President Isaac Herzog and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany on Tuesday to commemorate the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust in World War II.
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The Israeli president urged both nations to stand tall against any form of antisemitism. "We must act together, Israel and Germany, to protect the national home of the Jewish people, its future, security, and prosperity, and fight antisemitism and racism without compromise," President Herzog said.
Steinmeier acknowledged the continued existence of antisemitism in Germany and called it "an alarm signal" for the country. "antisemitism must have no place in our society. Where it becomes visible, we must confront it," President Steinmeier added. Herzog's father helped liberate the concentration camp as a British soldier at the end of World War II. Chaim Herzog, later president of Israel, was the first Israeli head of state to visit Germany in 1987. He also visited the concentration camp.
Earlier on Tuesday, Herzog led a prayer to commemorate the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust during a speech in the German parliament. There, President Herzog recited his father's words, which were said during the 1987 visit to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
'"I bring no forgiveness and no forgetting," he quoted during a speech that received a standing ovation from German lawmakers. "Only the dead have the right to forgive. ''
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