BRUSSELS - "Even today someone doesn't want to look and even now someone says it's not true". Life senator Liliana Segre said this when speaking at the European Parliament in Brussels, speaking of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. Segre recalled in Primo Levi's words "the amazement for the evil of others", that "no one who was a prisoner" in the camp "could never forget".
Anti-Semitism and racism have "always been, there are historical courses and appeals": before "there was no political moment to be able to pull them out. But then the moments come, when we turn to the other side, where it is easier to pretend nothing "and" all those who take advantage of this situation find the right ground to come forward ".
We still hear the word race and that is why we have to fight this structural racism, which is still there, "said the senator." People ask me why we are talking about anti-Semitism, racism, but why there has always been and because they are inherent in the minds of the poor in spirit, "added Segre.
"The vandalisms carried out in Jewish cemeteries, the assaults on synagogues and places of worship, the threats to which European Jewish families are subjected or the forms of intolerance that affect minorities in the Member States are not amused" , said the president of the European Parliament speaking during the plenary. "In our Treaties all this is very clearly written and we ask the European Commission and the Council to do their utmost to ensure that this is enforced. We have a responsibility for these dangers. It happened once. It can still happen," added Sassoli .
"This is a very simple message from grandmother that I would like to leave to my future ideal grandchildren: that they are able to make the" non-indifference "choice and with their responsibility and their conscience always be that yellow butterfly that flies over the barbed wires " concluded the senator. During his speech, Segre recalled the death march and then a little girl from the Terezin camp, who - before being killed by the Nazis - drew a yellow butterfly flying over the barbed wires. "Even today I struggle to remember," said the senator, tried for many years to witness the Holocaust, "but it seemed a great duty to accept this invitation to remember the evil of others, but also to remember that you can, one leg in front of the other, being like that little girl of Terezin ".
"Every time we read news of violence, sacrileges, insults in the newspaper, we must consider them addressed to each of us. They are attacks on Europe and the values it represents and which embody the two diseases of the modern nation that spread across the Continent: from on the one hand, the sacralization of borders and, on the other, the search for a pure and univocal identity - religious, ethnic and cultural - which inevitably leads to building enemies, "said Sassoli. "We want Europe to continue to form with our diversity, with a plurality of voices", for this reason "we turn to governments to use vigilance and severity towards all forms of intolerance", warned the President of the European Parliament.
"The extermination of 6 million Jews is absolute evil, the worst barbarism that humanity has been able to do to other men and as a German I feel a deep sense of guilt" said the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. As a German I also feel a particular sense of responsibility because as a German in Europe I know that it was our neighbors who held out our hand and welcomed us among the democratic peoples - he said - we fight against all forms of anti-Semitism, we never forget ".
"I also feel a particular sense of responsibility because as a German in Europe I know that it was our neighbors who held out our hand and welcomed us among the democratic peoples - he said - we fight against all forms of anti-Semitism, we never forget".
A long applause from the European Parliament greeted the speech of life senator Liliana Segre in Brussels today. The Eurocamera then observed a minute's silence at the request of President David Sassoli. The European Parliament was very excited during Segre's speech according to the images released by the video circuit.
"For us Italians it is a great emotion and also a source of pride because certainly the experience of Liliana Segre is an experience that can give lessons and can be of extraordinary importance not only for us Italians but for all of Europe". Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said on the sidelines of an event in the European Parliament.
"The fact that today it is Liliana Segre who speaks" at the European Parliament and "now guest of President Sassoli here is a great reason for pride and satisfaction - added Gentiloni -, is a way of saying that Italy is one of those countries where memory is cultivated and where despite some extremist and incredible gesture, citizens, institutions and great prestige figures hold our country's honor high on the themes of memory ".