• Almost half of the respondents to a survey conducted on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day claimed that there could be another Holocaust. Why?
""There have always been madmen, but they were underestimated. There was Ahmadinejad who said such serious things, and he is still a member of the UN, and the UN didn't even reprimand him, when he talks about erasing it and throwing its inhabitants into the sea, and claims that there was no Holocaust but that it was a Jewish invention to squeeze a large amount of land out of the hands of the Palestinians and so on. And his people, tens of millions, followed him as they followed Hitler, may his name be erased, 70-80 years ago.".
When two million children in Biafra starve to death, and no one even knows why, when a million people are murdered in Kosovo 15 years ago and no one knows to this day why – all these things are happening. There is a type of weapon today that doesn’t need a mass grave of Babi Yar or the Ninth Fort to kill thousands of people in one day – not even gas chambers. Therefore, this danger everywhere still exists.
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But we went through these things, as they say, we went through Pharaoh. There, 'Every newborn baby you shall throw into the river.' Wasn't that Mengele's selection? There it was boys and girls, here everyone. So we had the first Holocaust child, that's Moses in the ark, the first Righteous Among the Nations, that's Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh. There is nothing new under the sun, and the cynic was right when he said - all we learn from history is that we learned nothing from it.".
• It seems that our education system is still trying to teach us a little, so that at least the consciousness of the Holocaust will not disappear. What do you say about the steps taken by the Minister of Education, about the desire to start teaching the subject in kindergarten? The gentle-hearted said, we must not scare the children...
""I learned one thing. That we live in a generation of specification. Today, an expert in left foot surgery is not an expert in right hand surgery – each has their own field. What do we know about the psychology of early childhood? What harms it and what doesn't? What strengthens it to face challenges in life and cope, and what, on the contrary, brings it down? Let's give credit to those who deal with it, who have studied it, who have spent years dealing with early childhood care, education, psychology, pedagogy, methodology – these are scientific things that we don't understand. Why does every interviewee have to express an opinion on every subject, just because it was mentioned in the media yesterday? We have experts in everything, and I learned that someone who is an expert in everything is actually an expert in nothing.".
• Rabbi Lau, the results in the general education system do not really allow us to give credit to the experts sitting there, in the Ministry of Education...
""I'm usually one of those who sees the glass as half full, to come and say in a deadly way about all those who sit in the Ministry of Education - that their intentions are good, I don't doubt that.".
• We talk about the results, about the youth...
""I started the first March of the Living in 1988, 26 years ago. By then, the Warsaw Pact was behind the Iron Curtain, and that year it became possible to bring Israeli citizens there as well. We brought out to the first march, in order to attract Jewish youth to show interest, cannons - seven members of Knesset who experienced the horrors of the Holocaust, such as Dov Shilansky, Chaya Grossman and others. We brought the Minister of Education and Culture himself, Yitzhak Navon, may he be healthy. We brought the Israeli ambassador to the UN, who could speak beautiful English, Benjamin Netanyahu... Elie Wiesel and I came, both of us Holocaust survivors. 700 youth from all over the world came, half of them from Israel. In 2005, 18,000 marchers came with Arik Sharon as Prime Minister. Not because of Arik Sharon, they didn't see him, they isolated him for security reasons. And this year too, 12,000 from 72 different countries will come. With God's help, I will be there too, I haven't missed a single parade of life yet.
""I claim that the Israelis who go there return more Jews from there. And the Jews who go there, from all over the world, return to their homes more Israelis. That's why I don't give up.".
""And so I say, it depends on the point of view. One thing I can say regarding youth and the issue of the Holocaust – and without tying it to the merit or duty of the Ministry of Education – if forgetting is decreed for everything, and forgetting is a gift as it is written in the duties of the hearts in the gate of the soul. Without forgetting we would not establish families, marry and give birth to children. If we do not remember the names of the heroes of the War of Independence, we almost do not remember the heroes of the Six-Day War, we will soon forget the Yom Kippur War too – and as for the Holocaust, over the years the awareness of the Holocaust is only growing. The interest is greater, the curiosity is greater – there are several reasons for this, including the much greater accessibility since the Iron Curtain was lifted, trials like the Kastner or Demniuk trials – all of these and more have increased awareness. I do not fear that they will forget it, after the Seder night when we remember why we eat the bittern, and the fact that we eat matzah because the dough did not have time to ferment – and this after 3500 years – I am sure "In these things that will be fulfilled, remember, and do not forget.".
• And meanwhile you look at the Holocaust survivors, whose number is dwindling every year, and their situation is disgraceful.
""That's enough for me. I'm keeping quiet on the subject from a public perspective because I'm concerned about it. I never asked for rights as a Holocaust survivor, I never received rights as a Holocaust survivor. I was born there, I went through the trials, but from the age of 8 I grew up here as an Israeli in every sense. I forgot my Polish, I didn't bring Yiddish from home but from yeshiva in Israel, my Hebrew is good – all the meanings of an Israeli child from the age of 8.
But I can tell you, I am ashamed – not only of this government, but also of previous governments – of everything I have seen and heard. Because I was interested, I went to nursing homes where there is a Holocaust survivor population, I visited mental hospitals where Holocaust survivors were hospitalized and I found 12 people there in a crowded room with a tired fan without air conditioning, with no teeth. One of them came to my office in Tel Aviv 24 years ago, told me I am not getting married because I no longer have teeth, I am a Lodz survivor, but I cannot meet a woman for matchmaking because I cannot speak in a way that she will see me with a toothless mouth.
"This is clearly a stain on our public image. On the one hand, we are proud of the contribution of Holocaust survivors to the State of Israel. Even the first cars of Israel Railways were bought with the reparations money that Germany was willing to throw at us for these bones. That's why we established Israel Railways with a Star of David on every car. But those who paid the heavy price with their lives, and even with their souls, and to this day, those who still remain, have become a burden rather than an asset.".
• The interview was broadcast on Friday on Gali Israel Radio. Interviewers: journalist Michael Tochfeld and Sherry Roth.
