European Jewish Congress

#OnThisDay in 1942, the Vel' d'Hiv roundup started. It was the largest arrest of Jews in France during the Holocaust. 13,152 Jews were taken from their homes, detained and deported to concentration camps. Only 800 survived. It is our responsibility to remember them.

Former hostage Moran Stella Yanai shares how Hamas terrorists sexually assaulted her in captivity. She ends with a note of defiance: "We are very strong women."

#OnThisDay in 1942, German authorities begin the deportation of Dutch Jews from the Westerbork, Amersfoort, and Vught camps in the Netherlands to killing centers and concentration camps in Germany and German-occupied Poland. By September 3, 1944, around 100 trains have carried more than 100,000 people to Auschwitz, Sobibor, Theresienstadt, and Bergen-Belsen, including about 60,000 Jews to Auschwitz and about 34,000 Jews to Sobibor. Less than 25% of Dutch Jewry survived the Holocaust. May their memory be a blessing 🕯️

We commend President Javier Milei for designating Hamas as a terrorist organization. Argentina becomes the first South American nation to take this important step. Thank you for standing with Israel and the Jewish people and against terror 🇦🇷

Since October 7th, antisemitic incidents in France have risen by 1000%, with many French Jews hiding their identity. This powerful video by Licra - Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l'Antisémitisme shows how life has changed for Jews in France and many places in Europe.

Thank you, Brussels. #BringThemHomeNow 🎗️

Today, on the anniversary of his birth, we remember Jorge Trías Sagnier. He was a lawyer in the case of Shoah survivor Violeta Friedman, which led to the criminalisation of Holocaust denial in 🇪🇸. Their legacy and relentless pursuit of justice & dignity must never be forgotten.

It has been 280 days since thousands of Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, murdering, raping, torturing, and taking hostages. Our hearts are with our Israeli brothers and sisters. Shabbat Shalom.

280 days since October 7. 280 days of mourning for the 1,200 lives stolen from us. 280 since the hostages were taken from their loved ones. 280 days of rampant antisemitism on the streets of Europe. 280 days since the Jewish world was forever changed.

A new Holocaust memorial in Poland by the artist Janusz Marciniak is a subtle combination of land art and commemoration. The memorial is located at the site of the destroyed Jewish cemetery in Oborniki Wielkopolskie, near Poznan, and uses large, rough stones to form a Star of David in the center of the site, which is now a wild, grassy meadow. One of the stones was cut in half, with inscriptions on the polished sides. One commemorates the Jewish community destroyed by the Nazis during the Holocaust and bears a verse from Psalm 103 (in Hebrew and Polish) and a text reading, in Polish: “There must be a place in our memory for the dead. By respecting this and other cemeteries, we bear witness to humanity, culture, and faith. Memory is the foundation of love, mutual understanding and the future.” The second half of the stone bears a fragment of the poem “Łąka” (Meadow) by the Polish Jewish poet Bolesław Leśmian. In the poem, Marciniak says, “the meadow is a tribute to eternal love. This love that ‘will break and conquer everything’ – even death.” The monument was a project of the Oborniki Wielkopolskie municipality and carried out in cooperation with the Poznan Jewish community, and with the approval of Poland’s chief rabbi and the Commission for Jewish Cemeteries. Photo credits: Janusz Marciniak Information via Jewish Heritage Europe