In a speech marking tomorrow’s commemoration of the 87th anniversary of the Nazi pogroms on 9 November 1938, as well as 9 November being a ‘decisive day’ for all Germans, Eva Umlauf, Auschwitz survivor and president of the International Auschwitz Committee, emphasized in Munich:

‘On this day of remembrance, I am acutely aware of the flames that threatened Jewish businesses and Jewish people in Germany on the night of the ninth of November, 1938. Later, these flames spread as far as Auschwitz and, in 1943, they also reached my family. Today, I am glad to be able to live in a Europe that is no longer divided, and in a reunified, democratic Germany. But as it becomes increasingly apparent these days that people are once again easily embracing ideologies of hatred and anti-Semitism, and when I notice and hear how more and more people are accepting this and thinking that this environment is normal in their everyday lives, then it sends freezing shivers down my spine.’

And in Berlin, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, added: ‘For Holocaust survivors, the ninth of November is a day of remembrance and a day of democracy. That is why they hope that the vast majority of citizens in Germany will demonstrate their solidarity with the survivors and their memories, and strengthen and protect democracy against the attacks and slogans of right-wing extremist populists and parties.’