this is d.w. news coming to you live from berlin i'm terry martin and welcome to our special live coverage from the german parliament where the annual holocaust remembrance ceremony is just now getting underway we're bringing you live coverage you're looking at pictures from the bonus talk right now the president of the german bundestag both kong. is just entering that he's he'll be delivering the opening remarks with me here in the studio to give us some commentary as we go along is my

colleague peter craven our political correspondent peter has been has been covering these ceremonies for several years now just a little bit of background to this event marks the seventy fourth anniversary of the liberation of the concentration an extermination camp by soviet troops on the twenty seventh of january one thousand nine hundred forty five. we will be hearing in just a moment from the president wolfgang schauble will also be hearing from a renowned historian saul freed lender whose parents were murdered in bits were also in your picture you can see chancellor merkel has just taken her seat as well the word that is soul freelander sitting next to. both will be delivering remarks in just a moment with the president when his tog approaching the podium now. but

listen it. is very very. president of the bundestag. but inventor of one has gone through a chancellor of where the world is out of it if only for father's great president. one describes and of the constitution experience and by that says mr friedland ladies and gentleman now man this mention this tide is the name of a human being most pastors are they are is just an expression of fairness vanities of their belonging to a family to a community. relief in the perpetrators in the concentration if you can use call of the inmates out by number to get their names were to be for god remains and therefore there is a human ness was there he forgot. as

a prerequisite for millions of murders committed the individual human being did not count for anything. in part being mr friedland you were born in the past pavel in the czech republic in france or because our when you came to israel. you took the name of shower and later changed to saw. off what would seem like a superficial change of name actually show watershed moments in your biography it reflects a history. which as you say. is your identity as a non-religious june. and these things became essential for your life expropriation the persecution the end nial asian of european or jewelry it is a great honor for us for a land that you have taken on our invitation and come here today

thank you recently. we know how long it took for you to develop the trust to come back to germany which is why we are so grateful that you are coming here today that you are going to speak to us as a survivor of the show and as of a noun and historian who has done much to help our understanding of the shah. seventy years ago the founding mothers and fathers of the constitution said that the dignity of humanity is. more important than anything else and they committed to protecting this folks that much it wasn't the international community that is the reference for our constitution but the individual the individual and their

dignity and this is why article one of our constitution doesn't just describe a reality. but it is a response to the experience that the dignity of human beings was destroyed and violated in a beautiful millions of cases we do not find the concept of the holocaust in our constitution ridge but the crime against humanity committed by germans echoes in our constitution in the basic rights that protects the individual informed of it from the state. in preserving a strong democracy so that we never again allow democratic freedom minister. to be misused to destroy these freedoms or citing them to be used to destroy them no nation can choose their history nor can they shrug it off. his

doric or basis the way we deal with our history as well is the fundament of every country from german guilt our responsibility arises never to forget them and to honor those who lost their lives. to give them back their dignity for our own sake. a culture of remembrance is not just something that can be left to civil society it is part and parcel of the job of the state and anyone who wants to change this will be trying to change the very foundations of this republic. thank you. i. and secret productions other words in order for the draft which before i can swear planet of the twenty seventh of january auschwitz was liberated the fourth dimension nineteen forty five and today we are commemorating the people who

were murdered there and in other sites of the your from the war of annihilation waged by the germans across europe the millions who are publicly humiliated and the famous. four had their belongings stolen from them tortured physically and mentally persecuted driven from their homes and murdered you or rather the european jews for this into and romany the slavek people victims of state euthanasia and it's why the homosexuals reinforced workers and the many prisoners of war who were starving to death and and all of the other piece called her sufferings because of their ethnic background their belief or their political convictions we remember and those who survived would be often as the only ones in their family who did who were broken by their experiences we also were member

of the void people born after all marked are different god i conformed here. those were the children to the orbit of the survivors who was confronted with the trauma of the past we honor all of those groups fought against this terrorism for save human life. from my arms and. the for the fate of every individual in a garden they are back once wrote swords with mange you. have to be. someone who shares the fate of those around you who feels the fate of those around you who are you bored with this jewish scholar. you know just he was well aware of his moral teachings the moral commitment of being a human being the compassion you feeling and what it was to be part of humanity when suddenly jews were degraded by the nazis as non-human animals and the

