On 21 April 2017, the Mayor of Chemnitz will award honorary citizenship to the native of the city and Auschwitz survivor Justin Sonder.

Christoph Heubner, executive vice president of the IAC has been asked to give the speech in honour of Justin Sonder. In the city’s proposal for the award, it says: “Justin Sonder not only bears repeated testimony, he also proves through his example that peace and democracy depend on the active participation of the people at all times. He has experienced the vicious consequences that can result from allowing exclusion, hatred and anti-Semitism to become socially accepted norms. Keeping memories alive, so that history may never be repeated: this is the source of Justin Sonder’s motivation.”