PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU’S SPEECH ON HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
Press Release from the office of the Prime Minister of Israel
Tonight, the eve of Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, we remember our brothers and sisters who were murdered in the death camps, in the forests and in the killing fields. We listen to the voices of the survivors who serve as the voice of the millions who died. Before their deaths, many of the murdered begged, “Do not forget us. Tell our story—tell the world, tell the coming generations – how great our suffering was, how terrible the horror was, how great our sacrifice was.”
Several months ago, I headed the Israeli delegation to the ceremony marking 65 years since the liberation of the death camps Auschwitz and Birkenau. The candle-lighting ceremony took place outside in front of the monument. It was 15 degrees Celsius below zero, but it was still warmer than the terrible winter of 1944-1945 when temperatures ranged from 30 to 35 degrees below zero. We stood for about 30 minutes during the ceremony, well-dressed for the weather, nevertheless, we were freezing. Suddenly I understood a simple, chilling truth about millions of my brothers and sisters who ended up in that cursed place: those who didn’t burn, froze; and those who didn’t freeze, burned.
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Several months earlier, I visited the Wannsee Villa in Berlin. There, I saw the original invitation for the meeting of high-level Nazi officials, in which they decided to wipe out the Jewish people. On the invitation that was sent by the Deputy Head of the SS was written: “The chief of the Reich main security office, Reinhard Heydrich, cordially invites you to a discussion about the Final Solution to the Jewish problem. Breakfast will be served at 09:00.” This is how, in an elegant villa on the shore of a pastoral lake, over breakfast and glasses of cognac, 15 men sat and decided how to destroy our people. No one batted an eyelid; no one expressed any doubt regarding the mission, either its necessity or its justness. (more…)