slavs were subhuman mention of operation warrior but it wasn't an anonymous state to see who committed murder it was human beings who committed murder. they should organize these crimes were committed these crimes or did not prevent these crimes these are people who did not want to see what was happening who didn't want to risk anything or who even were convinced that they would do the right thing of the martial law in which to go. there were no course this have unleashed more information our mission of paris cardinal. and for this very seriously therefore describes the holocaust not until just as crime but as a crime against humanity and of wall. to he says all of his human and ideological blindness gov to see that can lead to murder are clearly in the nature of man this is how self we've learned so one way to

depression because you're one of the poor little you both shared a similar fate as yours which were both its most survived the holocaust spines and in hiding here just to get the son of a polish jew who is emigrated to france converted to catholicism all because of religious convictions but also retains his josh identity and. three atlanta as well survived in a catholic boarding school and grants thanks to a new identity and then usually faith it was only after the war that he discovered that his parents had been murdered in auschwitz cardinal just to go and so freed under what children at the time would like every fourth victim. or you're not serious just madness infants and toddlers were regularly brutally separated from their parents after deportation and murdered immediately if they were not tortured in medical experiments one point five million children

they had the least chance of escaping it is nothing short of a miracle innocent that polish woman you know sent for him and the those who worked with her managed to save two thousand five hundred children get very near smuggling them out. in the rubbish bins or in coffins giving them new identities to over got this story and you are not a stick if you switch it we're talking about it was coined almost the term of your rescuers are called in the resistance which really was a cousin of a parisian cards you know and himself a survivor and he spoke to the bundestag international under fire from some one hundred thousand people who were involved in this rescuing resistance jews and knowledge of the source for this girl and she they are the most valuable moral

capital of european society because these people would be with their courage have proven that even in my system of terror there is room to act and to resist that it was possible to help even a center risked her life for this and she is honored in yad vashem as righteous among the people suitably. for the children wish she was just a person if you cared reporter two or three called won't be the only way to escape deportation was to go underground to become invisible or jewish children or would spend months sometimes even years. and wouldn't shad's in roofs attics in forests in basements or they lived with new identities and foster families energy or monasteries mention indians against the.

inch often they went through an odyssey changing new places and new people when they were completely dependent on and constant fear the suffering of these children who were hidden stayed with them long after the war was over and their memories. of them most didn't even noticed often they were orphans they had lost everything their parents their siblings often cubit didn't even know their real names or their dates of birth some didn't even know that they were juice. how many of you to this is how many of them rather to this day do not know their true origin we don't know the story will range recently your documentation has shown you in germany about people who resisted deportation and who survived in hiding to the invisible was the name of this room are you sleeping with people who know and it

shows or is the will to survive in view of the danger that they were exposed to as a remote spy if this list of some of the neighborhoods that they were in was both a risk and maybe somewhere to hide some where neighbors or the leaders this was the name of an exhibition of the holocaust memorial museum which will be presented in the bonus time from it today and it shows how being a human being or under the conditions of a dictatorship or history even my thought of among neighbors was tested you know it's all too often neighbors were again. there denunciation through carelessness and berlin some one thousand five hundred jews managed to survive in hiding we can free does one offended is removed at the end of this film the end

more than with disabilities he asks with an expression that haunts you. can you imagine that all germans simply murdered millions of completely innocent people for us and answers the question of software samples you simply cannot imagine any of the even ability to imagine you mr fleet land say this is the primary feeling we have in the face of the shoah as heads something we can all understand the feeling that has never left your bright a feeling that defines your work as. a researcher because. you have set standards in your research of the holocaust or mistreats you go by not trying to explain away or should change the unbelievable you have examined and research the holocaust without wanting to get rid of this feeling of disbelief.

all of it took decades before you were able to emotion or really understand. what was going on or even come closer to his or you know and that's when you sad stuff when knowledge comes memory comes knowledge and memory of the same thing this sentence comes from a book about the golem mode of your powers of this famous mythical jewish creature from progress by. instead of really novel by a jewish writer good stuff my bank was one of the few books that your father. took from his private personal library when he had to flee his own plane in the world and for you as well. researching sources like these ones would lead you to your memories your main work the jewish price of the third device and the jews sorry you overcome the old dominant dichotomy either seeing the holocaust from the

