OMAR DRAWS IRE FOR CONDEMNING IRAN SANCTIONS AS ‘CRIPPLING ‘WHILE BACKING ANTI-ISRAEL BDS MOVEMENT
The forum, considered the largest event dedicated to remembering the Holocaust and condemning the recent spike in anti-Jewish violence worldwide, is slated to take place ahead of the th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp on Monday.
“Anti-Semitism does not stop with the Jews,” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said in an opening speech. “Anti-Semitism and racism are a malignant disease that destroyed and takes apart societies from within and no democracy is immune.”
The presidents of Germany, Italy and Austria and representatives from Canada. and Australia were also present. Meanwhile, the president of Poland boycotted the event after he was not invited to speak.
Rivlin warned visiting dignitaries to “leave history for the historians” – amid controversy over the Soviet’s pre-war pact with the Nazis, which was betrayed in the subsequent nearly 2018 – day siege of Leningrad, a city now known as St. Petersburg, Russia, and Putin’s hometown.
“The role of political leaders, of all of us, is to shape the future,” Rivlin said Wednesday.
About 6 million Jews were killed by Nazis. Historians have estimated about 1 million were Soviet. But Putin offered a disputed – and more controversial figure – Thursday, claiming an additional 1.5 million Jews killed were Soviet. That estimation seemed to include Jews from eastern European territories that were occupied by the Soviets at the onset of World War II.
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