Musik Musik Musik Musik Musik Musik Musik Musik Musik Musik Frühlingstag wie heute, mag es mitunter schwerfällt, sich vorzustellen, welche Szenen sich hier am 6. Mai 1945 abspielten, als sich die Pforte des Lagertors des KZ Ebensee öffnet. Ganz sicher jedoch stößt man sehr rasch an die Grenzen seiner Vorstellungskraft, wenn man versucht, eingebettet in das Landschaftsidyl aus Bergen, Wäldern und See sich zu vergegenwärtigen, welches Leid wir Menschen erdulden mussten, welcher Verbrechen vor über 80 Jahren an eben diesem Ort geschahen. Tausende Menschen, die unter unfassbaren Qual und Angst ihre Arbeit im Steinbruch vernichten mussten. Tausende Menschen, die zu Tode kamen, die, um es klarer auszudrücken, ermordet wurden. klarer auszudrücken, ermordet wurden. Und selbst für die befreiten Häftlinge war das Schrecken, war das Leid nach der Befreiung nicht einfach zu Ende. Der mühevolle Weg, die Traumata des Erlebten, des Überlebten zu verarbeiten, stand ihnen noch bevor. Manchen mag es gelungen sein, sehr vielen jedoch nicht. Die Ambivalenz der Schönheit der Natur und der furchtbaren Geschichte dieses Ortes ist erdrückend. Eben sie als Teil des Wadhausen-Systems etaliert Spuren. Als Teil des Wadhausen-Systems erlief Spuren. Knapp eineinhalb Jahre bestand das KZ Ebensee. Dieser kurze Zeitraum reichte aus, um den Ort Ebensee auf Dauer zu konzieren. Die Stollenanlage, der Lagertorbogen, die Torflügel, die wir letztes Jahr aufstellen konnten, hier am Eingang des Opferfriedhofs, der Opferfriedhof selbst, sind unverrückbare und wichtige Zeugnisse über die Verbrechen, die hier begangen wurden. Der Erhalt dieser Zeugnisse ist wichtig. Es braucht aber auch Menschen, die das Wissen um Ebensee und die Erinnerungen der Zeitzeugen am Leben erhalten und diese weitererzählen, die in der Vermittlung tätig sind und unermüdlich Aufklärungsarbeit leisten. Die Veranstaltungen wie diese gegen das Vergessen organisieren und durchführen. An dieser Stelle möchte ich mich ganz besonders beim Verein Zeitgeschichte Museum in den Personen von Wolfgang Quademba und Nina Höllinger bedanken und bei der Stadtgemeinde Ebensee, die die Aufgabe des Erinnerns stetig weiterführt. Mein Dank gilt aber letztlich auch Ihnen, Mein Dank gilt aber letztlich auch Ihnen, die Sie heute durch Ihre Anwesenheit ein eindrucksvolles Zeichen gegen das Vergessen gesetzt haben. Erzählen Sie Ihren Verwandten, Ihren Bekannten, Ihren Freundinnen und Freunden von Ebensee und kommen Sie wieder. Gemeinsam haben wir heute für morgen ein Zeichen für Menschlichkeit, Demokratie und gegenseitigen Respekt gesetzt. Nie wieder Krieg, nie wieder Faschismus. Herzlichen Dank. So tell me what the Israeli man said essentially you could just summarize for what he says. Yes please. Yes, well I don't want to talk on behalf of Chaim and say what was the trigger for his call to end the genocide in Gaza. But I mean there were actually two parts to the Israeli delegate speech. The first part was a sort of you know a description of the personal story of his father and his brother, which was, you know, quite a moving story. And then there was a sort of general universal message about humanity, tolerance, etc. And then there was a shift, sort of even an extreme shift, to what I would call the rewriting or the revisiting of history and manipulating history and historical truths for propaganda purposes. And what he was doing, he was drawing his geopolitical map, which is actually a reflection of the policy makers in Israel and both the prevalent, the dominant public opinion in Israel. And he was presenting Iran as the new Nazi Germany. And Iran has been dehumanizing Israel as an entity, as a group of people over 40 years, which I found, you know, on the background of what Israel did to Iran, you know, I mean, it started a war of aggression that goes against international law and it is still trying to trigger another war. Not to mention the fact that Israel is a genocidal apartheid state. So in the midst of a genocide, he's presenting Iran as the new Nazi Germany and Israel as the victim, the eternal victim of history. I think that it's completely outrageous. I pray for peace and security for Israel and for the whole world. May the memory of all who the genocide in Gaza and the genocide in Gaza. End the genocide in Gaza. End the genocide in Gaza. Thank you. I mean it goes even beyond politicization you know because I mean memory is not something that is fixed in time I mean obviously memories something that is subject to... I mean, we read the past through the eyes of the present. So I don't have any issues with... even with the politicization of memory, because it is not something transcendental. But I mean, to distort history and to distort the current events to the extent of turning Iran into the new Nazi Germany on the background of a nation committing genocide and horrible, terrible, barbaric genocide, I think that it's completely unacceptable. Completely unacceptable. And what about doing that in this context, like on top of Sir? Yeah, in this context, it makes it even worse. I mean if he would just stick to his own personal story or even talk about the Jewish people, I have no