NEW YORK – The World Jewish Congress held a memorial last week for Mireille Knoll, the Holocaust survivor murdered in Paris, at its headquarters in New York in the presence of French Consul General Anne-Claire Legendre. WJC President Ronald S. Lauder said: “The World Jewish Congress stands together with the French Jewish community in deploring this barbaric and horrific murder. We must continue to sound the alarm again and again until we put a stop to this terrifying rise of anti-Semitism spreading today across France and all of Europe.”
“No human being should ever have to live in fear of being a target of such aggression because of race, religion or any other factor. We are grateful for support of the French government and the swift response of the French authorities to help to bring the perpetrators of this hate crime to justice,” Lauder said. “We have now had too many wake-up calls, in Europe and on other continents. The World Jewish Congress will continue to do everything in our power for the safety and security of our member communities. We count on France, a friend to the Jewish community and to Israel of long standing, to be our partner in the battle against anti-Semitism.”
85-year-old Mireille Knoll, who escaped deportation to a Nazi death camp when French police rounded up Jews in Paris in 1942, was found in her burning apartment on Monday stabbed 11 times in what French authorities have deemed a hate crime.