Thousands of People Commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Several thousand persons gathered here Sunday in solemn remembrance of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 43 years ago, and to reaffirm the commitment to never forget the martyrdom of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

“The first appeal of the dead to the living is remembrance,” Abba Eban told the gathering at Madison Square Garden’s Felt Forum. “Commemorate, transmit, explain, recount, portray; for if man has any hope of redemption, it lies in the will and implacable understanding of himself.”

But at the same time, there was clearly an undercurrent of concern expressed by various speakers at the annual commemorative event sponsored by the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization (WAGRO) of recent developments in Austria regarding Presidential candidate Kurt Waldheim, who has been accused of concealing his war-time activities as an officer in the Wehrmacht.

In addition, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Binyamin Netanyahu, told the gathering that Israel will seek justice for the victims of the Holocaust. He said Israel will continue to seek broad access to all documents contained in the UN War Crimes Commission archives.

“There are 25,500 files listed of accused war criminals that nobody has ever heard of,” Netanyahu declared. “No one has touched those files for 40 years.” He said also that he has been asked why Israel wants the files. “We have six million reasons why we want those files,” he said.

URGES WALDHEIM BE BARRED FROM THE U.S.

Benjamin Meed, president of WAGRO and of the American Gathering and Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, released the text of a letter he sent to Attorney General Edwin Meese, asking that Waldheim be barred from the United States because of his past war-time activities.

“For forty years, Kurt Waldheim deceived the world about his three years of military service as a Nazi officer of a special unit in the Balkans known for its brutality,” Meed said. “Therefore, we request that the name of Kurt Waldheim be placed on the ‘watch list’ to deny him entry to the United States pursuant to the Holtzman Amendment which prevents former Nazis or those who aided Nazis from entering the United States.”

The ceremony Sunday included the lighting of six symbolic candles in memory of the six million Jews killed by the Nazis. Each candle was lit by a Holocaust survivor who was accompanied by a member of the Second Generation. Misha Raitzin, a concentration camp survivor and member of the Metropolitan Opera Company, chanted the traditional prayer for the dead, El Mole Rachamim.

THE NEED TO REMEMBER

Elie Wiesel, chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, spoke movingly of the Holocaust and the need to remember. “Were so many memories to be forgotten, it would be the killers ultimate victory,” he declared. “Remember that every killer kills twice — the second time by erasing his crimes. We could not save the victims from their first death. But we can save them … from being killed again. This is our responsibility.”

Messages of greetings were also received from President Reagan, who is in Tokyo at the economic summit, and from Israeli President Chaim Herzog. Reagan said the “purpose of remembrance is very constructive indeed: to keep the torch of vigilance burning bright. In the brightness of that light, let us pray, no such dark evil will ever take place again.”

Herzog, in his telegram read to those gathered here, said, “I express for myself and for Israel’s people our sense of participation in your commemorative assembly and our determination that remembrance will be ensured and new life continue to be built on the ruins of the old.”

Mayor Edward Koch read a proclamation declaring Sunday Warsaw Ghetto Commemoration Day in New York City, and urging all residents to remember the events surrounding the Uprising. Some 50,000 persons died in the Uprising of April 19-May 16, 1943.