Today, to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, took part in a Congressional memorial ceremony. His speech is below:

Mr. President, Madam Speaker, Senators, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and dear, dear Survivors,

Three weeks ago “Yurek”, the “cigarette boy” from Warsaw, passed away. He was “my witness” when I went to Poland. In Warsaw he showed me the place from which the Jews were transported to the gas chambers and the sewer systems in which he survived when his entire family was murdered. At the sites where Jews fought to die with dignity, he did not even mention his own role in the uprising or that only three years after he survived, he fought again, this time to save the survival of Israel. One evening he told me quietly that his son, Eitan, fell in the defense of Israel in 1973. Between Auschwitz, Majdank and Treblinka, he shared with me his dream for peace. continue reading…

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