Prague, April 22 (CTK) – A Good Will March set out through the Prague centre to commemorate the Holocaust victims and 70 years since the foundation of the State of Israel on Sunday.
The event culminated with the programme We Are All People.
“The march was attended by roughly 400 people and in the garden, it was joined by another 200,” Mojmir Kallus, chairman of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), told journalists.
The march against anti-Semitism is held for the 15th time this year, organised by the Czech ICEJ branch.
This year, the march was accompanied by a dramatised story of the Jewish children who were saved by their transport to Denmark and who met again after the war.
“This is a story about the horror and suffering of the Holocaust and also about the hope that survives despite all that happened when decent people appear who decide to do something,” organiser Radek Hejret said.
The marchers set out from the Old Town Square, singing Hebrew songs and listening to shofar sounds. The march was joined by people of all generations, including tens of students from the Czech Republic, Germany and Denmark. It was headed by wheel-chaired actor Jan Potmesil who also supported it in the past years.
At the Palach Square, the marchers stopped to pay homage to Holocaust victims. They saw a dancing performance expressing “the tragedy and miraculous resurrection of the Jewish people from the Holocaust ashes.”
The people were signing a petition against anti-Semitism, initiated by senator Daniela Filipiova (Civic Democratic Party, ODS), and another petition, in support of the relocation of the Czech embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Speeches were delivered by Senate deputy chairman Jaroslav Kubera (ODS) and Ambassador of Israel Daniel Meron.
Kubera said anti-Semitism and intolerance in Europe tended to increase in Europe in the past years. This is why it is necessary to express opposition to these tendencies.
“I hope that this gathering is a real appeal and a hope for all who do not do anything at present, passively watching the growing evil. If our present starts to be indifferent to us, this will be the beginning of the end,” Kubera said.
The programme included public reading of excepts from the book Friendship Despite Hitler by Judita Matyasova. It describes the fates of Holocaust victims.
A speech was delivered by a Holocaust survivor, Alexander Fried, a native from Subcarpathian Ruthenia.
The Israeli jazz trio of Yotam Silberstein played its music.
Israel is remembering the Yom Hashoah, the anniversary of the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw ghetto in 1943.
