Words by Rabbi Benyomin Jacobs on Dutch TV

June 6, 2021

I stopped worrying about current anti-Semitism. Just fiveminutes I forgot about the anti-Israel propaganda which I see and hear daily around me. I was standing in a serene silence for those five minutes in front of the Children’s Monument, het Kindermonument, in former Dutch concentration camp Vught.
“One thousand two hundred and sixty-nine children were put on deportation trains with the Kindertransport on June 6 and 7 in 1943.  A few days later they arrived in extermination camp Sobibor. Upon arrival they were brutely removed from the cattle wagons, driven to the gas chambers via the Himmelstrasse, the Street to the Heaven, as the Nazi scum jokingly called this street. Were they aware of the atrocities which the Nazi’s had planned for them? When did they realize that from the showers heads no water would come out but a deadly killing gas would emerge? How long did they suffer before they souls were forced to leave their young bodies? Didthe SS men, who watched through a few skylights, enjoy the sadistic spectacle?
The names of all those children are engraved on the Children’s Monument in National Monument Kamp Vught. Only a very few photographs of a few children still exist. Most children are reduced by the industrial killing machine to a just name,without a face.
Why are we commemorating yearly the Children-Deportation, the Kindertransport? In order to prevent? Is this monument akind of educational project?
Yes, the Kindertransport is commemorated every year, but not to teach, not to warn, not even to prevent!
When I unveiled the monument in 1999, people came forward from the audience after the ceremony. They searched through the names, found and, full of tenderness, love and with tears in their eyes, I saw them putting their hands on the name of their sister, their brother, their child or their grandchild. But the names of most of the children stayed untouched, because thebrothers, sisters, nephews and nieces, fathers and mothers of those children had also been murdered.
One thousand, two hundred and sixty-nine names. Lonely names, letters without faces, without family, as if they never existed. Through the chimneys of the Sobibor crematoria they disappeared into an invisible darkness. Anonymous, completely unknown, no one to think of them anymore. Just letters, a very few damaged photographs, as if they never existed.
Let us close our eyes and think in absolute silence of thechildren of the Kindertransport, who stayed on this earth for such a short while, were so cruelly snatched, and of whom nothing, absolutely nothing, has remained.
No grave, no ashes, just a name. Names without meaning, because no one today is able to remember whose life and suffering is behind their names.”
Credit: Jan van de Ven
Credit: Jan van de Ven

Additional Articles

Meeting with European Commissioner for Education on Anti-Semitism

The EJA and our partners at Action and Protection Hungary Mr Kalman Szalai and Mr Ferenc Olti, were honored to have a meeting with European Commissioner for Education Navracsics Tibor and Ms Katharina Schnurbein, European Coordinator on combating antisemitism, on countering antisemitism through education.
Mr Ferenc Olti initiated and ran a successful project in Hungary, positively influencing the national curriculum and teaching children about Judaism and the important role played by Jews in Hungarian society.
As the EU wrestles with the challenge of rising antisemitism across the continent, we are working closely with the Commission with a view to setting up pilot education projects based on the Hungarian model in several European countries. We will keep you posted as this important initiative moves ahead in coming weeks.
 

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LA FRANCE EST LE PAYS EUROPÉEN DONT LA COMMUNAUTÉ JUIVE SE SENT LE MOINS EN SÉCURITÉ, SELON UNE ÉTUDE PORTANT SUR 12 ETATS EUROPÉENS

a France est le pays dont la communauté juive se sent le moins en sécurité, en dépit des actions menées par l’Etat, selon une étude portant sur 12 pays européens publiée ce mardi dans le cadre d’une rencontre organisée par l’Association juive européenne (EJA).

Les chiffres font froid dans le dos. D’après une étude sur la «qualité de vie juive» portant sur 12 pays européens, réalisée par l’Institute for Jewish Policy Research de Londres et par la European Union Agency for Fondamental Rights, auprès de 16.000 Juifs européens en 2018, la France est le pays dont la communauté juive se sent le moins en sécurité.

QUATRE CRITÈRES CROISÉS

Pour réaliser cette étude, les chercheurs ont croisé quatre ensembles de données : le sentiment de sécurité ressenti par la communauté juive, l’attitude de la population vis-à-vis des juifs et Israël, l’antisémitisme et enfin la «performance du gouvernement» (statistiques sur les incidents antisémites, lieux de mémoire de l’Holocauste, budget destiné à la sécurité des sites juifs, liberté de culte et préservation des pratiques juives telles que la circoncision et l’abattage rituel, etc…).

