Olaf Scholz speaks on Holocaust and German responsibility during memorial

By Mia Bucher and Stefan Heinemeyer, dpa

 

BERLIN – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recalled Germany’s historical responsibility for the murder of millions of Jews during the Nazi era as the country commemorates the victims.

“The suffering of 6 million innocently murdered Jews is unforgotten – as is the suffering of the survivors,” Scholz wrote on Twitter.

The victims are commemorated throughout Germany on Friday. Among others, Holocaust survivor Rozette Kats was due to speak at a memorial hour in the German parliament.

Bundestag President Bärbel Bas was to open the special event, which was also to be attended by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. This year’s commemoration focuses on people who were persecuted by the Nazis because of their sexual orientation or identity.

On January 27, 1945, soldiers of the Red Army liberated the survivors of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. The Nazis had murdered more than 1 million people there, most of them Jews.

The date has been marked in Germany as Holocaust Memorial Day since 1996, with wreaths laid in remembrance at many locations across the country.

Kats is expected to give a commemorative speech in the Bundestag, followed by Klaus Schirdewahn, who plans to speak to the lawmakers as a representative of the LGBTQ community. The International Auschwitz Committee drew a parallel with Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“This year, the survivors of the German concentration and extermination camps are confronted with new pains and horrors on this day of remembrance, which is always painful for them: Mixed in with the memory of their murdered family members and fellow prisoners is the horror of a new war in Europe,” the committee said on Friday morning.