Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress speaking at Auschwitz Camp Memorial.
Extracts, difficult to find full speech so this is rather clumsy :-
' Seventy-five years ago, when the world learned of the horrors of Auschwitz, nobody in their right mind wanted to be associated with Nazis But today, I see something I never thought I would see in my lifetime – the open and brazen spread of anti-Jewish hatred throughout the world once again.”
Lauder said that while antisemitism cannot be eradicated, “We cannot look the other way and pretend this isn’t happening. That’s what people did throughout the 1930s, and that is what led to Auschwitz.”
The same lies and propaganda that the Nazis used so effectively in the 1930s – “Jews have too much power, Jews control the economy and the media, Jews control governments, Jews control everything” – are being repeated online, in the media and even from democratic governments.
Auschwitz is surrounded by numbers, Lauder said: “Seventy-five years, 1933, 1938, six million.” But the loss of one and a half million Jewish children in the Holocaust is especially heartbreaking, he said. Had they survived, they would have grown to adulthood and raised a new generation.
“But something else was lost as well,” he said. “What could these one and a half million have created for us all? What symphonies? What great literature? What technology? What medical breakthroughs did we lose from these lost souls?”
Lauder recounted a story from the Eichmann trial in 1961, when witnesses recounted their experiences in Auschwitz. He told the story of a man who was separated from his wife and daughter at the platform in the camp.
“‘There were so many people, I didn’t know how I could keep my eye on them,’ he said. But he was able to see his daughter, who was wearing a bright red coat, until the coat became smaller and smaller in the distance, and she finally disappeared.
The Israeli prosecutor, Gabriel Bach, was unable to continue after hearing the man’s testimony.
“Years later, Bach explained that, as fate would have it, he and his wife had just bought their three-year-old daughter a little red coat. And Gabriel Bach said that to this day, if he goes into a sports stadium or a restaurant, or he’s just walking down a street in Jerusalem, and he sees a little girl in a red coat, his throat will tense up and he cannot speak,”
Lauder said.
“This is the legacy of Auschwitz, and it will never go away,” he said. “When we hear something that is antisemitic, when we hear someone talk about Israel unjustly, when Jews are attacked on your streets, do not be silent. Do not be indifferent. And do not just do this for the Jewish people around the world.”
“Do this for your children, do this for your grandchildren, but also, do this for the little girl in the red coat,” Lauder said."
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My memory if it does not fail me, Lauder reminded the gathering that the ashes of the little girl in the Red Coat were lying yards from where they were sitting.
