Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at the Museum of Jewish Heritage's Commemoration of the 75Th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz

January 27, 2020

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you, Jack. Everyone, what Jack has done and everyone here at the museum has done deserves our respect and our appreciation. Because what you just heard, what you just watched brought home so powerfully a history that our children need to know, our grandchildren need to know, and this museum is leading the way and ensuring that that history will never be ignored. And more and more of our school children are being brought here to understand just how horrid a tragedy occurred and what it means for us today and they must be exposed to it. So, will you join me in thanking Jack and everyone at the museum for what they are doing to educate the next generation.

[Applause]

We’re all united – the City of New York, the State of New York, the federal government – everyone, in fighting anti-Semitism. I thank Superintendent Lacewall, you will hear from in a movement, all the State is doing. I especially want to thank everyone in this room who is a survivor. I have such respect, I have such awe for each of you. I have met many survivors in this city, and I sometimes can’t believe my eyes or believe my ears when I hear the stories of people who went through the unimaginable. Every one of you who came out of that experience and somehow had the strength to carry on and build new families, who somehow found the faith, even in that most horrible moment, you are exceptional human beings, every one of you. Every one of you.

[Applause]

But you are also witnesses who call upon all of us to do more because what you just heard is a reminder if the phrase “never again” was supposed to be the last thing we have to say, and yet it is not true, because we do see it happening again. And you know what, I went to the museum that so many of you I know honor, so many of you have experienced one of the most powerful places on earth, Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem, and what I saw there, the very first time I visited decades ago, it was not just the extraordinary, painful, vivid images and humanity on display of what we had lost but it was something else, it was the fact that so many who should have stood up for the Jewish people did not do it. And you know, at Vad Vashem, there is a section called the Path to the Righteous Gentiles and the first time I visited, I came away with a painful feeling. A kind of cold feeling, that that path wasn’t very long. There are names we honor, there were people who did amazing things to protect the Jewish people, but they were by no means the majority. That’s the sad painful truth.

And so we have to look at the whole history of what happened, including all those who were silent, all of those who were never punished, all of those who went through the war and afterwards maintained their same anti-Semitic views but stayed quite, waiting for a moment when they could once again spread hate. And it was passed from generation to generation, anti-Semitism never went away, it just laid wait. And now we see it, all over Europe, and even more painfully we see it here in our own country. And we have seen it in Brooklyn for sure, we have seen it in Monsey, we have seen it in Jersey City, and we will not accept it. And how we confront it determines what will change. We confront it by doing the things that so many nations never did. We take our police force, we take our security forces, and we put them in the Jewish community to protect our people. That is what we must always do.

[Applause]

But then we get to the work of changing the foundations of our society starting with our children. We have to show them that any thoughts, any actions that are anti-Semitic are not only immoral, they are not only destructive to their fellow human being, but they will lead to the destruction of us all. Six million Jews lost in the Holocaust and tens of millions of others because that same hatred that started with anti-Semitism then swept up tens of millions of others. So if you even tolerate for a moment anti-Semitism, you’re not only wrong morally, you’re not only wrong intellectually, but you are potentially making yourself a target of hatred.

So, we are going to teach our young people. We are going to bring them here. We are going to bring them to that amazing museum in Brooklyn that celebrates our Jewish children. We are going to show that people of all backgrounds will walk the streets of communities together to protect the Jewish community. We will do this. And I will conclude with this. We have learned that if we ignore anti-Semitism, it gets license to grow. If we confront it, we can stop it. But we need to not only stop it, we need to stamp it out once and for all. We need to rid it from the earth, once and for all. That is our obligation.

[Applause]

And anyone, anyone in this city or country that commits an act of hate, who turns their anti-Semitism into violence, must pay the price. They must be taught the ways of peace and dignity and they must feel the consequences if they harm the Jewish community.

[Applause]

So, let’s make never again something that we put into action here in this city and this nation. And to all of you, God bless you.

Thank you.

[Applause]