moment which should never be forgotten, a moment which
furthered the tragedy of humanity, the failure of human spirit and European
Culture and Civilization in those terrible days and years of the 20th
Century.
It
was here, same place, same day, at the dawn of morning, 06:00 AM, 70 years ago
when the Jewish People of this land and its' cities, a community whose history
and roots in this land go back to the 3rd Century A.D., was gathered under those
very same skies to be sent to their end in Treblinka concentration camp. 7,144
Jews of this land and many more of neighboring Greece and Serbia were gathered
as a toll, a human levy to the totalitarian tyrant, Nazi Germany and its
collaborators. No one came to their defense, no one came to their rescue and in
those days, Jewish people were left to their tragedy.
The land of this Continent, the land of Europe has known many tragedies,
wars and disasters throughout history but it had never seen an organized effort,
an orchestrated strategy to destroy, eliminate and execute an entire people.
Nothing in Human History is equal, nothing can be compared to the Holocaust as
we are committed and determined to remember every loss, and each people's
suffering. Remembering the events of the Holocaust, keeping alive the memory of
the demise and destruction of Jewish Communities all over Europe is our moral
obligation. We should not forget the moral, historic and political
bankruptcy of those very countries which failed to stand up to human values, of
those very nations of rich culture and contribution to our civilization and
humanity who chose to cooperate with the Nazis, Fascists and their many
collaborators just for political expediency and benefit. Just few, the
outnumbered, righteous of Sodom and Gomorrah, including Macedonian Righteous
among the Nations listened to the cry and extend a hand of help and
shelter.
Human nature tends to forget and repress memories let alone colossal
collective nightmare. As we stand here watching the horizon no evil thought can
come to mind, we ask ourselves how it could have happened. Some would even dare
and claim that it couldn’t have happened, that the numbers are fabricated. But
we know it did happen, we don’t see graves because people didn’t enjoy the
privilege of being buried, and they were eliminated not to leave a sign or a
mark of their life and existence. We will never forget, we will always remember,
we know people had lived here, built families and life and on one day, one
morning for no acceptable reason it all came to an end and a trembling dusky
vacuum which can never be filled again.
The transport of Macedonian Jewish Community, three train loads,
shipments, was neither the start nor the end of the Nazi Regime Final Solution
policy. Race laws preceded, in Germany and many other countries including
neighboring countries where Nazi collaborators ruled, Jews were denied their
citizenship and legal protection just for being Jews, not belonging to the race
of choice. German Jews, French Jews, Polish Jews, Macedonian Jews ceased to be
citizens, they were no longer patriots of their countries just Jews! The Nazis
and their accomplices decided to deny their identity. The trains went on their
final journey to the camps miles away where within days an end came to life.
Even on the long journey no one came to the rescue.
70
years later we remember and we will not hesitate to remind the world of what had
happened. There are still leaders and countries who take pride in claiming the
Holocaust had never happened. There are esteemed leaders of respected countries
who claim that Zionism, the national aspiration of the Jewish People, is a crime
against Humanity and the world keeps quiet. There are those who try to rewrite
History, to explain it in different words and different terms trying to present
the unimaginable in logic terms but there is no way to cover the bare facts, the
blinded hate to Jews in Europe throughout centuries, the prejudice and fear, the
persecutions and then the Nazi evilness and obsession with the murder and
annihilation of the Jewish People.
The 7,144 Macedonian Jews were each and every one a whole world; the six
millions lost in Europe were six million worlds, and beyond, lost forever. We
remember them and we will never allow ourselves to forget. As we build life for
the Jewish people in our homeland Israel, as we hope to see the continuity of
Jewish life in Macedonia our hearts and mind are not for hate or revenge but for
cooperation and friendship to ensure that such a disaster never happens again to
no one, regardless of ethnicity, race, religion or gender. In building a better
world, History must be learnt and remembered not denied, forgotten or worse
rewritten".