German Envoy in Israel Visits Memorial for Nazi-killed Jews

Dr. Rolf Pauls, West Germany’s first Ambassador to Israel, chose to visit today on his second day in Israel the Yad Vashem, the memorial shrine to the six million European Jews slaughtered by the Nazis during World War II. He called the visit “one of the most moving hours in my life.”

Dr. A. Tennen, of the Remembrance Authority staff, conducted Dr. Pauls on the tour. As the envoy examined the photographs and other documents of the Nazi genocide, he became more grave from minute to minute. He listened in almost complete silence to Dr. Tennen’s explanations of the grisly records.

Ending the 30-minute tour, he was asked for comment and replied, “I cannot find words to express my feelings.” He then said he was “extremely grateful for having been received here.” Later he remarked that the Yad Vashem was “a place which as many human beings as possible should see, especially Germans. I will try to contact your organization for arranging such visits and I myself will be here again.”

When the envoy and his entourage emerged, along with security guards, from his car at the Yad Vashem entrance, they were greeted by a lone demonstrator. She was Bronka Klibanski, a survivor of the Bialystok Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis. She walked to the top of the mountain where memorial torches are lighted yearly for the holocaust victims. Then she went to the door leading to the “Memorial Tent” dedicated to survivors of the Nazi death camps. At each point, she said quietly but audibly, both in Hebrew and in German, “Pauls, go home.”

The envoy visited the memorial after making his first formal visit to the Foreign Ministry office, where he was received by Director General Arie Levavi and Protocol Chief Yehuda Gaulan. Dr. Pauls will present a copy of his credentials next week to Mrs. Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister, and the credentials to President Shazar later in the week.