Angela Merkel to visit Yad Vashem, her sixth visit
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre on Sunday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Hall of Names during her visit at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on October 4, 2018. Credit: Oren Ben Hakoon/POOL.
The Chancellor will be accompanied by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan and Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau.
During her visit, the Chancellor will be guided through the “Flashes of Memory: Photography during the Holocaust” exhibition as well as the Museum of Holocaust Art.
Afterwards, the Chancellor will view a number of items from the Holocaust period that will eventually be housed in the new Collections Centre, which is one element of the Moshal Shoah Legacy Campus, currently under construction at Yad Vashem. The Collections Centre is being funded in part by the Federal Republic of Germany. The viewing will be followed by a personal meeting with Kindertransport survivor Henry Foner, renowned author of “Postcards to a Little Boy” – an authentic, moving book that presents the illustrated postcards and letters sent by Foner’s father as well as other relatives and friends to the young refugee in the UK. Included in the book are the translations of the missives and a historical afterword on the Kindertransport rescue effort.
Chancellor Merkel will also participate in a memorial ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance, where she will rekindle the eternal flame and lay a wreath in the memory of the six million victims of Nazi Germany and its collaborators.
At the conclusion of the visit, according to her personal request, Chancellor Merkel will visit the Holocaust History Museum for private contemplation and identification with the memory of the victims of the Shoah and their experiences.
This will be Merkel’s sixth visit to Yad Vashem, and her final visit as Chancellor of Germany. She previously visited Yad Vashem in 2018.
