During a trip to Poland last week, French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur visited the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Balladur refrained from making any public statement during his visit, which took place last Friday. But when he visited the museum on the grounds of the former concentration camp, he wrote in the visitors book:
“One is ashamed for mankind, one is unhappy that such a martyrdom was imposed on so many men, women and children. One shouldn’t resign oneself to evil and shouldn’t lose hope in strengthening the spirit of fraternity in the world.”
Accompanying the French prime minister to Auschwitz were senior Cabinet Minister Simone Veil, a former president of the European Parliament who was herself an inmate at Auschwitz, and Jean Kahn, head of both the European Jewish Congress and of CRIF, an umbrella organization representing French Jewry.
Balladur’s visit to Poland was the first official visit to that country by a French premier since 1970.
Balladur initially planned to visit Auschwitz on Saturday, but Kahn stressed that this would make it impossible for the Jewish leaders accompanying the prime minister to come along.
Balladur’s wife did not accompany him on the Auschwitz visit. An aide to the prime minister explained her absence by saying, “Mrs. Balladur is traumatized by this dark period of history.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
