Gertrud Steinl was 21 when she saved a Jewish colleague from the Nazi murderers. She died last month, a day before what would have been her 98th birthday. She was the last living German to carry the title "Righteous Among the Nations." She was awarded that honor for her courage. For her humanity.
Courage and humanity – we need them now. "Anyone who listens to a witness becomes a witness," Elie Wiesel once said. For the memory not to pass as the witnesses pass on, we must all become witnesses.
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That is why we need: New, vital, digital ways of remembering. New methods of communication that will allow us to experience the survivors' memories in a new way. Electronic archives, where researchers from all over the world can study. Digital exhibits that can reach out to people today, in the 21st century.
Germany must support all of this. It is the responsibility of German politics and society as a whole, one that will never end. It must be passed on from generation to generation so that the generations to come can also become witnesses.
Bearing this in mind, we decided, a few days ago, to continue supporting the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial for an additional 10 years. Anyone who has ever stood in the Hall of Names, below the pictures of countless of the murdered, knows that every story, every name we can keep from being forgotten makes us witnesses. Witnesses to what took place. Witnesses to what must never take place again. Witnesses who are outraged when Jewish men and women are once again attacked in our streets, and when open anti-Semitism is camouflaged as criticism of Israel.
Identifying with the victims and standing up to the criminals – this is what memory means today, 75 years after the last concentration camps were liberated.
Trust will grow out of that honest memory. That trust is what characterizes relations between Israel and Germany today. It was expressed on a very small scale when, as the coronavirus crisis worsened, Israeli tourists all over the world turned to German embassies and consulates for assistance. German planes flew over 150 of them home, just in time for Passover. A future blossoms from memory: It is rare to see such a beautiful example of that concept.