issues with it. I would respect him. This is his story, right? But the moment he was standing there as the mouth speaker of official Israeli policy, which I reject, obviously, and trying to reverse also the roles of the victim, the perpetrator and the victim, and re-reading, I mean, trying to present to the Europe, in the European context, as well as the ultimate, you know, victim, the victim and the Jewish people as the eternal victim of history, I completely reject this picture, I mean, completely, I mean completely I mean ethically politically historically and is that what caused you to react what what what about his speech made you decide to stand up and say even Poles were killed by the Nazis and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union and the Nazis? Soviet Union defeated the Nazis and freed Poland from the Nazis and Here in the European context we are told that the Soviet Union Was working with the Nazis. I mean, this is disgusting. So I I don't think it's just is really Delegate but actually delegate after delegate really delegate, but actually delegate after delegate, we had a reversal of history. And that reversal is now acceptable because of the Ukraine wars, which I don't want to go into, but the Ukraine war is a war started by NATO and the US. Without justifying anything, we have to NATO and the US. Without justifying anything, we have to remember how it started and why it stunk. It is a NATO war of surrounding Russia. So now it's fair enough to say that the Soviet Union that was attacked by the Nazis, was almost finished by the Nazis, lost 22 million people in the war, is responsible for killing Poles. This is disgusting lies. And we should not have allowed this. And I wanted to stand up. And I thought, OK, I won't do it because people won't understand. You'll have to explain too much. But then comes the Israeli. and when does he do that? Not just on the Memorial Day, but while Israel is fighting three or four communities in the Middle East, they are still genociding the Palestinians. They are still genociding the Palestinians. They are still genociding the Lebanese. They are still at war with Iran. They're still bombing in Syria, in, of course, Lebanon, and in Yemen, and in Iraq. And at that time, he chooses to make Iran into the new Nazis. Iran has never attacked Israel. It's reacted to an attack by Israel and the US, two genocidal countries, two genocidal cultures, cultures of chaos and destruction and death all over the world. So the idea that you take Iran, that you attack, chaos and destruction and death all over the world. So the idea that you take your run, that you attack, and made it the aggressor just drove me to stand up because I wasn't going to listen to this. And I wish I had the chance to speak here properly because I could explain in more than one sentence what this is about but I think people probably understood that when I say and the genocide in Gaza I blame Israel as genocide is obviously people notice this is not a secret Israelis are proud of what they're doing in Gaza rather of what they're doing in Lebanon rather of of the attack in Iran and this is very sick. But so are these Americans or at least through their representatives like Trump and the rest of his henchmen. So yes I felt I can't really sit while these lies are being you know repeated and a political act of reversing history this is what yourself has explained reversing history not just twisting history reversing history making the victim into a perpetrator and the perpetrator into a victim we should not allow this to go unchallenged and that is why i challenged it and i think you know a number of people came said to you thank you you agree um woman sitting next to me i don't i never spoke to her said to me i agree with what you said you should know that so i mean i probably she wouldn't say it in public, but she said it in my ear because she's worried. The people are worried to say the truth now. And this is a sign of how sick the European society is. The people can stand here and say things that didn't happen as the truth. They are actually expressing lies, propaganda, political propaganda of the right-wing European fascism, rewriting not just the genocide in Gaza and the attacks on Iran, but rewriting the Second World War, the history of Nazism, the history of the genocide in Europe. It's not accepted. Were you surprised the guy got up and confronted you? No, I mean, obviously... What did you think when he got up? Well, I thought that he is supporting an Israeli delegate and he's looking at the Israeli delegators, you know, a messenger from box, you know. How could I possibly speak and interrupt such an important person who is coming to tell us the truth. So at the end, I said it to him. And when I said it to him a number of times, and the genocide in Gaza, he said to me, never again. So that's what I was saying. I was saying never again. I was saying stop the genocide in Gaza. And he was saying to me, never again, I was saying stop the genocide in Gaza, and he was saying to me, never again. Well, if it is never again, why are you genociding Gaza? Why are you killing people in