The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: TomSea on December 06, 2019, 07:13:49 am
-
Merkel To Visit Auschwitz For First Time
By Yannick PASQUET 12/05/19 AT 11:04 PM
Angela Merkel visits the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz on Friday for the first time in her 14 years as chancellor, as Germany grapples with a resurgence of anti-Semitism and the growth of the far-right.
Merkel will become only the third German chancellor ever to visit the camp in Poland, with her highly symbolic trip coming ahead of the 75th anniversary of its liberation by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945.
On the eve of her trip, Merkel said that "the fight against anti-Semitism and against all forms of hate" was a priority for her government.
Read more at: https://www.ibtimes.com/merkel-visit-auschwitz-first-time-2880329 (https://www.ibtimes.com/merkel-visit-auschwitz-first-time-2880329)
-
I get the symbol value of Auschwitz, but there are several former concentration camps that are museums that Merkel may (or may not, obviously) previously have visited. Dachau, being in a Munich suburb, would have easier access, and wasn't Soviet controlled until ~1989.
-
Angela Merkel speaks of 'deep shame' on first visit to Auschwitz
German chancellor says crimes at Nazi death camp will always be part of country’s history
Angela Merkel has expressed “deep shame†during her first visit as German chancellor to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Holocaust memorial and vowed to fight rising racism and antisemitism in Germany and Europe.
Dressed in black, Merkel said the crimes committed at the site in southern Poland where the Nazis ran their largest death camp would always be part of German history.
“This site obliges us to keep the memory alive. We must remember the crimes that were committed here and name them clearly,†Merkel said during a ceremony also attended by the Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki.
Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/06/angela-merkel-visits-auschwitz-camp-for-first-time (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/06/angela-merkel-visits-auschwitz-camp-for-first-time)