The American Jewish Committee is lauding President Obama for visiting the former Buchenwald concentration camp today, saying it "underscores America’s commitment to preserving the memory of the Holocaust."
The group’s statement says, "At one point during his visit, in the presence of Holocaust survivors, including Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, President Obama declared that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Holocaust-denying President of Iran, should come to Buchenwald. ‘I have no patience for people who would deny history. The history of the Holocaust is not something speculative,’ Obama said.
The AJC’s full statement is after the jump:[[READMORE]]
AJC Praises President Obama at Buchenwald
June 5, 2009 – New York – AJC praised President Barack Obama’s visit today to the former Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, saying it underscores America’s commitment to preserving the memory of the Holocaust.
“Both in his Cairo speech yesterday and at Buchenwald today, President Obama stressed that the horror of the Holocaust is emblazoned upon the history of the Jewish people and, indeed, the entire world,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris.
At one point during his visit, in the presence of Holocaust survivors, including Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, President Obama declared that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Holocaust-denying President of Iran, should come to Buchenwald. "I have no patience for people who would deny history. The history of the Holocaust is not something speculative," Obama said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel accompanied the President at the camp site.
“The sight of an American president and a German chancellor standing together at the location where the most unimaginable cruelties took place gives us hope,” said Harris. “The postwar U.S.-German partnership, a link AJC has been committed to for decades, epitomizes the values of democracy and tolerance that underlie the close transatlantic relationship. Those bonds are the best defense against the possibility of future tragedies.”
