Auschwitz survivor warns of ‘huge rise in antisemitism’ in speech marking 80 years since death camp’s liberation – live | Holocaust

Speaking next, another Auschwitz survivor, Janina Iwańska, delivered a detailed account of life within the camp, and ended with a stark warning:

The war finished in 1945. People all over the world were in euphoria. “Never again” was the slogan. People believed the war would never happen again and we would be forever happy. Picasso painted this dove of peace, symbolising that everything would be well, for ever.

Yet some people made specific predictions, saying that it is impossible for these things never to happen again because people became so inhuman that it may happen again.

In 1950, a Polish writer and essayist wrote something about the war in “Kultura” [a Polish-émigré literary-political magazine published first in Rome and then in Paris].

He wrote:

“If Europe ravaged by this madness is to avoid destruction, its people must learn to anticipate better the consequences of their actions. They must not disregard those who possess such foresight. For the older generation, this may be of lesser concern. My thoughts are with the young, those who have their lives ahead of them. War and chaos can erupt anywhere, leaving no place or reason to flee.”

Marian Turski, member of the International Auschwitz Council and Auschwitz survivor, has been speaking in the last few minutes.

In a moving speech rich of cultural references, he said:

One must not be afraid at all. We see in the contemporary world, today and now, a huge rise in antisemitism. That is precisely antisemitism that led to the Holocaust.

He praises American historian Deborah Lipstadt for “her courage, tenacity” in “fighting with Holocaust denial,” including her UK court battle against the discredited British historian, David Irving.

Turski continued:

Let us not fear demonstrating the same courage today when Hamas attempts to deny the massacre of the seventh of October.

Let us not be afraid to oppose the conspiracy theories saying that all the evil of this world results from a plot started by some indefinite social groups, and Jews are often mentioned as one of such.

He ends on a plea to work between countries to resolve conflicts and ensure “a peaceful, safe, and secure life for their children.”

Let us not fear convincing [each other] that one needs to have a vision not only of what is here today, but also what is going to come tomorrow and what will come in several decades.

He gets a standing ovation.

The stream is now live at the top of this blog and here:

Live

The main ceremony is about to being in the next few minutes.

We will bring you the live stream at the top of this page as soon as it starts.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged to “never forget” the victims of the Holocaust in a post on social media ahead of his visit to Auschwitz this afternoon.

Scholz said:

Sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, friends, neighbors, grandparents: more than one million individuals with dreams and hopes were murdered in Auschwitz by Germans. We mourn their deaths. And express our deepest sympathy. We‘ll never forget them. Not today, not tomorrow.

German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier will attend the anniversary event, too.

Greek Jewish community marks the anniversary in Athens

Helena Smith

The few survivors left in Greece – estimated at less than a dozen – have also marked today’s milestone anniversary. The country lost 90% of its Jewish community during the second world war. Most were exterminated at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The community’s rabbi Gabriel Negrin, who attended a wreath laying service at the Holocaust memorial in Athens, told the Guardian:

It is very important to remember all those people [who were lost] so that their memory is a lesson that not only educates us but gives us the strength never to repeat [what happened].

Today is not only a commemoration. It is an opportunity to educate ourselves that light is more important than darkness.

Antisemitism is still rife in Greece with Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust memorials often vandalised.

Over 67,000 Greek Jews died during the four years that the Nazis occupied the southern European country.

“With very few of the survivors still alive, our duty and responsibility to pass onto the younger generation the respect, knowledge and memory of the Holocaust grows ever more important,” the Greek foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The most heinous crime, the mass murder against humanity itself during the second world war must NEVER AGAIN be repeated.”

Lanre Bakare

One of the world’s largest Holocaust archives is accessible online for the first time after a three-year digitisation of much of the collection.

Announced on Holocaust Memorial Day, the Wiener Holocaust Library’s new online platform includes more than 150,000 items collected over nine decades. Users can view letters, pamphlets and photographs that record the rise of fascism in Britain and Europe.

The director of the library, Dr Toby Simpson, said the project had been in the works for more than 10 years and he hoped it would help it find a new audience of scholars and become a “new way of bearing witness in the digital age”.

Britain’s King Charles III has just been to the Jewish Community Centre in Kraków, which he promised to help set up in 2002 and then opened in 2008, and he met with survivors and local leaders.

This is what he had to say:

It is a moment when we recall the depths to which humanity can sink when evil is allowed to flourish, ignored for too long by the world. And it is a moment when we recall the powerful testimonies of Survivors such as Lily Ebert, who so sadly passed away in October, and who collectively taught us to cherish our freedom, to challenge prejudice and never to be a bystander in the face of violence and hate.

In a world that remains full of turmoil and strife, and has witnessed the dangerous re-emergence of antisemitism, there can be no more important message. …

Here in Kraków, from the ashes of the Holocaust, the Jewish community has been reborn. And there is no greater symbol of this rebirth than the Jewish Community Centre, in which we are gathered here today.

Standing on the steps of this wonderfully vibrant Centre some seventeen years ago, having encouraged its construction and taken immense pride in opening it, I was filled with a sense of hope and optimism at the life and energy that coursed through the building. So, returning today, along with World Jewish Relief, of which I am extremely proud to be Patron, that sense of hope and optimism has only grown.

Musk’s call for Germans to ‘move on’ is ‘an insult to the victims of Nazism,’ Yad Vashem head says

Emma Graham-Harrison

Dani Dayan, chair of Israel’s Holocaust memorial centre Yad Vashem, has warned that Elon Musk’s call for Germans to “move on” from guilt about the Holocaust and other Nazi-era crimes was “an insult to the victims of nazism”.

“Contrary to Elon Musk’s advice, the remembrance and acknowledgment of the dark past of the country and its people should be central in shaping German society,” Dayan said in a post on X yesterday, referencing Musk’s remarks at a far right rally in Germany on Saturday.

“Failing to do so is an insult to the victims of nazism and a clear danger to the democratic future of Germany,” Dayan added.

Dayan quoted Elon Musk’s X handle, effectively addressing the billionaire directly with his criticism.

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