German President Joachim Gauck paid tribute to the hundreds of thousands of prisoners held at the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp, which was liberated by British Allied forces 70 years ago.
"We must look to the past to put an end to injustice," he said in his address at the site of the internment camp where over 70,000 people were murdered between 1941 and 1945.
During World War II, the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen became one of the most notorious Nazi camps. The British 11th Armored Division liberated the camp in April 1945. A Displaced Persons camp – the largest in post-war Germany – was later established nearby. It was closed in September 1950. An estimated 2,000 children were born to Holocaust survivors at the Bergen-Belsen DP camp.
"We commit ourselves to the obligation of never denying these crimes, or relativizing them, and of preserving the memories of the victims," the President said, calling it modern Germany’s moral duty.
More than 100 survivors of the Nazi concentration camp, children born at the post-war displaced persons (DP) camp, and British liberators returned to Lower Saxony to participate in Sunday’s ceremony in Lohheide.
"The British soldiers were the ambassadors of a democratic culture that wasn't bent on avenging the crimes of its enemy, and this helped Germany restore its obligation anew to justice and the dignity of the human being," Gauck said.
The President of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, called for action against anti-Semitism as he condemned world silence during the Holocaust and warned that history appears to be repeating itself.
“Seventy years ago, the world was silent and now we are standing on one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the world,” said Lauder. “We appear to be descending into the same hell today. Anti-Semitism is rising in Europe, neo-Nazi groups are sitting in Parliament in Hungary and Greece, and Iranian leaders repeatedly promise to wipe Israel from the pages of time. To shout against the past while remaining silent about the present is not just wrong; it is outrageous and immoral.”
He deplored that Jews couldn't wear a kippah without being afraid of violence.
Addressing the Bergen-Belsen survivors, Lauder expressed his gratitude for their perseverance: "We are so proud of you! You were confronted with the most horrific cruelty imaginable, and still you left here with your dignity intact."
“From the ashes of this terrible place, the Jewish people rose up and moved on. Today there is a younger generation of Jews committed to making sure the Jewish people never fall victim to this kind of evil again. Just as you never let us down, we will not let you down,” promised Lauder.
He reminded everyone that it was not only the Nazis, and not only the German people and not only the rest of Europe which were complicit in this horror, but everyone who was silent and failed to act.
Lauder also pointed out that there was a voice that was silent, but not because they chose to look elsewhere, but because they were silenced: the Jews.
He stressed that the Jews ‘’need not be silent ever again in the face of threats to their existence, because there is a Jewish homeland whose purpose is to ensure the continuance of the Jewish people.’’
The Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, the federal state where Bergen-Belsen is located, also drew parallels to modern German society in his address on Sunday: "There is statute of limitations on murder, much less genocide," said Stephan Weil.
Germany, most of all, said Weil, must do its utmost to combat racism, xenophobia and extremism. "When refugees have to fear arson attacks, when Jews in Germany feel unsafe, when people are ostracized because of their religious faith, that's when we can no longer accept the status quo and go on with our daily lives."