President Isaac Herzog on Thursday warned of rising antisemitism, saying “the shock is wearing off” of Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million Jews in the Holocaust.
Herzog issued the warning at a ceremony for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which has been marked each January 27 since United Nations member states designated it as a memorial day in 2005. The date was chosen to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
“Though a great deal has been done, it is alarmingly clear that 77 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, the shock is wearing off,” Herzog said during the event at Yad Vashem. “We are seeing a surge in antisemitic assaults online; a normalization of antisemitic terminology in mainstream media; and an introduction of social media platforms refocused on Jew hatred to newer, younger audiences.”
“We see how present-day radicalism and antisemitism are overlooked, for economic or political gain. And, perhaps most disturbing, we see how the truth about the past is trivialized, and alternative facts are drowning out history,” he added.
Herzog said the Holocaust was “not a disputed footnote in history” but “the most sickening assault humanity has ever committed,” and that it was the duty of all people to commemorate it.
“When we fail to strengthen our pledge ‘Never Again,’ we are disregarding our debt to our past and forfeiting our rights on our future,” he said.
The president noted that there are increasingly fewer living Holocaust survivors, partisans and people who helped Jews escape who are able to provide first-hand accounts of the genocide committed during World War II.
“In a few years’ time, the duty to never forget will be ours alone. The obligation to tell our children’s children about the horrors of the Holocaust, to warn them about the dangers of antisemitism, hatred, racism and intolerance, will be entirely up to us,” he said.
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