“More than 40 world leaders gathered in Jerusalem to honor the victims of Nazi extermination, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.”
Question: What is the most important part of this title?
Answer: “in Jerusalem“
Why? The world’s leaders converged in Jerusalem, in what was the largest diplomatic event in the history of the State of Israel. But some leaders were not there. I do not mean the leaders of Iran or the Arab countries. I mean Poland. The Polish government wanted the commemoration of the Liberation of Auschwitz- where 1.1 million Jews were killed- to take place in Auschwitz. Auschwitz is located in the district of Oświęcim, which is Polish territory. In Oświęcim there are many monuments as well as a very significant place: the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, where according to the Polish government the ceremony should have been held.
What is the difference between celebrating the liberation of Auschwitz in Auschwitz or in Yad Vashem, Jerusalem?
The ceremony at the Auschwitz museum would have been a great honor towards the dead. Visitors could have watched and felt the very horror of the death trains. Seen the infamous piles of thousands and thousands of suitcases in which the prisoners brought their valuable possessions; of which they were immediately stripped. The burned pieces of the Tora scrolls, which some Jews, risking their lives, had carried with them to the camp. In Auschwitz, the main world leaders could have seen and felt everything the Nazis did to murder the Jews and destroy their legacy.
In Jerusalem, these VIP visitors saw something very different. They saw the children and grandchildren of the survivors of Auschwitz and the Shoa “live” in Israel.
They saw that the descendants of the survivors built in Jerusalem a very modern light train that crosses the vibrant city from one end to another. The honorable visitors saw the thousands of passengers who daily take those trains to their jobs, their errands or their homes.
In Jerusalem they also saw that there are blonde Jews, brunette Jews, white Jews, and Jews of color. And that they speak French, Spanish, Russian, Ethiopian and Hebrew. They saw that millions of Jewish immigrants arrived with their suitcases to stay in the land of their ancestors, and that they are not planing to leave.
Visitors also saw that in Jerusalem the Tora is not in pieces, or burned, or in a museum. The Tora is alive. It is heard through all of the streets, corners and markets. It guides the steps, actions and thoughts of millions of citizens of Israel. And its voice resonates not in Latin but in its original Hebrew. Stronger than ever.
Commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz in Yerushalayim is a powerful message. The people of Israel are not in a museum. The Jewish nation rose from the ashes of Auschwitz and live now in the warm land that God had destined for His people.
Rabbi Yosef Bitton
THE TRAIN TO AUSCHWITZ
THE LIGHT TRAIN IN JERUSALEM
