Inaugural visit by the President of the Bundestag to Israel – who takes this opportunity to speak clearly about the situation of Jews living in Germany.
At the start of her visit to Israel, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas called for decisive action to be taken against anti-Semitism in Germany.
“Unfortunately, we are also experiencing anti-Semitism in our country, where one can and must only say, fight back the beginnings,” said Bas during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. When she hears that many young Jews in Germany are again afraid of a holocaust, “then these are alarm signals that must make us very, very vigilant and where we must counteract with all the means that we have as a constitutional state ».
Bas wrote in Yad Vashem’s guest book: «We must not forget. Germans wiped out six million lives. I think of the dead with deep sadness and shame.” From Germany’s historical guilt a special obligation also arises for Israel’s security.
Bas said she felt deep shame “because Germans, our ancestors, planned the annihilation and brutally implemented it.” You keep asking yourself, “how could that happen, why have so few helped”. She thanked Yad Vashem for keeping the memory alive. It gives the murdered “a face and a name”.
It is the SPD politician’s first visit to Israel. During her visit, she will take part in ceremonies marking Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which officially begins on Wednesday evening.
Bas comes at the invitation of her Israeli counterpart Mickey Levy, with whom she will hold political talks. The President of the Bundestag will also meet President Izchak Herzog and members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. As the first high-ranking representative from Germany, she will attend a ceremony in Parliament at which the names of victims of the Holocaust will be read out.
According to official figures, 161,400 Holocaust survivors are still living in Israel. The average age is 85.5 years, it said. More than 1000 affected are even older than 100 years.
Source: Stern
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