The Fifth World Holocaust Forum to commemorate the 75th liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. The event, headlined “Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism,” is co-organized by the office of President Reuven Rivlin, Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial center and the World Holocaust Forum Foundation, which was founded by Moscow-born philanthropist and Jewish activist Moshe Kantor.
US Vice President Mike Pence, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Britain’s Prince Charles and French President Emmanuel Macron are the most prominent names on the long list of attendees, which also includes four kings and many leaders from such countries as Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Ukraine and Argentina, as well as the presidents of the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament.
“I welcome the leaders from around the world who are coming here, to Jerusalem, to mark — together with us — 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday afternoon, as the first VIPs arrived at Ben Gurion Airport.
Delegations from 49 countries, including 41 heads of state, are expected to attend the Forum this week, which will be secured by some 10,000 police. Israeli diplomats said that not even the funerals of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres drew groups of foreign dignitaries like the ones attending this week’s Holocaust commemoration.