IHolocaust survivor Inge Auerbacher spoke at a commemoration hour in the Bundestag and specifically remembered the one and a half million children who were killed in German extermination camps during the National Socialist era and shot in mass killings, who died in the torment of the ghettos and concentration camps. Auerbacher, who comes from Baden and was deported to Theresienstadt with her parents at the age of seven, told the MPs on Thursday about her ordeal and the fate that many of her family members shared with six million murdered Jews.
Bundestag President Bärbel Bas said January 27, German Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism and International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust, was a day of shame for “what previous generations did in Germany”. On this day, one commemorates “the murdered Jews, the dead of the Sinti and Roma, the victims of the Slavic peoples,” said the SPD politician. “We commemorate the millions of people who were persecuted, robbed, humiliated, disenfranchised, tortured, put to death. Because they thought differently, believed differently, loved differently or because the National Socialists considered their lives ‘unworthy’.”
In her speech, Bas recalled the Wannsee Conference, at which high-ranking officials from ministries discussed the “final solution to the Jewish question” together with bureaucrats from the German terror authorities and those responsible for mass murder 80 years ago. She and many other perpetrators got away: “Far too few had to answer in court. Far too many have gotten away with punishments that amounted to mockery of the victims. Also participants in the Wannsee Conference.” Germany bears “a special responsibility: the genocide of the Jews of Europe is a German crime. But at the same time it is a past that concerns everyone.”
“Anti-Semitism is unacceptable”
The President of the Bundestag added: “We warn and state unequivocally: anti-Semitism is unacceptable. Period. No matter what he says. It doesn’t matter where he comes from. Anti-Jewish stereotypes and prejudices should never again be allowed to spread. Jews should never again be held responsible for the evils of the world. Anti-Semitism should never again prepare the ground for exclusion, hatred, and mania for annihilation.” According to Bas, anti-Semitism is there, it is a problem of society, and one has to ask oneself: “How free are we really from anti-Jewish clichés? Do we always manage not to hold Jews responsible for Israeli policies? Are we, out of misunderstood tolerance, too soft on anti-Semitism that some immigrants have brought with them from their old homeland?”
Read F+ now for free for 30 days and get access to all articles on FAZ.NET.
The majority in this country “have nothing to do with it,” said Bas. “She will not be seduced into hatred. She votes and argues democratically. And I like to do it passionately, sometimes bitterly. We need more ‘courage for intolerance’ towards the others. The determined use of all means known to a well-fortified democracy.” When right-wing extremists, historical revisionists and ethnic nationalists celebrate electoral successes, then it is “high time to stand together to protect the values and institutions of our free, democratic society”.
A string trio by the Prague composer Hans Krása, who was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944, was performed in the plenary hall. Inge Auerbacher spoke after Bas. She described her childhood, the way to the concentration camp and the long suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, which she brought with her from there and which tied her to hospital beds for years after the war. 20 of her family members were murdered, she had to wear the Star of David for four years, she was in a concentration camp for three years, and four years later in her sick bed. “I’ve never been allowed to wear a wedding dress, I’ll never be a mom or a grandma, but I’m happy and the children of the world are mine.” She pleaded, “We’re all born brothers and sisters. My deepest wish is the reconciliation of all people. Light a candle for the slain, light a candle for the living. We are all born as children of God. The past must never be forgotten. Let’s see a new tomorrow together.”
The fragility of democracy
Mickey Levy, President of the Israeli Knesset, recalled the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp on January 27, 1945. The Reichstag building is a place where one is reminded of how fragile democracy is. The memory of the Holocaust is a task that lies on the shoulders of every generation. It’s often about big numbers, unbelievable statistics. How can a figure of six million murdered be conveyed at all. Even the number reduces “the humanity of each individual, who all had a life story”.
Levy thanked Inge Auerbacher for “making the incomprehensible become a tangible memory”. The decisions were made 80 years and seven days ago in a villa on Wannsee. He was stunned when he visited the villa with its flower beds and sparkling lake the day before his speech. “80 years and seven days are not enough to heal all wounds. The work of remembrance connects our two peoples.”
The two nations managed to emerge from the National Socialist trauma and build something new, said Levy: “Two nations that have made an extraordinary journey on the way to reconciliation.” Levy thanked former Chancellor Angela Merkel for her friendship and Solidarity with Israel and said to Chancellor Olaf Scholz: “The State of Israel is relying on you.” At the end of his words, Levy read out a prayer for the murdered with tears.
www.faz.net