Les résultats sont probants. Il en ressort que la France, qui comprend la plus forte communauté juive d’Europe avec un peu moins de 500.000 Juifs, arrive à la 10e position (68/100) de cet index qui concerne également l’Italie (1ère place avec 79/100), la Hongrie (2e), la Pologne (11e), la Belgique (12e place avec 60/100), mais aussi l’Allemagne, l’Espagne, le Danemark, le Royaume-Uni, la Suède, les Pays-Bas.

DES ATTAQUES ET ATTENTATS ANTISÉMITES

«L’une des conclusions, surprenante, est que le gouvernement de la France a une bonne performance» par les actions menées par l’Etat (score de 83/100), «mais en dépit de cela, la communauté juive exprime un fort sentiment d’inquiétude» pour sa sécurité (31/100), ce qui place la France en dernière position sur ce point, a déclaré à l’AFP Daniel Staetsky, auteur de cet index et statisticien à l’Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

Comme possibles explications, il a cité les «attaques terroristes antisémites» comme la tuerie de l’école juive Otzar Hatorah à Toulouse en 2012 ou l’attaque contre l’Hypercacher dans l’Est parisien en janvier 2015.

LE DANEMARK PREMIER DE LA CLASSE

Autre enseignement : c’est au Danemark que la population juive se sent le plus en sécurité. La Hongrie arrive au premier rang concernant l’antisémitisme. Et la Belgique est dernière pour les actions menées par le pays en faveur de sa communauté juive.

Selon l’EJA, la rencontre, qui se tient à Budapest (Hongrie) depuis lundi et se termine mardi, réunit quelque 250 personnes, dont 120 représentants et dirigeants des communautés juives d’Europe.

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Polish legislation to outlaw blaming Poland for any crimes committed during the Holocaust.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, General Director of the European Jewish Association (EJA), calls upon Polish President Andrzej Duda, to exercise his constitutional rights and veto the shameful resolution of the Polish lower house of Parliament (Sejm) which took place on International Holocaust Memorial day.

Rabbi Margolin expressed his hope that the heads of all Polish political parties will come to their sences and revoke the resolutions by themselves.

“This legislation is a slap in the face – especially coming on International Holocaust Memorial Day – not only to the victims and to history but also to those Polish citizens who were deemed Righteous gentiles and saved Jews from Nazi extermination , who stood in stark contrast to those (too many) Polish citizens who cooperated with the Nazis”

Rabbi Margolin has instructed the EJA’s legal advisors to examine all legal avenues to revoke this shameful bil in the Polish Constitutional court and emphesized that in addition to the work in Poland, the EJA will conduct a campaign in the European Parliament and other EU institutions to have the bill revoked.

Please Watch Rabbi Margolin addressing the Polish Prime Minister on the issue:

Ror more info go HERE

CZECH « PERSONALITIES OF THE THIRD REICH » CALENDAR : CONDEMNATION IS MEANINGLESS IF SUCH ITEMS ARE NOT BANNED, SAYS EUROPEAN JEWISH HEAD

«Such items have no place in civil society, especially in a country that suffered so much under the nazi jackboot » – Rabbi Menachem Margolin.
As a storm erupted in Czech Republic diplomatic circles over the publication and sale of a calendar depicting « personalities of the Third Reich, the head of the Brussels based European Jewish Association said that in a time of rising antisemitism, condemnation was not enough and Czech authorities must ban all and any items that glorify the horrendous actions of the Nazis.
In a statement Rabbi Margolin, the Chairman of the European Jewish Association said :
«I find it incredible that a country that suffered massacres under the hard jackboot of the Nazis, and whose soldiers and airmen heroically fought the third reich from exile, would even countenance having such an item to buy in their country.
« The publisher states that there is demand for such items. We heard similar words from an auction house in Munich that was selling Nazi memorabilia in 2019. This is not an excuse.
« Words of condemnation whilst welcome are meaningless. The sale of such items is not only disgusting and an affront to the millions that perished under nazi ideology, but is very, very  dangerous in times of rising antisemitism. It glorifies murder, empowers those who hate the « other », and trivialises each and every abhorrent act undertaken by Hitler and his henchmen.
« I urge the czech government, for the sake of decency, for the honour of their fallen heroes and to send a messgae to Jews in the Czech Republic and across the world, to outlaw and ban the sale of any and all nazi memorabilia. »
you can read more about the story HERE

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