Dozens of European Jewish community leaders and dignitaries commemorated Holocaust victims at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland on Tuesday, at an event organized by the European Jewish Association (EJA).
The delegation, headed by EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin, included Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran, who is widely seen as a leader of the opposition to the ayatollah regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Baroness Régine Sluszny, a Belgian Holocaust survivor and president of the Forum of Jewish Organizations in Flanders, also attended. The 87-year-old said at the event that “the universal lesson from the Holocaust is of tolerance. And I fear we in Europe have a long way to go in adopting that lesson.”
Greece’s Minister for Migration and Asylum, Thanos Plevris, spoke at the event, laying a wreath in memory of 1.1 million people murdered at the former death camp, which was built by the Nazis in occupied Poland, and the 6 million Holocaust victims.
Plevris addressed the Hamas massacres of Oct. 7, 2023, in his speech about the need to combat antisemitism.
“Today, we see antisemitism rising again around the world. We must also remember the Jewish people who suffered and lost their lives in the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on Oct. 7. Hatred and violence against innocent people must never be accepted. We must stand against antisemitism and protect every person’s right to live in peace and safety,” Plervis said.
Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs spoke at the event about the feeling of estrangement many Jews feel in their native countries today. “I get compliments on my good Dutch, because I’m seen as foreign. Because I’m Jewish. But my family has lived in the Netherlands for generations,” he said.
Pahlavi’s visit to Auschwitz was his first. He said he was “deeply moved and shocked.” One the eve of his visit, he recalled at a press conference that his parents, Mohammad Reza and Farah, had visited Auschwitz in 1966.
Farah Pahlavi wrote in her memoirs about her feeling of horror while standing in the gas chamber at Auschwitz just 24 years after the Nazis murdered people in it. All of the gas chambers of Birkenau, which is adjacent to Auschwitz, were destroyed. The one in Auschwitz has been converted to an air raid shelter and therefore remained intact.
Reza Pahlavi said ahead of the visit: “When you hear ‘never again,’ this regime [of the ayatollahs in Iran], in its virulent sense, wants to finish what Hitler had started, which is why we need to fight this evil.”
Margolin said ahead of the ceremony, which featured prayers, the lighting of candles and the laying of wreaths: “Europe must stop asking Jews to live with fear and start demanding that those who threaten them live with consequences. Never Again is not a memorial slogan. It is a government responsibility.”
