Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and European Council President Charles Michel issued a joint statement on Tuesday affirming their commitment to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and fighting anti-Semitism.
In addition to being the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day also marked the 76th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
The leaders also emphasized that the survivors represent “the triumph of humanity over hate and whose inner strength inspires us all.”
As part of the initiative, called the Lonka Project, more than 250 of the world’s leading photographers from 35 countries donated their talents over the last two years to immortalize Holocaust survivors on film.
The project was named after Dr. Eleonora, or “Lonka,” who was born in Poland in 1926. As a young woman, Eleonora survived five concentration camps—Raghun, Plaszow, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen and Terezin. She passed away in Israel in 2018.
Rivlin also commemorated the Holocaust with his counterparts in Europe in 2020. At an event marking 82 years since the Kristallnacht pogrom on Nov. 9-10, 1938, he was joined at the President’s Residence by Steinmeier and Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen.