Israel’s president addressed Germany’s parliament on Tuesday about atrocities committed during the Third Reich, while at the same time praising the close and friendly relations that have emerged between the two countries since the end of the Holocaust.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, center, arrives with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left, Parliament President Baerbel Bas, right, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz, background right, for a speech at the German parliament Bundestag at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)Israeli President Isaac Herzog, left, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, right, attend a wreath laying ceremony at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Christoph Soeder)
Six million European Jews were murdered by Germany’s Nazis and their henchmen during World War II.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, left, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, right, attend a wreath laying ceremony at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Christoph Soeder)
“Never in human history was there a campaign like the one the Nazis and their accomplices conducted to annihilate the Jewish people,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog told lawmakers at the Bundestag.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, left, his wife Michal Herzog, 3rd left, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, right, and his wife Elke Buedenbender, 2nd right, and Deputy director of the Holocaust memorial Ulrich Baumann, 2nd left, talk together after a wreath laying ceremony at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Christoph Soeder)
“Never in history was a state responsible, as Nazi Germany was responsible, for the loss of all semblance of humanity, for the erasure of all mercy, for the pursuit of the worldwide obliteration, with such awful cruelty, of an entire people.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog delivers a speech at the German parliament Bundestag at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Herzog also spoke about his father, former Israeli President Chaim Herzog, who was among the liberators of the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany in April 1945, as an officer of the British forces.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog delivers a speech at the German parliament Bundestag at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)Israeli President Isaac Herzog adjusts a skullcap as he delivers a speech at the German parliament Bundestag at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
“I shall never forget how he described to me the horrors he witnessed. The stench. The human skeletons in striped pajamas, the piles of corpses, the destruction, the hell on earth,” the Israeli president told German lawmakers.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog attends a wreath laying ceremony at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Christoph Soeder)
After his speech, Herzog and Steinmeier, accompanied by their wives, went to Berlin’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews — a field of 2,700 gray concrete slabs near the the city’s landmark Brandenburg Gate — where they laid two wreaths for the victims of the Holocaust.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog attends a wreath laying ceremony at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. Israeli President Isaac Herzog has addressed Germany’s parliament about atrocities committed during the Third Reich. But Herzog did use his speech Tuesday at the Bundestag to praise the close and friendly relations that have emerged between the two countries since the end of the Holocaust. Six million European Jews were murdered by Germany’s Nazis and their henchmen during World War II. (AP Photo/Christoph Soeder)
On Tuesday afternoon, the two presidents are set to visit the site of the former concentration camp. After a tour of the memorial site, they are expected to meet with survivors and German high school students.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog delivers his speech at the German parliament Bundestag at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The Israeli president arrived for a state visit to Germany earlier this week that also included a trip to Munich on Monday where he participated in the 50-year anniversary ceremony for the 11 Israeli athletes murdered by Palestinian militants at the 1972 Olympic Games.
Wreaths are seen at the Holocaust memorial before the arrival of Israeli President Isaac Herzog and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to a wreath laying ceremony in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Christoph Soeder)
Looking forward, Herzog praised close relations between the two countries and their joint commitment to fight antisemitism.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, right, embarances German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as he receives standing ovations after his speech at the German parliament Bundestag at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. Left are German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)Israeli President Isaac Herzog receives standing ovations after his speech at the German parliament Bundestag at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)Israeli President Isaac Herzog, center at the podium, delivers a speech at the German parliament Bundestag at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
“The partnership between Israel and Germany has achieved global renown, and we must continue deepening and cultivating it, for the benefit of a brilliant future not only for our countries but for the whole of humanity,” he said in parliament.
