Herzog says hostages’ freedom is ‘universal human imperative,’ calls on world to work for their release

Speaking in Hebrew after his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda at Auschwitz, President Isaac Herzog notes that half of the Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust were Polish.

“In just six years, on the soil of occupied Poland, one of the most magnificent Jewish communities in history — Polish Jewry — was almost entirely destroyed by the Nazis, their helpers and collaborators,” says Herzog, adding that both he and his wife are descendants of that community.

The topic of Polish collaboration during the Holocaust is the main source of strain in Israel-Poland ties.

Herzog says that while the world vowed “Never again” after the Holocaust, “dozens of Jews again yearn within a cage, thirsting for water and for freedom as 59 of our brothers and sisters are held by terrorist murderers in Gaza, in a horrific crime against humanity.”

“The return of the hostages is a universal human imperative,” he says, “and I call from here upon the entire international community to mobilize and put an end to this crime against humanity.”

Herzog stresses that after the Hamas terror attack of October 7, 2023, when more Jews were killed than on any other day since the Holocaust, Poland stood by Israel and its right to defend itself. He refers to the lessons of World War II and the allies who stood together against the forces of evil and says there is the same need to do now as Israel faces attacks on multiple fronts, led by the Iranian “octopus of terror.”

“Iran threatens global stability and the nations of the world must stand together to stop it.”