Hello and welcome to the details of Holocaust survivor hails ‘wonderful’ German anti-right protests and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Holocaust survivor Eva Szepesi, who was liberated from Auschwitz at the age of 12, told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, his cabinet and MPs in a Bundestag ceremony that she was heartened by hundreds of thousands of Germans joining pro-democracy rallies. — AFP pic
BERLIN, Jan 31 — Holocaust survivor Eva Szepesi today welcomed mass German protests against the resurgent far right but said stronger action was crucial to stand up to rising anti-Semitism.
Szepesi, who was liberated from Auschwitz at the age of 12, told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, his cabinet and MPs in a Bundestag ceremony that she was heartened by hundreds of thousands of Germans joining pro-democracy rallies.
“It is wonderful that so many people took to the streets in recent weeks to demonstrate against right-wing extremism,” Szepesi, 91, told the chamber.
“However I wish these demonstrators would also loudly object to inhumane and anti-Semitic remarks from their acquaintances and at work,” she added, invoking a “responsibility” to confront hatred where it arises.
Advertisement
She said Germany’s “wonderful constitution and democracy” deserved defending against forces seeking to undermine them, without mentioning the far-right AfD party by name.
The AfD, which has soared in opinion polls since last summer to around 20 percent on the back of fears about economic decline and rising migration, had largely boycotted last year’s Holocaust Memorial Commemoration in parliament.
The party’s leaders and MPs however were in attendance for Szepesi’s speech and applauded with other lawmakers as she called on Germans to resist “remaining silent and looking away” in the face of extremism.
Advertisement
Szepesi, born in Budapest to a Jewish family, was sent to the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz at the age of 11 and was one of the few child prisoners to escape death in the gas chambers.
She said she had taken advice to lie about her age, telling guards she was 16, which had likely saved her life.
Prisoners who were deemed unfit to work were systematically murdered immediately on arrival, a fate that her mother and brother had met at the camp.
After the war, Szepesi and her husband, a fellow Holocaust survivor, settled in Germany due to Cold War upheaval in Hungary.
She thanked Scholz and his government for their “solidarity” with Israel after the deadly Hamas attacks in October.
But she expressed alarm about the sharp rise in anti-Semitic crimes recorded in Germany since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out.
“It worries me deeply and I am sad to see what is happening on the streets—the readiness to use violence and the hatred of Jews,” she said. — AFP
These were the details of the news Holocaust survivor hails ‘wonderful’ German anti-right protests for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Malay Mail and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
