SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 20 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Parliament of the Canary Islands hosted Thursday the act of commemoration of the ‘International Day for the Remembrance of the Holocaust and Prevention of Crimes against Humanity’ in which the president, Gustavo Matos, has appealed to “keep alive the memory of these people who were murdered “.
“Let’s be belligerent and activists against evil. These acts that seem far away, with which we sometimes do not identify, we must see as our own. 28 canaries were killed by the Nazis,” he said, recalling this terrible chapter in history.
Matos also highlighted the need to celebrate this type of event because within each person “is evil.”
“Every human being is capable of committing the kindest and most atrocious acts. We cannot give him a rational or moral answer. Therefore, within us, there is always that possibility. Therefore, acts like this serve to stop that seduction by evil. That’s the key. We can never renounce these acts because that risk is part of our human nature, “he said.
The president insisted that when observing the history of the 1930s, “what scares the most is how an advanced society was capable of this atrocity, how highly qualified people, how the intellectual elites allowed themselves to be dragged into the most despicable episode that reaches the memory”.
And that, he said, “is the lesson of the need not to forget what happened, societies are fragile and it is easy for them to slip into evil, it is a very fast process.”
Ángel Pérez Quintero, a collaborator with the Centro Sefarad-Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain, intervened as master of ceremonies at an event that included the participation of Eva Leitman-Bohrer, a Holocaust survivor, Emilio Abad Ripoll, Brigadier General and member of the ‘Gathering Friends of July 25’, Jaime Moreno Bau, General Director of Centro Sefarad-Israel and Julio Pérez, Minister of Public Administrations, Justice and Security of the Government of the Canary Islands.
Pérez Quintero recalled that January 27 has been designated by the UN as ‘International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust and the Prevention of Crimes against Humanity’, and by the EU as ‘European Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust ‘.
That day marks the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by Soviet troops.
“That the institutions support and endorse these initiatives only reflects the sensitivity of the Canarian people to events that occurred in Europe that should never have occurred,” he said.
Eva Leitman-Bohrer, a Holocaust survivor, for her part, narrated her memories after escaping and how she cut short the lives of many of her relatives.
“When we talk about 6 million Jews tortured, humiliated and murdered, we talk about people who had their dreams their illusions and whose lives were cut short by this terrible episode. In my house there was no talk of the Holocaust, maybe my family wanted to protect us so that we wouldn’t we would carry a backpack of bitterness,” Leitman-Bohrer said.
“THE ‘ANGEL OF BUDAPEST WAS MY ANGEL'”
This Holocaust survivor also recalled how her family received help thanks to the diplomat Ángel Sanz Briz, who “put all his ingenuity to save all the Hungarian Jews he could, he saved 2,500 people, the ‘Angel of Budapest was my angel'”.
Emilio Abad Ripoll highlighted the heroic behavior of Ángel Sanz Briz who “protected thousands of people from horror, Sanz and his team set out to save the maximum number of people possible, he was a man who had a long and important diplomatic career, and he never understood that collective dementia”.
He also said that “he was modest and never spoke, more than twice, of what he had done in Budapest, Sanz had a sense of duty to the utmost demand and he took the consequences of his dangerous actions on his back.”
Jaime Moreno Bau stressed that “it is essential to accompany the youngest and make them reflect on how civilized societies committed such terrifying acts.”
Moreno Bau recalled that “Hitler did not come to power through a coup d’état, it was done democratically, nothing can equal this catastrophe even though human beings insist on trying, which could end up annihilating humanity.”
Julio Pérez, for his part, invited reflection on how long it would be necessary to celebrate events like this so that humanity remembers how far it is capable of going.
“Why is it still necessary to prevent these crimes against humanity? It is not an easy question to answer. We thought that the wars had disappeared in nearby territories and we are almost living with people who are fighting in Ukraine,” Pérez said.
CANDLE LIGHTING
During the act, the ceremony of lighting candles in memory of the victims took place.
The first candle was lit by Eva Leitman-Bohrer, a Holocaust survivor, in memory of the six million Jews murdered in ghettos, persecutions and concentration camps.
The second candle, in memory of the million and a half Jewish children murdered by the Nazis, was lit by Iris Allende Tavío, an Early Childhood Education teacher.
The third candle was lit in memory of the other groups that suffered Nazi barbarity: Spanish Republicans, gypsies, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Freemasons.
Also in memory of 41 canaries who suffered Nazi barbarism and died in concentration camps, by the president of the Canarian Parliament, Gustavo Matos.
The fourth candle, in memory of the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’, those who at the risk of their lives saved thousands of the persecuted, and in memory of those who were protected by the Righteous, was lit by Marisa Tejedor Salguero, former rector of the University of La Laguna and professor of Edaphology and Agricultural Chemistry.
Jaime Moreno Bau, General Director of Centro Sefarad-Israel. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, proceeded to light the fifth candle, in memory of the survivors who rebuilt their lives in Israel and in the Diaspora.
The sixth and last candle, for the preservation of the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and of the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’, for the unavoidable responsibility of fighting against denial, rejecting hatred, combating indifference and raising the principles of coexistence and life itself, was lit by Julio Pérez, Minister of Public Administrations, Justice and Security of the Government of the Canary Islands.
In addition, a minute of silence was observed after the lighting of candles in memory of the victims.
