Archive for April, 2009

   Although “Holocaust remembrance Day” in Israel was held for only one day, there have been ceremonies and programs connected to it during all the last week.  

I myself was asked to talk to different school classes about my own experiences as a ten-year old child, when I was sent on a “Kindertransport” ( sending of children) out of Germany to the safety of England, a few months before World War II, leaving all my family behind. If they had not had the courage to send me away alone, I expect I would have had the same fate as theirs - death in a concentration camp Read the rest of this entry »

Although “Holocaust Remembrance Day” in Israel was held for only one day, there have been ceremonies and programs connected to it during all this week. I myself was asked to talk to different school classes about my own experiences as a tenyear-old child, when I was sent on a “Kindertransport” (transport of children) out of Germany to the safety of England a few months before World War II, leaving all my family behind. If they had not had the courage to send me away alone, I expect my fate would have been  the same as theirs - death in a concentration camp.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel. There are different ceremonies all over the country, and a constant reading out during the day of the names of known holocaust murdered victims all over the country.

Maybe I am not a victim, but I am a survivor who lost all her family - parents, elder brother and sister, uncles, aunts, cousins etc. during this sad period of World War II. And why was my life spared? Simply because my parents managed a few months before the outbreak of war, to send me out of Germany, where I was born, in a so-called “Kindertransport” (transport of children) to England. After the infamous “Christal Nacht” (Night of broken Glass) in November 1938 when violent riots against Jews occured all over Germany, many were killed, thousands were arrested and sent to concentration camps (they were not death camps at the time, but people died because of the poor conditions in them), all remaining Jewish businesses and shops were broken into and destroyed, all synagogues in Germany were burnt down and much more of this. My parents then realised that things would surely get worse - until then they had apparently thought otherwise - and tried to leave the country, but that was just about impossible, as no other country wanted to accept Jewish refugees.

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STATEMENT BY ANNE BAYEFSKY AT THE THIRD SUBSTANTIVE PREPARATORY MEETING OF THE DURBAN REVIEW CONFERENCE
United Nations, Palais des Nations, GENEVA, Switzerland

The eyes of millions of victims of racism, xenophobia and intolerance are upon YOU, the  representatives of states and the United Nations. And instead of hope you have given them despair. Instead of truth you have handed them diplomatic double-talk. Instead of combating antisemitism you have handed them a reason for Jews to fear UN-driven hate mongering on a global scale.

The Durban conference - allegedly dedicated to combating racism,   anti-semitism and other forms of intolerance - will open April 20th on the anniversary of the birth of Adolf Hitler without agreement on even so much as remembering the Holocaust and the war against the Jews. Your draft words on the Holocaust - the very foundation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - have been narrowed to the barest mention from previous versions.
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I listened to a radio program the other day, it was mostly about antisemitism in the Western world, and I especially noted the great rise of this, especially in England. Evidently thousands of “students” are being sent from Arab countries by Al Quaida, to “study” at British universities, but their main aim is to make anti-Israel propaganda and organize hate demonstrations against my country. Anti-Zionism and antisemitism seem to have the same meaning these days, and as these Arab students lies are mainly believed, the latter is on the rise.

Of course anti-Semitism is not only in England. Only a few days ago a Holocaust memorial in France was desecrated by having large swastikas painted on the train wagons depicting those used by the Nazis for deporting Jews to concentration death camps - and these are not the only example. Similar things happen in other European countries.

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Today, as I unfortunately so often do, I’m beginning my blog by writing about a sad incident that happened a few days ago.
An axe-wielding Arab entered a peaceful Jewish settlement, saw some children playing in a street, and hacked a 13 year old boy to death, also attacked another 7 year old one, who was badly wounded, but luckily one of the residents came to his rescue and managed to to get the axe away from him . But this murdering Arab succeeded in running away, and so far our security forces have been unable to catch him, or even learn who he was.
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