IHRD The Hague Library

MUSICAL INTRODUCTION The Hague String Trio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqqZ9eQ-nVY Welcome The Honorable Mr. Jan van Zanen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfWoF6bc6LU Opening remarks H.E. Modi Ephraim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWxoAfh3Igo Testimony of a Holocaust Survivor Mr. Mattie (Majer) Tugendhaft https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJavBhorpQI KEYNOTE ADDRESS: ‘Painful Beginnings: The Reconstruction of Jewish Communities in Central and Eastern Europe after the Holocaust’ Professor András Kovács D.Sc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKq_E2lQvA0 COMMEMORATIVE MOMENT A commemorative moment to six survivors who made significant contributions to preserving the memory of Auschwitz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbUE3lIT-oY REFLECTIONS Professor Irwin Cotler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bhPAGhw-lM Closing remarks Rabbi Shmuel Katzman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfKt7MTM5GU

MUSICAL INTRODUCTION The Hague String Trio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqqZ9eQ-nVY Welcome The Honorable Mr. Jan van Zanen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfWoF6bc6LU Opening remarks H.E. Modi Ephraim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWxoAfh3Igo Testimony of a Holocaust Survivor Mr. Mattie (Majer) Tugendhaft https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJavBhorpQI KEYNOTE ADDRESS: ‘Painful Beginnings: The Reconstruction of Jewish Communities in Central and Eastern Europe after the Holocaust’ Professor András Kovács D.Sc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKq_E2lQvA0 COMMEMORATIVE MOMENT A commemorative moment to six survivors who made significant contributions to preserving the memory of Auschwitz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbUE3lIT-oY REFLECTIONS Professor Irwin Cotler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bhPAGhw-lM Closing remarks Rabbi Shmuel Katzman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfKt7MTM5GU

The keynote address explores the enduring trauma faced by Holocaust survivors, reflecting on the paradox of remembering and transmitting the irreproducible and incommunicable experience of the concentration camps to future generations. Survivors of concentration camps in Central Europe faced unique and compounding challenges. Upon returning home, they often discovered that their entire families had been annihilated. They encountered devastated communities, looted properties, and pervasive hostility. Despite the abolition of anti-Jewish laws and initial promises of restitution, the political and social systems in post-war Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia failed to deliver meaningful justice. In Czechoslovakia, government decrees labeled a significant portion of surviving Jews as ‘nationally unreliable,’ classifying them as ‘German’ on linguistic grounds and denying them property and citizenship rights. In Poland, societal resistance to returning confiscated Jewish property culminated in anti-Jewish violence. Similarly, in Hungary, restitution laws were inconsistently enforced, and fear of societal backlash discouraged many survivors from reclaiming their property. The lecture underscores how antisemitism, both latent and explicit, shaped post-war policies and social attitudes. Ultimately, the lecture illustrates the enduring legacy of Holocaust trauma, as survivors carried the physical and emotional scars for the rest of their lives. It concludes with the haunting observation of Primo Levi: ‘I am back in the camp again, and nothing outside the camp holds any truth.’

A Commemorative Moment to six survivors who made significant contributions to preserving the memory of Auschwitz