TAI and Partners Co-Organize a Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration

To commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day, TAI, the Mission of Israel to the EU and NATO and the European Office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation co-organized an event titled “Keeping the Memory Alive”.  

The event was attended by almost 100 EU officials and diplomats, including H.E. Andrew Puzder, U.S. Ambassador to the EU, H.E. William White, U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, and EU Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi. It featured opening remarks by H.E. Avi Nir-Feldklein, Ambassador of Israel to the EU and NATO, and Beatrice Gorawantschy, Director of the European Office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. All addressed the urgent need to commemorate the past in times of spiking antisemitism in Europe. Afterwards, Dani Dayan, Chairman of Yad Vashem, delivered the keynote speech in which he highlighted the importance of Holocaust remembrance in times in which it has come under increasing attacks. 

The highlight of the event was a panel discussion between Prince Michel de Ligne, a descendant of Righteous Among the Nations whose ancestors had hidden hundreds of Jewish children from the Nazis, and Professor Joel Kotek, whose parents were both hidden children and whose research is focused on the Holocaust and contemporary antisemitism in Belgium. In their discussion they described the Holocaust in Belgium and how Holocaust memory is increasingly being used to attack Israel and Jews around the world.  

TAI’s Benedetta Buttiglione delivered powerful closing remarks in which she warned about rising antisemitism in Europe and the duty of every person to stand up to it.