perspective of the perpetrators are often moved with or it's abuse that history of the victims but you bring both together. your description links events which happened in the same country integrated history is something that you call in this way you created a comprehensive but also a contradictory image of the persecution of the jews from different perspectives with a documentary precision across iran in your works time speaks to are is from a fantic sources from the laws of the time of the regulations of our time the act of ministration of the time but also from diaries or letters between hugely individual jewish voices for you are like flashes of light that light up moving parts of the landscape they can flare ideas we may have had but one lives against for

a generalization. and breakthrough all of the smoothing academic distance in your words to mean there may be talk about how the voices of human beings move us independent of all rational argumentation. because they. question our belief in the existence of human solidarity so our fleet let us restart free landers and work after the final gets its real strength from this strategic relationship between the abstract statistic depiction of the reagan administration and the measures to commit murder and the living remember and some of the. people who survived it between sober and objective. objectifying and emotional highs they sure do for us because it takes empathy the third to want to know more is to understand your the impact of the u.s.

american series of holocaust which was broadcast in germany's forty years ago and tells the story of the actual exclusion persecution and annihilation of german jews using the example of a fictive family with a more traditional family rather it was contradicted your story and disputed in the . garbage day but as we know at the time this was a watershed moment in history you are used to means of dealing with the nazi past because suddenly the history of the special family is biased or was something the west german family made population can suddenly feel. and that defined the degrades more than just a few months later for example there was the abolition of limit statute of limitations for murder and genocide. through. malta and the holocaust was suddenly in the awareness of the german public you know today it became the word of

the year one thousand nine hundred seventy nine and is a synonym for genocide which borders on european jewry in cardinal istic war and went. against his will for a while to do making auschwitz a symbol for an exception otherwise he said. we could well be too late to go make these mistakes again of this call of truth which. directs our view really are all very difficult through the balancing act between auschwitz as a unique place and as a symbol. it warns against crimes against humanity and calls for universal human rights. emotional access to the holocaust is something that requires knowledge so free. speech is both

a universal significance and the historical uniqueness of the holocaust particularly for us as germans it is true that this history cannot be taken out out of its historic location the fact the victims and the perpetrators conditions that made murder on european jewry possible. especially since among today's young people knowledge about this is disappearing the bluntest tide wants to be stuck this memory disappearing you mentioned by having an annual youth encounter in two thousand and nineteen once again young people from various different countries except to ask questions to think about the past together and to draw conclusions about the past for the present and the future as real making history part of our present day is something we are committed to it is

crucial as in our society there are still very dangerous stereotypes and prejudices exclusion and discrimination. anti semitism in various different fordyce the old kind and a new kind immigrated times and both are an exception to the certainly in germany. thanks. this is a shame it's a. great shame to us that german jews i once again thinking about emigrating from germany because they do not feel safe in germany because they. she can achieve anti semitic because they experienced anti-semitism and not just verbally but sometimes physically because jewish children and schools are ganged up on the schools but it's not enough to feel

a sense of shame we need to exert the full. power of the law. to resist this thanks. to give. we've asked about the lessons we have learned from history you mr friedlander once said what we have to learn from history humanity and tolerance that is the only lesson to behave as human beings in a humane way. that's what it's all about. these babies and gentlemen by this commemorative hour will also includes musical works by have ensured home and picked out one man interpreted by the proud benefit string quartet might like to welcome at this point this string quartet since it was founded has devoted itself to music that was abandoned by the

nazis. i do competition. for both composers had close ties to prague. would be. composed much of his work gets you into. the concentration camp to the zinj battle so before you resume murder in auschwitz in october ninety four in the floor of the hundred of thousands of children whose experimental music was on the nazi list. in. camp. in bavaria international forty two picked on. that sees to the names that the nazis tried to wipe out. we cannot make the injustice that was done to them. but we can ensure. that we remember their fates. and that. their music is still heard.

thank you mike we are watching live coverage from germany on this time for on the day of remembrance for the victims of national socialism we've been hearing the president of the finest are both going shy bla addressing the audience and we're now going to hear. and.

area where. eat.

eat.

me. live from the german born to start here in berlin and watching.

television of course you just heard the benefits quartet playing a piece by the czech composer sure hall and now we're about to hear from saul freelander the renowned czech historian who's going to address the german but his talk as. the guest speaker on the day on the keynote speaker on the day of holocaust remembrance. percy president. m.p.'s. friend. family member don't. allow me first of all right thank you for. inviting me to come speak to you today. on the day in which members of the victim national so.