From the Liveblog of
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Netanyahu hails Austrian leader’s ‘powerful’ Holocaust initiatives
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GooglePrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hails the “powerful” speech made by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz who said yesterday that his country’s responsibility toward Israel and the Jewish people in the wake of the Holocaust was still ongoing.
“I welcome the powerful speech of Chancellor Kurz and his determination to combat anti-Semitism,” Netanyahu says in a statement. “We attach great importance to his intention to advance a series of government decisions regarding Holocaust education and commemoration.”
“Thank you, Sebastian, for your leadership,” the prime minister says.
At an event marking the 80th anniversary of Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany, Kurz said the legacy of the Holocaust continues to “shame and afflict” the country, and stressed the importance of memorializing the genocide of European Jewry.
But, Kurz said, Austria’s responsibility did not end with Holocaust commemoration. He said the country had a “special responsibility to the state of Israel and the secuity needs of the Jewish people there.”
“For only if Jews can live without restriction in peace and security can a ‘never forget’ become a ‘never again.'”
Kurz is seeking cabinet approval for a proposal to erect a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in the center of Vienna.
The Times of Israel Community.