More than 70 members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and Holocaust survivors will gather on the site of the former Auschwitz death camp on January 27 for an historic session on combating anti-Semitism.
January 27 marks the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp by the Allied troops in 1945.
The event was initiated by the management of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum which has invited Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and all members of the Israeli parliament to participate in a discussion and memorial ceremony
The delegation will return to Israel the same day after a series of events.
A special plane will leave Israel for Auschwitz on the morning of the event, carrying Knesset members, dozens of Holocaust survivors and other senior Israeli officials, including IDF generals, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau and his father, former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Israeli Nobel Prize laureates and youth movement representatives.
Each Member of Knesset will be accompanying a Holocaust survivor.
The event organizer and the person behind the project is Jonny Daniels, Founder and Executive Director of ‘From the Depths’, a non-profit organization devoted to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and ‘connecting the Jewish past with the Jewish future’.
“The symbolism of the majority of the Knesset coming and standing with the survivors in a place in which 69 years ago they didn’t imagine they’d live another day is so strong,” Daniels stated. “They’ll stand in Auschwitz-Birkenau with the government of the Jewish people and generals of the Jewish army and leaders of Jewish youth organizations. There’s no stronger way to stand.”
‘’At least one Holocaust survivor an hour is dying in Israel and we are getting very close to the point where there will be no more first-hand accounts left. The onus falls on us, not just as Jews and Israelis, but humanity as a while, to learn, to be with the survivors and to understand what happened and to ensure it never repeats again,” he said.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said the primary objective of the mission is ‘’to highlight the importance of not just remembering the Holocaust and Auschwitz-Birkenau, but to also have a conversation with elected officials from around the world about what needs to be done to make sure nothing of the kind ever happens again, anywhere in the world, especially as far as Jews are concerned.”
Lawmakers and politicians from Europe and the US are expected to attend the event as well as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel.
Edelstein said anti-Semitism in Europe has reached a level unprecedented since the end of the Holocaust.” Noting the “importance and urgency” of combatting global anti-Semitism, he warns “we must not wait until the trains start going to Auschwitz-Birkenau once again.”
A former Diaspora Affairs Minister, Edelstein dealt with fighting anti-Semitism. ‘’I saw that we need to do something to make the issue more actual and relevant,” he said.