Edited by: TJVNews.com
World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder on Friday met German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp and thanked her for announcing that Germany is committing ˆ 60 million to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation to support preservation of the memorial site. Her visit is the first in her 14-year tenure as Chancellor of Germany, the first time a German chancellor has visited the site since 1977, and the third time a German chancellor/head of government has visited since World War II. The visit comes in advance of the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and amid rising levels of antisemitism in Europe and around the world.
Chancellor Merkel entered through the camp’s notorious gate marked “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Sets You Free), and lit a candle in memory of the more than 1.1 million people killed there. She was accompanied by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki; Piotr M.A. Cywinski, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and President of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation; and Dr. Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
WJC President Lauder accompanied Chancellor Merkel during her visit at the museum’s Conservation Laboratories, which preserve every shoe, every document, and every building that remain at the site. Amb. Lauder has been involved in the preservation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau site for decades, raising tens of millions of dollars internationally to fund conservation efforts, including the establishment in 2003 of the laboratories. Chancellor Merkel also visited the Central Sauna building at the former Birkenau camp, where prisoners were subjected to “disinfection” before being forced into slave labor.
“Antisemitism remains a vile, pervasive and resurgent force in the world today, making Holocaust education more vital than ever,” said WJC President Lauder. “Chancellor Merkel has been a valued and reliable ally in the fight against this oldest of hatreds. Preserving and conserving the remains of the Holocaust are critical to maintaining an accurate record of the atrocities committed, especially as the number of living, first-hand witnesses inevitably dwindles. Only by knowing the past can we protect our future, and we are deeply grateful to Chancellor Merkel for her commitment to the preservation of the site where almost 1 million Jews were brutally murdered by the Nazis only and exclusively because they were Jews.”
Chancellor Merkel acknowledged the conservation work and thanked “that care was taken with great commitment so the site can bear testimony”. Merkel stated: “This history has to be told, again and again.”
In October 2019, the World Jewish Congress honored Chancellor Merkel with the WJC Theodor Herzl Award for her efforts to protect and foster Jewish life in Germany and her support for Israel.
