Australia’s Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has called for all sides of politics to refrain from making the Holocaust about their own causes.
His comments come as he joined Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism in Australia, Jillian Segal, at the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the freeing of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Poland.
Jan. 27 is also International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“Combating anti-Semitism, remembering the Holocaust, does not belong to the left or the right,” Dreyfus said at the Jewish Community Centre in Krakow.
“It does not belong to the progressive side of Australian politics, or the conservative side of Australian politics.”
Dreyfus’s great-grandmother Ida Ransenberg, then aged 60, was murdered in the Holocaust on Oct. 14, 1942.
As the commemoration ceremony was held, pro-Palestine activists marched in the streets shouting and holding placards.
“It has been equally grotesque to see attempts being made to politicise either commemoration of the Holocaust or combating anti-Semitism,” Dreyfus said.
“We need to get politics out of this.”
Labor defied a petition with thousands of signatures demanding Foreign Minister Penny Wong be prevented from attended the commemoration, citing her habit of breaking with the United States vote on U.N. resolutions concerning Israel.
Wong spoke at the ceremony.
“We are here to say, ‘never again,’” she said.
“I would say at this time, we have to stand together across beliefs, across political difference, across politics, we have to stand against prejudice and hate and anti-Semitism in all its forms.
“When we say never again, we have to not only mean it, but bring that to what we do as political leaders.”
Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, with 1.1 million people killed in Auschwitz, most of whom were Jews.
The camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army during the Vistula–Oder Offensive.
Most of the victims had been forced onto a death march, but around 7,000 people remained.
Prime Minister Pledges Education Fund
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pledged $6.4 million (US$4 million) to build a national Holocaust education centre in Canberra and upgrade a facility in Western Australia that does school workshops.“We must never forget the atrocities of the Holocaust,” Albanese said in a statement.
“The centre will serve to educate our young Australians about the horrors of the Holocaust and teach them from an early age that such prejudice, hatred, and violence has no place here. Not now, not ever.”
Albanese’s announcement came after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said an elected Coalition government would commit $2 million to the Holocaust Institute of Western Australia.
Dutton will attend a service at the Holocaust Institute of Western Australia to mark the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The education centre will include exhibitions and displays on the atrocities of the Holocaust and the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.
“Educating Australians about atrocities of the Holocaust and the Oct. 7 attacks is an important mission that deserves support,” Dutton said.
“By gaining awareness of the persecution and atrocities committed against Jews, Australians will have a better understanding of why there is no place for antisemitism in our community.”
The pledges come amidst rising rates of anti-Semitism in Australia.
