With solemn rites attended by President Zalman Shazar, the Chief Rabbinate, members of the Israeli Cabinet, justices of the Supreme Court, members of Parliament and the diplomatic corps, Israel formally concluded a long series of events commemorating the victims of the Nazi holocaust. Religious ritual alternated with addresses by prominent personalities marked the ceremonies.
Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, warned at one of the ceremonies that the establishment of diplomatic relations with West Germany will not amount to normalization of “the historical relationship between the Jewish people and Germany–a process that cannot be achieved in one generation.” The Nazi holocaust, he maintained, was not unavertable, the fault having been that of people who did not realize the danger of Nazism, including also some Jews “who indulged in over-optimism and self-indulgence.”
A. L. Kubovy, chairman of the Yad Vashem, the documentation center for the holocaust, spoke out sharply against those Germans who would exempt so-called “minor” Nazi criminals from further prosecution. Such an attitude, he said, “is tantamount to mockery.” Units of the Israeli Army stood at attention as the ceremonies were concluded with the lighting of six torches atop the Mountain of Remembrance, while thousands of former concentration camp victims and partisan fighters passed by in silence.
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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.
