Vice President Pence addresses World Holocaust Forum in Israel
Vice President Mike Pence delivers remarks at the Fifth World Holocaust Forum ceremony at Yad Vashem.
Vice President Mike Pence delivered a stirring speech in Jerusalem before an audience that included world leaders and Holocaust survivors, vowing that never again shall the world allow the atrocities committed by the Nazis to be repeated.
Pence spoke on behalf of the United States, joined by leaders of more than 40 nations, at Israel's Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
“We gather to fulfill the solemn obligation, an obligation of remembrance, to never let the memory of those who died in the Holocaust to be forgotten by anyone anywhere in the world," Pence said. "Today we remember what happens when the powerless cry for help and the powerful refuse to answer."
Pence honored not just those killed by the Nazis, but those who survived.
“Today we mourn with those who mourn and grieve with those who grieve. We remember the names and the faces and the promise of the 6 million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust," he said. "Today we also pay tribute to those who survived, who all these years have borne witness to that evil and have served mankind by their example.”
The vice president also honored the Allied Forces who fought to liberate Europe from the grip of the Nazis, and drew inspiration from the "non-Jewish heroes who saved countless lives" during the Holocaust.
"In an age of indifference they acted. In an age of fear they showed courage. And their memory and their example should kindle anew a flame in our hearts to do the same in our time," Pence said in a call to the world to combat anti-Semitism amid a rise in violence against Jews around the globe.
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“We must be prepared to stand as they did against the wave of their times. We must be prepared to confront and expose the vile tide of anti-Semitism that is fueling hate and violence across the world, and we must stand together," he declared.
Dozens of world leaders were on hand to hear Pence's words, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also spoke at the event.
The vice president then discussed what he called "the leading state purveyor of anti-Semitism" and the only government whose state policy denies the Holocaust even happened.
"The world must stand strong against the Islamic Republic of Iran," Pence said, drawing applause from the audience.
"And finally," Pence said, "we must have the courage to recognize -- all the leaders and the nations that are gathered here -- that today we have the responsibility and the power to ensure that what we remember here today can never happen again."
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