In Berlin, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, gave a statement on the current situation of Holocaust survivors in Israel and the recent decisions by the German federal government regarding its stance on Israel and arms exports to Israel:

“Holocaust survivors in Israel are still suffering from the consequences of the Hamas terrorist attack on 7 October 2023. Many of them are unable to return to their care homes or houses, which are at serious risk from air strikes. They are heavily burdened by the experience of 7 October, remembering the murder of Holocaust survivors on that day, the murder and hostage-taking of family members, as well as the current photos and videos of the hostages still being held by Hamas. These memories are intermingling with recurring images of other pogroms they have experienced and the murders at Auschwitz.

Now, at the end of their lives, the survivors are perceiving the suffering Hamas is inflicting on all of the people in the region, and the hatred directed towards Jewish people worldwide since Israel’s counterattack, as a second catastrophe in their existence.

For Holocaust survivors, Germany has been a source of confidence and reliability in recent decades – especially in light of countless attacks by many groups and states seeking to delegitimize the Middle East’s only democracy and exclude it from the international community. But at the moment, the survivors’ view of Germany is becoming increasingly doubtful  and depressing.

There are now serious doubts as to whether the government and the people of Germany are aware of the existential threat confronting Israel from various sides. Regardless of how hostile, critical, or supportive Holocaust survivors may be toward the current Israeli government and the measures it has decided to take, they stand united in their concern for the continued existence of their state, which has offered Jewish people security and a future, especially after the Holocaust. Any kind of turning away from Israel by the German federal government is perceived as threatening and depressing by Holocaust survivors against the backdrop of their own history. They fear that the present decision will strengthen Hamas in its course of hatred and terror toward the people of Israel.”