"One thousand and
seven hundred Jews, the last representatives
of the European Jews, after the hardest period
of sufferings ever heard of, are now here
in the camp of Munich-Flakkaserne. These
people are the last representatives of the
venerable, old Jewish communities in Europe.
Budapest and Prague, Warsaw, Kovno and Salonika
are represented here. Millions of members
of these communities are annihilated. What
is the logic of destiny to let these individuals
live?! We belong in the mass graves of those
shot in Kharkov, Lublin and Kovno! We belong
to the millions gassed and burnt in Auschwitz
and Birkenau! We belong to those tens of
thousands who died under the strains of hardest
labour, tormented by milliards of lice and
in mud and starvation and coldness in Lodz,
Kielce, Buchenwald, Dachau, Landshut, Utting,
Kaufering, Landsberg and Leonsberg. We belong
to those who were gassed, hung, tormented
and tortured to death in the concentration
camps! We belong to the army of nine million
fallen in battle from these organised and
cunningly prepared methods of murder! We
are not alive... we are dead!"
We have met here today to
celebrate our liberation, but at the same
time it is a time of mourning for us. For
every bright and joyful day at present and
in the future is shadowed by the tragic events
of the past years. One per cent survived
to see the liberation, and 99 per cent of
this one per cent are very ill. Can you enjoy
liberation?! Are you able to celebrate?!
Hitler lost all the battles
on all the fronts, except the battle against
defenceless and unarmed men, women and children!
He won the war against the European Jews.
Indeed, he was helped by
the German nation. However, we do not want
revenge. If we took revenge, it would mean
that we would fall to those moral and spiritual
depths in which the German people have been
lost for the last ten years.
We are not able to murder
women and children! We are not able to burn
millions of people! We are not able to starve
hundreds of thousands!
We are free now, but we
do not know how to begin our free but unfortunate
lives. It seems to us that for the time mankind
does not comprehend what we have gone through
and what we have experienced during this
period of time. And it seems to us, that
we shall not be understood in future. We
have forgotten how to laugh, we cannot
cry any more, we do not comprehend our
freedom yet, and this because we are still
among our dead comrades.
Let us rise and stand silent
to commemorate our dead.