To you, the Australian Holocaust survivors, I say, and I trust this Senate says, we do stand with you. We thank you for your grace and your courage in making this remarkable, poignant, impactful statement.
Senator BIRMINGHAM (South Australia—Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) (13:36): Some words made by others are so profound they deserve repeating in this place, and so it is with the courageous statement by Australian Holocaust survivors, which I’ll quote from:
We, the undersigned Holocaust survivors are the last witnesses to the unspeakable horrors of the Nazi regime. We are witnesses to the antisemitic propaganda that turned our friends, neighbours and the general public against us in Europe. We remember the six million Jewish lives lost because of this hatred.… … …
We write this letter now because today marks 85 years since Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass). On 9 November 1938, the Nazi regime murdered Jews and attacked Jewish life, wreaking terror and burning synagogues.
Rather than condemn these atrocities, the world stood by and watched.
Never have we, the survivors of the Holocaust felt the need to make a collective statement such as this until now. Never did we think that we would witness a re-enactment of the senseless and virulent hatred of Jews that we faced in Europe. The actions of Hamas are so familiar, so barbaric, yet instead of condemning this, the response across the globe is a shameful spike in antisemitism.
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We cannot allow history to repeat itself.
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Antisemitism is one of the world’s oldest and most contagious viruses. We ask all Australians to denounce the antisemitism and hatred that we see today in our beautiful country and across the globe.
We ask you to stand with us.
To you, the Australian Holocaust survivors, I say, and I trust this Senate says, we do stand with you. We thank you for your grace and your courage in making this remarkable, poignant, impactful statement.