“If understanding is impossible, knowing is necessary.” The phrase of the Italian Sephardic writer Primo Levi, who suffered martyrdom in the Nazi death camps, was the last pronounced in the Parliament of the Canary Islands during the act to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day. It sums up the spirit of remembering the millions of victims, not only Jews but also gypsies, homosexuals or people with disabilities.
Memory, emotion, music and reflection. Fundamental components of the act held yesterday in the Parliament of the Canary Islands to commemorate for the second consecutive year Holocaust Remembrance Day and the prevention of crimes against humanity. There was nothing to celebrate and this was made clear by the master of ceremonies, Ángel Pérez Quintero, a collaborator on the Island of the Sefarad-Israel Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His request not to applaud out of respect was fulfilled to the letter during the ceremony. And not for lack of desire before some heartfelt speech like that of the survivor of the Auschwitz-Bierkenau camp Eva Leitman-Bohrer, Jewish, Hungarian and from Madrid. Or after the brilliant and lucid dissertation by Julio Pérez, Minister of Justice and Security of the Government of the Canary Islands.
The minute of silence was another moment of maximum intensity, as was the interpretation of the music to survive in the movies – they can never overcome the reality on which they were based. Schlinder’s List and Life is Beautiful performed by the violinist of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra Fernando Hidalgo Núñez. He before him winked at the genius of Johan Sebastian Bach.
Gustavo Matos, president of the regional Chamber, introduced Pérez who opened the event with a speech in which he called to be “belligerent and activists.” He recalled January 27 – the official date, although it is commemorated throughout the month – which recalls the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops. He made reference to the millions of Jews massacred in the camps, called not to forget history and rejected revisionism. He included in the tribute Roma (gypsies), homosexuals, people with disabilities, Freemasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses or Spanish Republicans, of whom 41 Canarians, 28 murdered, who passed through Mauthausen.
Eva Lietman-Bohrer’s testimony was as simple as it was devastating. She recounted her life, plain and simple, that of a girl born in Hungary in 1944 between Allied bombings and the hunting of Jews by local fascists and Nazis. “I was a miracle baby,” she declared.
Lietman highlighted the figure of his mother, Katy. and, above all, her grandmother Rozsi, an “empowered and enterprising” woman who was fortunate enough to flee to Tangier in 1939, before the war. From there to Madrid, in both cases setting up restaurants, and reclaiming the family that remained in Hungary and arrived in Spain in 1954. In the interval there was no lack of suffering such as the death of his biological father on the Death March. Eva Benatar (surname of her husband) included in her story the figure of Ángel Sanz Briz (1910-1980), the Angel of Budapest. The Spanish diplomat who multiplied 200 passports that he was granted for Sephardim of Spanish origin to end up saving more than 5,000 Jews.
General Emilio Abad, a member of the Gathering of July 25, also had words for Sanz. He influenced the horror unleashed by Adolf Eichmann – executed in Israel in the 1960s – who in seven weeks deported hundreds of thousands of Jews in train carriages to the extermination camps. He concluded: “Whoever saves a man’s life, he saves the whole world.”
Jaime Moreno Bau, general director of the Centro Sefarad-Israel, named the fields of infamy one by one. He stressed: “It is not lawful to forget, it is not lawful to remain silent because if we remain silent, who will speak?” His speech can be summed up in two words: remember and raise awareness, especially among the youngest.
Julio Pérez alluded to the Ukrainian War and the assaults on the Capitol and the state powers in Brazil. He spun the story around a question: “When will it stop being necessary for us to celebrate events like this?” He followed the path of moral reflection on the evil of the human being.
Gustavo Matos took over with a speech about the evil “that is found in each one of us.” He recalled the story of the socialist councilor of La Laguna, Chano Perera, who died in Mauthausen. He ended with a phrase from the writer, philosopher and politician Edmund Burke: “For evil to triumph, all it takes is for the good guys to do nothing.”
An afternoon of respect, homage, music, silence and reflection to remember one of the worst episodes in the history of humanity. There was nothing to celebrate.
Six memories to all the victims
The traditional candlelight ceremony endowed the act with all its solemnity. Six were lit. The first, in memory of the six million murdered Jews, by Eva Leitman-Bohrer. The second, for the million and a half Jewish children murdered by the Nazis, Iris Allende, Early Childhood Education teacher. In memory of the other groups that suffered Nazi barbarism, Gustavo Matos lit the candle. The fourth recalled the Righteous Among the Nations as Sanz Briz. Marisa Tejedor, former rector of the ULL. she was in charge of turning it on. The fifth, responsibility of Jaime Moreno, was addressed to the survivors who rebuilt their lives in Israel and in the diaspora. The last one remained for the responsibility of fighting against denialism, rejecting hatred, combating indifference and raising the principles of coexistence and life itself. Julio Pérez lit the flame. | JDM
