Peres to address Germany parliament in Hebrew on Holocaust Day
Netanyahu to participate in Auschwitz ceremony alongside Hadash MK Mohammed Barakeh.
By Haaretz Service Tags: Benjamin Netanyahu Holocaust Shimon Peres Israel newsPresident Shimon Peres departed for a state trip to Germany on Monday morning, and is set to address the German parliament later in the week to commemorate international Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Peres, almost all of whose family was killed in the Holocaust, including his grandparents who were burned alive in a synagogue in Poland, will deliver a speech in Hebrew to the hundreds of members of the Bundestag.
In addition to the paliamentary address, Peres is also expected to participate in a memorial service at 'Platform 17,' from which Berlin's Jews were sent to their death during the Second World War.
He will be accompanied on his trip by survivors and their families, members of youth groups and Israel Defense Forces soldiers, who will be present at his speech and at the other events.
"The Germans have also learned a lesson," Peres told Army Radio on Monday.
"They want to mend their history, and while we can't forget we can, with them, gaze look forward to a new future," Peres added.
Peres will be accompanied Yonah Laks, chairwoman of the Organization of Mengele Twins.
"I have been in Germany many times before in order to tell, remind and immortalize everything that happened," Lacks told Army Radio, "so this is nothing new."
However, Laks added that "ever time I arrive my heart pounds horrible. The scenes that took place at the camp back then return and it is as if it was happening now."
"But this time, traveling with our president, there's a feeling of satisfaction along with the difficult sentiments," Laks added, "that maybe history had changed, with the fortunate establishment of the State of Israel."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to depart later Monday to Poland, to take part in a ceremony commemorating 65 years to the release of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Netanyahu will lead a delegation of MK's, including Hadash chairman Mohammed Barakeh.
Barakeh's participation in the delegation, according to the Army Radio report, has been drawing criticism in recent weeks, including hate mail, which has been forwarded to the Knesset's chief security officer for further investigation.
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In 2005, during my first of 7 trips to Jerusalem, Mordechai Vanunu told me: ?President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from building atomic weapons. ?In 1963, he forced Prime Minister Ben Guirion to admit the Dimona was not a textile plant. The Prime Minister said, ?The nuclear reactor is only for peace.? ?The French were responsible for the actual building of the Dimona. ?The Germans gave the money; they were feeling guilty for the Holocaust, and tried to pay their way out. " Peres also ordered the Mossad to kidnap Vanunu from Rome in 1986. WeAreWideAwake.org
doesn't peres speak german? it might be kind of cool if he spoke hebrew but added in some german here and there. i think speaking in hebrew is important though for the reasons mentioned above. this is the language of our state and i see no reason to politicize his choice. it seems that many want to strip us of our right to self-determination (ie having our own country) and now maybe they also want to take away our language and culture? hmmmmmm......
The president of the sovereign state of Israel is speaking in the Bundestag IN HEBREW 60 years after Hitler said that even if National Socialism dies after losing the war, the Jews will never recuperate from the Holocaust (and then ordered the SS to leave aside everything they were doing and spend the last days of their lives killing as many Jews as possible). If you don?t understand why it is SO IMPORTANT, maybe you should take something to clear your mind.
I do not understand why using English should be ussed if he really had nothing to say. I speak Hebrew, Yiddish, Spanish and English. I do agree that Yiddish would have been a far more effective language to address them in than Hebrew but could have been seen as a direct affront to them (trying to rub their noses in it). I do not agree that he was "playing the game". USing Hebrew is showing national pride and not pandering to them.
70 years ago this could never have happened,President Peres is making a point,we the jews are still here,the Nazis no longer exist.When President Peres speaks in hebrew in the Bundestag,Hitler's body will turn in it's grave at hundred million lights years per second,which means this peace of filth will burn up and disappear again and forever. Kolhacavod to President Peres.
Did you make an agreement to write nonsense simultaneously?
He will find out that every body would understand him better
came to Israel when he was 11 years old.In 1932, Peres' father immigrated to Palestine and settled in Tel Aviv. The family followed him in 1934.[10] He attended Balfour Elementary School and High School, and Geula Gymnasium (High School for Commerce) in Tel Aviv. At 15, he transferred to Ben Shemen agricultural school and lived on Kibbutz Geva for several years.[10] Peres was one of the founders of Kibbutz Alumot. In 1941 he was elected Secretary of Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed, a Labor Zionist youth movement, and in 1944 returned to Alumot, where he worked as a dairy farmer, shepherd and kibbutz secretary. HIS YIDISH is very weak if he speaks it at all. There is simultenoeus translation in German Parlament. Unless its turned off it is louder and clearer then Peres from podium speaking in broken grade 2 Yidish.
Why do politicians have to behave like little children? Just bec. Chancelor Merkel addressed our Knesset in German, our Pres. Peres has to 'play' this game? Wha-a-a? Ya` wanna make sure the German politicians 'really' fall asleep??? If you really want them to "sit-up-&-take-notice", then have Peres speak to them in Yiddish. Painfully, this may drive the point home even deeper! On the other hand, if he actually says anything worth remembering, then he should simply speak in English.
We had the 9th november, the day of the Reichskristallnacht, some usefull date, then some jewish lobby in one of their most idiotic moves, so it did look here, wanted to move their day away from the day of the German reunification, nobody cares here. What makes this new day better?