"Shameless to compare Holocaust to pandemic", Halsema says during memorial

The Holocaust was commemorated on Sunday at the Mirror Monument "Never Auschwitz Again" in Wertheimpark in Amsterdam with an adapted program due to coronavirus measures. This week marked the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Roughly 102,000 of the 140,000 Jewish people who lived in the Netherlands during the Holocaust were killed. Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Health State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen were among the attendees at the memorial.

Among others, the grandson of an Auschwitz survivor spoke of his grandfather's ordeal. Sinti Holocaust survivor Zoni Weisz also spoke during the memorial. The Nazi regime killed his mother, sisters, and brother during the Second World War. "We have the duty to create the circumstances that minorities can live in peace and safety," Weisz said.

Another one of the speakers at the annual Holocaust Remembrance was the Dutch Auschwitz Committee chair, Jacques Grishaver. He is the initiator of the Memorial of Names, where the names of the 102,000 Dutch Holocaust victims are written.

Speaker of the Tweede Kamer Vera Bergkamp referred to the Memorial of Names in her speech. "It brought the dead back home and gave them back their identity," Bergkamp said. The speaker of the Tweede Kamer said we should always be aware of what hatred can do. "We need to keep unity. Also, in parliament, the heart of our democracy," Bergkamp said.

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema was also present. "It is shameless if the pandemic is equivalated with the systematic discrimination and murder of Jewish, Sinti and Roma people. It is shameless if the Star of David is misused here in Amsterdam on the Dam Square for effect and to get attention," she said