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Prime Ministers Address Victory Day over Nazi Germany. |
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| 13/05/2003 |
| Translated from Hebrew. |
The Honorable President of the State, Moshe Katzav, and Mrs. Gila Katzav,
Mr. Speaker,
My brothers the fighters, veterans of World War II,
Members of Knesset,
Today we mark the day of the Free Worlds victory over Nazi Germany and its Allies during World War II, on May 9, 1945, 58 years ago.
The victory over Nazi Germany was much more than a military victory. It was the victory of the human spirit over oppression and tyranny, hatred and racism in their most dangerous and bestial form.
A million and a half Jewish soldiers fought in World War II against Hitlerism and fascism. Among them were 40,000 volunteers from the Jewish community in Israel. A million and a half Jewish soldiers, men and women, fought in the allied armies and the Partisan units. No other nation contributed such a high percentage of its sons to armies fighting against the Nazis.
Perhaps also because for the Jewish fighters, this war was not just a matter of victory or defeat. To them, as members of the Jewish faith, the war against Nazi Germany was literally a war for life or death.
On May 9, the enlightened world marks its historic victory over Hitlerism. Here, in the State of Israel - the State of the Jewish people, of Holocaust survivors and their families - we celebrate this victory every day. The strong and prosperous State of Israel is the most concrete proof of the great Jewish triumph over the Nazi attempt to annihilate and destroy every remnant of Jewish existence.
Today, we remember well that when the Nazi monster arose to annihilate us, it was assisted by hundreds of thousands of collaborators from all countries under German occupation. S.S. volunteer units from almost every European country - even those countries known for their warm attitude towards Jews - fought in the ranks of the German army and took part in the extermination of Jews. This fact has been obscured throughout the years. These collaborators volunteered to take part, alongside the Nazis, in the war and the eradication of the Jewish people. We will not forget that even in our darkest hour, there were very few who enlisted to assist us and that throughout the entire duration of the war, masses of Jewish refugees were pleading for an escape from the burning European soil - only to find the coasts of the land of Israel closed.
The world knew and stood silent.
60,000 Jewish fighters from the Red Army won medals for bravery in battle. Jews reached senior command positions both in the Red Army and the Allied armies, many of whom won certificates of merit. To one of them, General Hassid, who was cited for commanding an artillery attack, Nathan Alterman dedicated a special poem in his Seventh Column:
Raised his hand/General Hassid/and cannons responded with a deafening roar
And Hassid listens to his hundreds of cannons/which ravage earth and sky
And his forefathers/Hassidim also/stand on a protruding cloud
And say - his prayer, thank God/is making a loud noise/at the celestial meeting.
General Hassid suddenly hears this/and smiles - and sees the faces of his ancestors in the cloud
The conditions at the front are blurred/it is an odd and interesting fact.
I do not know what became of General Hassid, but an interesting - and not at all odd - fact is that many of his friends ultimately found their way to the land of their forefathers. They immigrated to Israel, and live here with us.
A few dozen heroes of those bitter fights are with us here today - and I salute them from the Knesset podium.
Mr. Speaker,
58 years after the victory over Nazi Germany, we derive strength and faith from that great victory in our ongoing confrontation against those who seek to harm Jews simply for being Jewish. We bow our heads in memory of those who fell on the way to achieving the historic victory - and are blessed to have those veterans living among us, those who by freeing the world from the Nazi horror - paved the path to the establishment of the State of Israel.
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