We should never forget the consequences of the irresponsible silence of a large, too large, portion of the population. It was the lack of empathy, the indifference to the fate of other people, and the unwillingness to stand up for the values of a democratic and tolerant society that paved the way for the criminal Hitler regime. Therefore 27 January is not only a day of remembrance on which we, together with the survivors, remember the horrors of the past, but also a day that urges us to work together for a free, democratic, and tolerant future in Europe and in the world.
Central Council’s President, Dr. h.c. Charlotte Knobloch
Berlin, 27 January 2010 / 12 Shevat 5770
“Soon there won’t be any living witnesses of the Nazi camps,” said Jorge Semprun, author, former Spanish Minister of Culture and Buchenwald survivor, who once bore the prisoner number 44904.
With the generation of survivors now dying of old age, the burden of remembrance is being passed on to a younger generation. Semprun is convinced those memories will persist: “The Jewish memory of the camps will be long-lasting and enduring,” he said. But that will require a new generation to become caretakers and administrators of those memories. To that end, Paul Spiegel, who heads the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has called upon the younger generations to take the “baton of memory.” He has proposed that young Jews should “adopt” a victim of the concentration camps and to become the living custodian of that person’s memory after he or she passes away.