Germany’s responsibility for crimes committed by the National Socialists will
never expire, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday at an event to mark the 80th
anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s accession to power, a day before International Holocaust Memorial Day.
Germany has an
“everlasting responsibility for the crimes of National Socialism, for the
victims of World War II and, above all, for the Holocaust,” Merkel said in a
video message. “And this must be made clear from generation to generation and it
must be said with bravery and moral courage, every individual can make a
contribution so that racism and antisemitism have no chance.”
On January 30,
Merkel will visit Berlin’s Topography of Terror Documentation Center, built on
the foundations of the headquarters of the Secret State Police, the SS and the
Reich Security Main Office, which were destroyed during the war.
Exactly
80 years earlier, Hitler, leader of the National Socialist German Workers’
Party, was sworn in as chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg. Two months
later, a so-called Enabling Act allowed Hitler’s government to pass laws without
parliamentary control and in violation of the constitution, paving the way for
his dictatorship.
International Holocaust Memorial Day was set to be marked on Sunday in Israel and worldwide by various events.
A ceremony was due to be held in Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem at midday, while in Ashdod the day was to be commemorated with a show featuring songs about Holocaust survivors and composed by Israeli youth, Army Radio reported.
Jpost.com staff contributed to this report