Herzog Warns of Rise in Anti-Semitism at Address to European Parliament for Holocaust Remembrance Day

President Yitzchak Herzog addressed European Union nations on Thursday ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, saying that “the Holocaust was not conceived in a vacuum” and warning of the dangers of growing anti-Semitism.

The President was a guest of the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. He delivered his keynote address to members of the Parliament and Holocaust survivors. Herzog arrived in Belgium on Wednesday for his official visit. Before his address, he met with the leaders of the EU along with members of the Belgian government and the Jewish community in Belgium.

“In Warsaw, home to over half a million Jews before the Holocaust, only the Jewish cemetery remained to attest to the vibrant life that had flourished before the advent of the Nazi axe man,” Herzog stated. “In the only Jewish synagogue in Warsaw that was still standing, the Nożyk synagogue on Twarda Street, a few dozen souls gathered, snatched from the jaws of carnage. A bloodstained Torah scroll was handed to my grandfather by the survivors, to be taken to the Land of Israel for eternal memory.”

Herzog then described “the story of the entire Holocaust” as the story of “the totality of annihilation, eradication, obliteration. The story of the monstrous, deranged obsession to totally exterminate a nation with roots stretching deep into history, such an inseparable and essential part of Europe: the Jewish People.”

The Israeli President shared family stories, as well as those written in the diaries of those murdered in death camps during the Holocaust. He noted: “The Holocaust was not born in a vacuum. We must never forget that the Nazi death machine would not have succeeded in realizing its nightmarish vision had it not met soil fertilized with Jew-hatred, which is as old as time itself.”

He stated that the European Parliament and its countries “must use every tool at your disposal, from education and legislation to security and enforcement, to deter and eradicate hatred, racism, and anti-Semitism in all their forms.”

Later, Herzog will meet with Secretary-General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg and with the forum of ambassadors of the countries to the alliance, where he will brief them on the security and political situation in Israel.

“The State of Israel rose like a phoenix out of the ashes and the terrible destruction, and realized our historic right to a state in our ancient homeland,” Herzog stated. “May the memory of the victims of the Holocaust be eternally etched in our hearts. May their souls be bound in the bond of life.”