‘Never Again Is Not An Empty Promise,’ Metsola Says In Speech For International Holocaust Remembrance Day
President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola delivered a powerful speech while opening a ceremony for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, urging listeners not to forget the mistakes of the past.
“We can never forget, and we must act. Ours is the last generation to have the privilege of knowing Holocaust survivors, and hearing their stories first-hand. Their voices, their courage, their memories are a bridge to a past that must never be forgotten. Because even after the horrors of the Holocaust, antisemitism did not disappear. It persisted. It evolved,” she said.
“Memory is a duty. A responsibility to ensure that ‘never again’ is not an empty promise.”
Metsola specifically paid tribute to Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor and former EP President.
The ceremony also featured a speech from Corrie Hermann, now aged 92, who is the daughter of Holocaust victim and Pál Hermann.
She shared the story of her father; a renowned Hungarian cellist and composer who performed across Europe before fleeing to Belgium and France to escape Nazi persecution.
Arrested in Toulouse in 1944, he was deported to Drancy, then Kaunas (Lithuania), where he was murdered.
Before his deportation, he managed to send a note asking for his Gagliano cello to be saved. His family later safeguarded the instrument, which has since been rediscovered 80 years later and brought back to life.
Corrie Hermann ended her speech by saying, “Hitler burned books, destroyed paintings, and murdered millions; but music is invincible.”
The session concluded with a minute of silence and a performance of Kaddish by Maurice Ravel on Pál Hermann’s original Gagliano cello.
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