Opening the European Parliament plenary session commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp (see EUROPE 13566/20) in Brussels on Wednesday 29 January, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, recalled that during the World War II. “six million Jews were murdered in an organised and deliberate state-sponsored genocide” by the Nazis.
Ms Metsola recalled Europeans’ duty to remember and their responsibility to teach younger generations about the Holocaust, at a time when antisemitism has resurfaced “in Europe, around the world and online”. “The European Parliament will always remember. And we will always speak up - just as our first woman President Simone Veil, herself a survivor, taught us to do. Her legacy reminds us that neutrality helps only the oppressor, never the victim”, she stressed.
In front of MEPs, Corrie Hermann recounted the story of her father, the Hungarian composer and cellist Pál Hermann, who was deported to the Kaunas camp in Lithuania. “Hitler burned books, destroyed paintings and murdered millions, but music is invincible”, she declared.
Two musicians performed Maurice Ravel’s Kaddish, with Mr Hermann’s original Gagliano cello.
MEPs also observed a minute’s silence, which was disrupted by Grzegorz Braun (NI, Polish), a member of the far-right Konfederacja party. “Let us pray for the victims of the genocide perpetrated by the Jews in Gaza”, he shouted several times, before being expelled from the Chamber by the European Parliament President. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)