Labor urged to recognise ‘familiar evil’ on Holocaust commemoration

Jewish leaders have expressed hope that the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camps will encourage the Australian government to ‘recognise familiar evil’.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Oswiecim, Poland. Picture: AFP

Jewish leaders say the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps must serve as a reminder to Labor that the world is faced with “a familiar evil” and to “fully embrace the notion that Israel isn’t just a country, it is the guardian of Jewish survival”.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus attended the event in Poland, which Senator Wong said was “a deeply moving experience’’.

“It was an opportunity to stand together with representatives from around the world and say never again. The words of the Holocaust survivors will stay with me, always,’’ she said.

“They spoke about where anti-Semitism, hatred and intolerance lead. They spoke about being stripped of their humanity. Of feeling powerless and abandoned. And of the desperate cries that haunt their souls. The survivors warned against allowing the memory of the millions of Jewish people murdered to fade.

“I hope their message is heard around the world.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin, who also attended the commemoration in Auschwitz, said the Albanese government needed to recognise that the protection of Israel was critical to the survival of the Jewish people and that this must guide their policies going forward.

“We all witnessed Jews again being murdered in their homes and innocent men, women and children executed in fields and forests while pleading for their lives and instead of recognising that familiar evil and rising to destroy it, governments retreated into bland statements and even sought to rationalise or reward the atrocities against the Jews,” he said.

“Having participated in this landmark event, I hope the government will now fully embrace the notion that Israel isn’t just a country, it is the guardian of Jewish survival.”