#NeverMeansNever campaign for Yom HaShoah

Yesterday, our colleagues at EIPA interviewed with two incredibly strong women who were previously held captive during the attacks on October 7th.

Nili Margalit, aged 41, was taken hostage by Hamas militants at her residence in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the aforementioned incident. This attack resulted in the loss and abduction of over a quarter of the kibbutz population. Margalit, who works as a nurse at Soroka Hospital, had been in contact with several friends on the morning of the assault. During the attack, she found refuge in her secure room along with her dog and communicated via text that the militants had been present for “several hours.” She recounted being confined to her secure area while hearing gunfire from outside.

Shani Goren, 29, was abducted by Hamas terrorists from her safe room in Kibbutz Nir Oz, frozen with fear in her bed, around 10:30 a.m. on October 7. Shani works in the kibbutz educational system as a counselor. She is someone greatly admired for her energy and sense of joy, described as the beating heart of her friends in the kibbutz, always ready to host everyone in her home.

We at the European Jewish Association are proud to join the #MakeTheirMemoryShine project. Together with StandWithUs Nederlands
and other organisations across the continent, we commit ourselves to help clean the ‘Stolpersteine’ (Stumbling Stones) of Europe and honour the memory of Holocaust victims. This very important project has already started in several Dutch and Belgian cities, with several hundred stones now ensuring the memory of a victim will shine on. You can see a few examples in the images below. If you would like to participate and lead a group in your city, do not hesitate to contact us or the

page. Initiatives like these make us stronger and remind us of the reason we fight for the interest of Jewish communities every day.

Irmgard Furchner, a 96-year-old former secretary to the SS commander of the Stutthof concentration camp, is pictured at the beginning of her trial in a courtroom, in Itzehoe, Germany, October 19, 2021. Christian Charisius/Pool via REUTERS
A 96-year-old German woman who was caught shortly after going on the run ahead of a court hearing last month on charges of committing war crimes during World War Two appeared before a judge on Tuesday in the northern town of Itzehoe, writes Miranda Murray, Reuters.
Irmgard Furchner (pictured), accused of having contributed as an 18-year-old to the murder of 11,412 people when she was a typist at the Stutthof concentration camp between 1943 and 1945, was taken into the sparse courtroom in a wheelchair.
Her face was barely visible behind a white mask and scarf pulled low over her eyes. Security was heavy as the judge and legal staff made their way into the court.
Between 1939 and 1945 some 65,000 people died of starvation and disease or in the gas chamber at the concentration camp near Gdansk, in today’s Poland. They included prisoners of war and Jews caught up in the Nazis’ extermination campaign.
Irmgard Furchner, a 96-year-old former secretary to the SS commander of the Stutthof concentration camp, arrives in a wheelchair at the beginning of her trial in a courtroom, in Itzehoe, Germany, October 19, 2021. Christian Charisius/Pool via REUTERS
Judge Dominik Gross arrives in the courtroom for the trial against Irmgard Furchner, a 96-year-old former secretary to the SS commander of the Stutthof concentration camp, in Itzehoe, Germany, October 19, 2021. Christian Charisius/Pool via REUTERS
The trial was postponed after Furchner left her home early on Sept. 30 and went on the run for several hours before being detained later that day.
Charges could not be read until Furchner, who faces trial in an adolescent court because of her young age at the time of the alleged crimes, was present in court.
She is the latest nonagenarian to have been charged with Holocaust crimes in what is seen as a rush by prosecutors to seize the final opportunity to enact justice for the victims of some of the worst mass killings in history.
Although prosecutors convicted major perpetrators – those who issued orders or pulled triggers – in the 1960s “Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials”, the practice until the 2000s was to leave lower-level suspects alone.

Following the attack, police said they were increasing security around Jewish sites in consultation with Jewish groups.A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of stabbing and critically wounding an Orthodox Jewish man Saturday morning on the streets of Zurich, Swiss police announced.Zurich police said that they suspect antisemitism as the motive in the stabbing attack that occurred Saturday evening.Police said the perpetrator attacked the 50-year-old man “and critically injured him with a stabbing weapon.” They described the perpetrator as 15-year-old Swiss citizen who was arrested him at the scene.The Swiss Organization of Jewish Communities said it was “deeply shocked that a community member fell victim to such an attack.”The Swiss Organization of Jewish Communities said it was “deeply shocked that a community member fell victim to such an attack.”“Physical attacks on Jewish people in Switzerland are very rare,” it said. “The Jewish community has been spared from such life-threatening attacks for the past two decades. However, there has been a significant increase in such physical attacks since Oct. 7.”Following the attack, police said they were increasing security around Jewish sites in consultation with Jewish groups.

Orthodox Jewish man stabbed by teenager in Zurich in antisemitic attack