Address by the President of the State of Israel Moshe Katsav

Today, 27th Nissan, the people of Israel bow their heads in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.  The memory of the Holocaust accompanies us throughout our lives, and is part of our collective and individual identity and heritage.  The Holocaust is an open wound on the body of the Jewish people that has not healed, either psychologically or demographically.  The Jewish people lost a part of Jewish life in the inferno of the Holocaust, and left part of its soul in the extermination camps.  Demographically speaking too, our numbers have not yet returned to the pre-war figure of 18 million Jews in the world.  The trauma of the Holocaust will forever constitute an integral part of our being. 

The memory of the Holocaust is etched into the heritage of the entire Jewish people, amongst all groups and communities, both in Israel and the Diaspora.  It is impossible to understand the Jewish people without taking into account the memory of the Holocaust, its heritage, and its Jewish and universal lessons.

Sixty years after the genocide, the raucous, threatening voices of antisemitism, racism and xenophobia are again heard in Europe and elsewhere.  Many websites disseminate Holocaust denial as if the Holocaust were a Jewish-Zionist plot or a delusion.  Lately, we have witnessed attempts to detract from the uniqueness of the Holocaust in the international arena.  Nazi ideology, which used organization, systemization and advanced technology without any reason, explanation or justification, left us totally helpless; we simply could not make any sense of the catastrophe which befell us, faced as we were with the basest form of evil that human beings can descend to.

The most cruel, primitive act in the history of mankind was executed by what was then considered to be one of the most developed, advanced and modern countries in the world – a country in central Europe boasting not only scientists but philosophers, writers and poets.

This year, we devote special attention to the last letters and testaments of Holocaust victims.  The urge of many Jews to write for future generations a description of what had befallen them, the need to leave a testimony - be it only on a scrap of paper, with words and drawings – even though it put their very lives at risk, constitute an important chapter in the history of the Holocaust period - a history made up of stories of heroism, and the attempt to preserve dignity and morality at a time when darkness and evil ruled the world.  We are moved and touched by the fact that in this tragic period in Jewish history, Jews still managed to preserve their humanity, their culture and their religion, as evidenced by the fact that many risked their lives to save other Jews.

In her desperation to leave a document behind her, Gina Atlas wrote the following to her husband Reuven:

“Know that your wife Gina and your son Imush perished here.  Our child wept bitterly.  He did not want to die.  Go to war and avenge the blood of your wife and your only son.  We are dying although we did no wrong.”

There is no doubt that the memory of the Holocaust will remain in the consciousness of the Jewish people for generations to come, but we must also do all we can to ensure that the lessons of the Holocaust are bequeathed to future generations of our people.  But there is no guarantee that mankind as a whole will entrust its descendants with the memory and lessons of the Holocaust. 

The Jewish people bears the historic duty to commemorate and illuminate with the Eternal Flame that which the Holocaust victims demand of us from their graves - from the killing pits, from the cattle cars, the death camps, and the gas chambers - that which our 4000-year-old Jewish history demands of us.

I commend the efforts of some European countries, both the perpetrators and  collaborators, to face up to their past and teach the younger generation about the Jewish life which was extinguished by the deeds of their parents.  We expect other countries in Europe to come to terms with their past, to admit honestly that many nations collaborated with the Nazi dictatorship, and to impart humane and universal values to the younger generation. This is part of the lesson of the Holocaust which must be handed down to future generations, so that mankind will not stand helpless and ineffectual in the face of similar dangers.

Next week, we will mark Remembrance Day for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers, and we will celebrate Independence Day.  The military cemetery is just a few hundred meters from here.  The relationship between space and time teaches us about the connection between Holocaust and rebirth.  The State of Israel is the everlasting proof that “the Strength of Israel will not lie”.