This is not the way to remember Bergen-Belsen

This letter has been written by the Germany organisation, Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost / Jewish Voice for a just peace in the Middle East.  Jewish organisations from many countries have signed the letter, JVL included.

It is important to remember the horrors of the Nazi period, to remember those who suffered and were murdered in the concentration and the death camps but it is also important not to connect that crucial remembrance with Israel.  The letter specifically raises objections to two of the invited speakers; a UK Defence Minister because of the ongoing arms sales and the Israeli Ambassador to Germany  – in additon they, like we, are angry that the plan is to close the ceremony with the Israeli National Anthem.

The Israeli Ambassador not only represents a State currently committing genocide on the people of Gaza but also was involved in having “Israeli philosopher and grandson of Holocaust survivors, Omri Boehm, uninvited from speaking at 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps.  This article contains a link to the speech Boehm would have given and a short extract.

We can only ask, yet again, what lessons has Germany – and far too many other countries – actually learned from the horrors of the Holocaust, from the murder of 6 million Jews and 5 million others?

On April 27, 2025 the Lower Saxony Memorials Foundation and the State Association of Jewish Communities of Lower Saxony are organizing a commemoration of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Survivors and their descendants will attend to keep the memory of the atrocities alive. Many have only broken their silence and recorded their testimonies later in life, trying to make sense of their experiences in the context of a very different world. While their personal reasons for attending differ, they have each carried and inherited a collective trauma that commemorative events such as these must attempt to heal.

In early April the organizers finally released a detailed program, which includes as speakers Lord Vernon Coaker, Minister of State in the UK Ministry of Defence and Ron Prosor, Ambassador of the State of Israel to the Federal Republic of Germany.

The presence of these two men speaking in an official capacity has absolutely no place at a Holocaust memorial ceremony.

Going to the site of this dark history is a step for survivors and their descendants in coming to terms with their broken family stories. First and foremost, the organizers’ decision to invite these two state representatives turns the commemoration into a political tool. This is offensive to these families who will come together in their most fragile state.

The event will apparently also be closed with a rendition of Hatikva, Israel’s national anthem, cementing a Zionist framing. The organizers appear to expect that Jewish attendees must unquestioningly recognize the status of Israel as representative of the Jewish people and atrocity survivors. This is a surprising assumption, one that views Jewish voices as a political block, rather than as individuals with the same complexity and rights as other citizens, who live in many countries and hold varying views regarding their relationship or non-relationship to Israel. Every attendee should have the space to mourn and remember in their own way; by imposing these speakers on attendees, the organizers are instead provoking painful associations while elevating the voice of a representative of state currently committing genocidal violence.

Beyond the affront on a personal level of cynically turning the ceremony into a tool of statecraft are the following reasons why it is inappropriate to platform the aforementioned speakers:

Allegations Against Israel of Crimes Against Humanity

On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice found that “there is a real and imminent risk that irreparable prejudice” would be caused to the rights of Palestinians in Gaza to be protected under the Genocide Convention. It based its findings on the nature of Israel’s conduct up until that point and on statements by Israeli officials. The ICJ has issued emergency orders three times in the case brought by South Africa against Israel alleging violations of the Genocide Convention in the Gaza Strip.

The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts during the Gaza war.

The involvement of an official representative of the government of Israel in view of the serious allegations against it makes in and of itself a mockery of the purpose of memorializing and grieving victims of genocide.

Israeli Officials’ Holocaust Revisionism and Alliance with the European Far Right

Israel has for years formed an alliance with the European far right in order to further its diplomatic and geopolitical goals. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly legitimized Holocaust revisionism in return for warm relations with leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban who share with the Israeli government xenophobic and racist policies towards, among others, Arab and Muslim people.

Only the most recent example of this mutually beneficial relationship surfaced during Netanyahu’s recent state visit to Hungary, where he posed for photos with Orban and celebrated how the Jewish and Hungarian “histories would meet and begin the great alliance that has now developed.”

In the same speech the Israeli PM praised Hungary’s “principled position” on the ICC, which Hungary announced it would leave in a blatant quid pro quo for Israel’s choosing to allow countries like Hungary to downplay their responsibility for the eradication of Jewish life in collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II.

Ron Prosor’s Smearing of Opponents Including Descendants of Survivors

If the above were not enough reason not to platform representatives of the State of Israel, we highlight the shameful behaviour of Mr. Prosor in the day-to-day German context.

As Israel’s ambassador in Germany, Prosor has been responsible for an ever-growing litany of abhorrent statements about Arabs, Palestinians and Jews who think differently from him. Prosor exerts considerable influence on a German government and institutions already primed with a slavish deference to Israel on all Jewish matters.

Prosor, as the top dog in the Israeli embassy in Berlin, recently took an active role in having Israeli philosopher and grandson of Holocaust survivors, Omri Boehm, uninvited from speaking at 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps.

His embassy followed up by comparing inviting Boehm to ‘like inviting Bashar al-Assad to give a lecture on human rights’. The speech Boehm would have given can be read here. We highlight just one short excerpt:

“A world in which a repetition of Buchenwald is possible anywhere is one in which it is possible everywhere, also against Jews. “

This smear campaign against a Jew who emphasizes the universal lessons for humanity arising out of the Holocaust has become a predictable feature of official Israeli responses to criticism, no matter from what direction. German authorities and institutions have in many cases followed suit, imitating the bad faith tactics and conflating between Israel and Judaism and between criticism of Israel and antisemitism. In doing so they cheapen the general public’s understanding of antisemitism and debase the meaning of the Holocaust.

On the contrary, history shows that every age carries the potential for fascism. On every continent, in every culture, every religion, in every country and in every person, there is a destructive potential for the ignition of authoritarian and fascist orientations. Fascism operates where those in power, in one way or another, systematically deprive groups they target of the opportunity and ability to express themselves, to be seen and respected.

As others have eloquently noted, the Israeli embassy in Germany has been actively rebuffing “decades of mainstream discourse on why we should remember the Holocaust” for its universal lessons and meaning.

The presence of Ron Prosor at this event is therefore an affront to the memory of the victims of crimes against humanity whose relatives will gather in what should be an intimate setting of remembrance.

Inappropriateness of Inviting a Speaker from the UK Ministry of Defence

The UK, while a less significant supplier to the genocidal Israeli war machine than the U.S. and Germany, and while it has taken certain positive steps in suspending a few export licenses to Israel, has not implemented a full embargo and continues to be involved in the supply chain of crucial parts for F-35 fighter jets to Israel, even though Britain accepts that there is a risk they will be used in breach of international humanitarian law. It also conducts reconnaissance flights to share information with Israel.

The involvement of an official representative of the UK, let alone a minister with the defence portfolio, has no place at this event and is inconsistent with the goal of remembering victims of genocide.

Conclusion

Enough words have been expended on Israeli leaders’ despicable and cynical weaponization of Holocaust memory to attack any and all critics, even as they forge alliances with the modern far right. Suffice it to say that their presence brings nothing but harm to the memorial attendees. Their speeches will only alienate and divide attendees rather than allowing them to gather around the purpose for which they are there.

The organizers could have chosen a different course of action: to platform survivors and only survivors, as was the case at the Auschwitz-Birkenau service earlier this year.

Even now, we urge the organizers to think again. Do not platform these two official state representatives. Leave the space for survivors, family members and all other participants who are there in good faith.

Should no change to the program be forthcoming, we suspect that attendees who share any of the concerns described here may feel compelled, rather than listening to state mouthpieces, to individually return the focus of the day to its proper one: commemorating the victims and honouring the survivors of the genocide committed by Nazi Germany.