US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump participate in a wreath-laying at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on May 23, 2017. Photo: Reuters / Jonathan Ernst.
US President Donald Trump’s Yom HaShoah — Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day — message on Thursday singled out the Jewish fighters of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising for special tribute.
The 75th anniversary of the uprising — in which 750 poorly-armed, malnourished Jewish fighters led by the socialist Zionist Mordechai Anielewicz inflicted heavy casualties on German troops, pinning them down for nearly a month — falls on April 11.
The Jews incarcerated in the ghetto had “mounted a courageous and extraordinary act of armed resistance against their Nazi guards,” Trump said.
“The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as ‘Shoah,’ was the culmination of the Nazi regime’s ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question,’ an attempt to eradicate the Jewish population in Europe,” the statement said. “Although spearheaded by one individual, this undertaking could not have happened without the participation of many others who recruited, persuaded, and coerced in their efforts to incite the worst of human nature and carry out the ugliest of depravity. The abject brutality of the Nazi regime, coupled with the failure of Western leaders to confront the Nazis early on, created an environment that encouraged and enflamed anti-Semitic sentiment and drove people to engage in depraved, dehumanizing conduct.”
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The statement continued: “By the end, the Nazis and their conspirators had murdered 6 million men, women, and children, simply because they were Jews. They also persecuted and murdered millions of other Europeans, including Roma and Sinti Gypsies, persons with mental and physical disabilities, Slavs and other minorities, Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gays, and political dissidents.”
It concluded: “Let us continue to come together to remember all the innocent lives lost in the Holocaust, pay tribute to those intrepid individuals who resisted the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto, and recall those selfless heroes who risked their lives in order to help or save those of their persecuted neighbors. Their bravery inspires us to embrace all that is good about hope and resilience; their altruism reminds us of the importance of maintaining peace and unity, and of our civic duty never to remain silent or indifferent in the face of evil.
“We have a responsibility to convey the lessons of the Holocaust to future generations, and together as Americans, we have a moral obligation to combat antisemitism, confront hate, and prevent genocide. We must ensure that the history of the Holocaust remains forever relevant and that no people suffer these tragedies ever again.”
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