Lebanon? Why are you killing people in Iran? This is incredible, yeah? So he didn't understand it. He thinks that if he says never again, it's about Jews. And I, an Israeli Jew, say to him, no, it's not about Jews, it's about people, about all of us. Never again is about all of us, and genocide is inhuman, is illegal, is immoral, and I'm going to say it whether you like it or not. So in the end, what could he say? And he didn't understand that we are saying the same thing. I'm saying never again for everyone. For all of us, there is the same law, there is the same logic. And when you say never again, you're not talking about Jews and in Mauthausen the Mauthausen oath signed by the survivors said exactly that they said we the survivors of Mauthausen what has happened as a great catastrophe to humanity. And we are going to make sure that that never happens again. And here we stand in the name of those people. And they should have read this out today. They should have read the Madhazen, the declaration that was written after the war by the survivors like my father. And they don't do this. And this is not even displayed in Mauthausen today. Because it's not about humanity anymore. It's about Israel and it's about Jews. And that is wrong. Do you think he was trying to shame you by saying never again? It's about Israel and it's about Jews. And that is wrong. Do you think he was trying to shame you by saying never again? He probably thought that he doesn't know I'm Jewish. He doesn't know I'm Israeli. He read some assumptions, you know, about who he is. So he says I'm an anti-Semite, you know. And I'm actually an Israeli Jew. So he doesn't know that. And he thinks he will say to me never again. He will shut me up. Yeah, he will silence you. The whole thing is funny if it wasn't so tragic and sad. Because the people that are speaking like that feel the force of truth in their bones. You know, they are telling me, the anti-Semite, what I should understand. And they don't understand the first thing about the Holocaust. So I think, you know, it's a typical reaction of people that don't know about the Holocaust and especially don't know about Mauthausen and what was written here which is now hidden and made invisible by people who were saved by the Americans in this place. My father was saved here. He was in Gen as a as a heftling but he actually was saved here i don't know what he was doing here on the liberation day but this is the picture that you saw uh that he was saved here uh so i'm speaking for my father because he's dead and cannot speak do you think that i remember him saying not now not now and i was thinking then when if it's not you know i don't know how many years later like when if it's 2026 when can we talk about this what did you think when he kept saying not now not now like it's 81 years yes i'm 80 years old i'm a product of this war so you know, when do I need also to die before this can, you know, who will speak? Who will speak for my father? Who will speak for the people of Mauthausen, the Lusayans, and said to us, never again for everyone? When will we speak for them if not now? We cannot wait. Absolutely. What did you think when he was saying not now? I agree with Chaim's interpretation. I think that he had some assumptions, as I said, some stereotypical assumptions that Chaim is some kind of anti-Semite that doesn't understand the scale and scope of the Holocaust and the tragedy that befell the Jewish people and they were trying to silence them. But in a way it's a very symbolic gesture because this is exactly what Europe and the West is doing now to people who try to oppose the genocide. And there are all kinds of mechanisms and devices, you know, and strategies and tactics to silence these people, including ourselves, you know, the sons and daughters of Holocaust survivors. So this is one... I mean, everything that is... I mean, Israel is a sort of sacred holy cow. It cannot be criticized because of this manufactured association, affiliation between Jews and the state of Israel. And the state of Israel is defining itself as the state of the Jews. So, I mean, if you attempt to criticize it, obviously you would be silenced, right? Let's be clear. Israel is a Nazi state. It's calling itself a Jewish state. We are Jews, we are Israelis, and they call us anti-Semites. You know, we who were born to people who survived the Holocaust, I that was born to a person that was liberated here 81 years ago, exactly, they're calling us anti-Semites. Israel is a Nazi state and it is doing things that even the Nazis didn't do. And as a Jew and as a survivor son and my wife is a survivor daughter, we are saying, don't speak in our name. Don't think that we are supporting you. Don't for a moment think that we are in agreement with you, because what you are doing is totally inhuman, is totally forbidden, not just by humanity's law, but by even the Jewish tradition and the Jewish religion and Jewish history. Jews never did genocide. And now they are. And that's not acceptable. And we will not shut up. Excellent. Thank you very much, Paul, for being here. You're welcome. Thank you. piano plays softly Thank you.