Survivor’s speech in Berlin put Herzog’s fine words in the shade

A simple, heartfelt address from a Holocaust survivor in the Bundestag carried a direct, uncontestable truth that the Israeli president's speech did not.

I returned from my summer holiday to find a letter from Bärbel Bas, the President of the German Bundestag, inviting me to an official event with the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog. He would be speaking in the parliament, there would be a screening of a short movie, and an exhibition to mark the 70^th anniversary of the reparations agreement between Germany and Israel and the Jewish Claims Conference.

So, on September 6, I put on a suit and entered the Bundestag for the first time. I soon met some Israeli friends, colleagues, writers and curators. We all asked the same question – why were we invited? Well, most of us helped organize the "Middle Eastern Union" festival last year, which was widely covered by the German media. I also hoped I was invited as an Israeli poet living in Berlin.

The audience rose when Herzog, Bas and all the members of the German government entered. We were sitting upstairs in the gallery. Herzog opened his speech with a reminder of the crusades, one thousand years ago, that led the Jews to write the “Yizkor” (Memorial Prayer). In desperation, the Jewish people had turned to God and asked Him to remember.

The audience stood when Herzog read the Yizkor in remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. I became emotional, then realised I didn’t have a kippa.

During his speech, Herzog received applause after almost every sentence. He talked about the danger of Iran, while knowing that the US is working on an agreement with Iran. None of us in the gallery clapped. Then he mentioned that Israel wants peace with the Palestinians. Clapping down below, but not from us. For too long, no Israeli prime minister has met with his Palestinian counterpart.

Only when Herzog mentioned his father, Chaim Herzog, the sixth president of Israel, did I get more interested. During World War II he was part of the British army that participated in the liberation of several Nazi concentration camps, including Bergen-Belson. In 1987, when he became the first president of Israel to officially visit Germany, he made a point of returning to Bergen-Belsen.