JERUSALEM—Dozens of world leaders descended upon Jerusalem on Jan. 23 for the largest-ever gathering focused on commemorating the Holocaust and combating modern-day anti-Semitism—a politically charged event that has been clouded by rival national interpretations of the genocide.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Prince Charles, Vice President Mike Pence, and the presidents of Germany, Italy, and Austria were among the more than 40 dignitaries attending the World Holocaust Forum, which coincides with the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.
The three-hour-long ceremony at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial—called “Remembering the Holocaust: Fighting Antisemitism”—looks to project a united front in commemorating the genocide of European Jewry amid a global spike in anti-Jewish violence.
On the eve of the gathering, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin implored visiting dignitaries to “leave history for the historians.”
“The role of political leaders, of all of us, is to shape the future,” he said.
But Putin quickly ventured into the sensitive terrain shortly after his arrival on Jan. 23, claiming that 40 percent of Jewish Holocaust victims were Soviet.
Of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis, historians say about 1 million were Soviet. Putin’s controversial figure appears to include an additional 1.5 million Jewish victims from eastern European areas occupied by the Soviets under their pact with the Nazis.
“When it comes to the tragedy of the Holocaust, 40 percent of tortured and killed Jews were Soviet Union Jews. So this is our common tragedy in the fullest sense of the word,” he said during a meeting with Rivlin.
Arkadi Zeltser, a Yad Vashem historian, said the accuracy of the statement depended on rival “definitions” of when the war began. Yad Vashem, along with all other reputable institutions, considers the war to have been sparked on Sept. 1, 1939, with the invasion of Poland. The Soviets generally considered their “Great Patriotic War” to have started two years later, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
It was the latest chapter in a bitter dispute over Soviet actions in World War II. Putin has been leading a campaign to play down the Soviet Union’s pre-war pact with the Nazis and focus instead on its role in defeating them.
Israel has given Putin a warm welcome, hosting him for the dedication of a monument honoring the nearly 900-day Nazi siege of Leningrad. The city, now known as St. Petersburg, is Putin’s hometown.
The event marks one of the largest political gatherings in Israeli history, as a cascade of delegations including European presidents, prime ministers, and royals, as well as American, Canadian, and Australian representatives, arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport. More than 10,000 police officers were deployed in Jerusalem and major highways leading to it. Large parts of the city were shut down ahead of the event.
For historians, though, the main message is one of education amid growing signs of ignorance and indifference to the Holocaust. A comprehensive survey released this week by the Claims Conference, a Jewish organization responsible for negotiating compensation for victims of Nazi persecution, found that most people in France did not know that 6 million Jews were killed during World War II. Among millennials, 45 percent said they were unaware of French collaboration with the Nazi regime and 25 percent said they weren’t even sure they had heard of the Holocaust.
The World Holocaust Forum is the brainchild of Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across Europe. The group recently reported that 80 percent of European Jews feel unsafe in the continent.
In 2005, Kantor established the World Holocaust Forum Foundation, which has held forums in Auschwitz, in the killing fields of Babi Yar in Ukraine, and at the former concentration camp Terezin. The Jan. 23 event is the first time it has convened in Israel. The official commemoration marking the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation will be held next week at the site itself in southern Poland.
Organizers of the Jerusalem event have come under criticism for not including enough Holocaust survivors and instead focusing on the panoply of visiting dignitaries and the festival-like atmosphere surrounding it. In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Twitter on Jan. 23 that his delegation was giving up its seats to allow more survivors to attend.
Yad Vashem called the decision “odd” since about 100 survivors were expected to be among the 780 attendees and it was too late to make any adjustments in any case.
“It’s a shame he took such a step,” the memorial said in a statement.
In advance of the forum, an anthology of statements from world leaders sending delegations to Jerusalem was published to project a newfound commitment to quelling a climate some said was reminiscent of that before World War II.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau specifically mentioned “the scourge of antisemitism and hatred that is becoming all too common once again.”
“The murder of 6 million Jews by the brutal and antisemitic Nazi regime started with a slow erosion of rights, and the normalization of discrimination,” he wrote. “We cannot permit the passage of time to diminish our resolve never to allow such horrors to happen again.”
