Dear colleagues, friends, guests and organizers of the Third International Forum “Let My People Live!” commemorating the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp!

Five years ago we all together started here in Krakow, in the center of Yiddish civilization, Forum number 1, which was a Forum of the united will of more than 50 national delegations from all over the world, including Presidents, speakers of Parliaments, leaders of NGOs, survivors, liberators, youth leaders, and the mass media.

Like people, historical memory can disappear.

During this period of time we have lost Major Anatoly Shapiro, the legendary Red Army commander, who opened with his own hands the gates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, and who proved by his own Jewish destiny that “the seeds of salvation grow if we ourselves put them in the soil of liberation”.

We have lost General Zvi Malkin, the legendary Nazi hunter who brought Eichmann to Erez Israel for punishment.

We have lost many, many survivors and liberators, but we have no right to lose our appreciation to them. Why??

One thing that makes our mission unique.

We, the European Jewish Congress and other organizers of the Forum, people of the twenty-first century in general, have timeless and irrevocable mandate from millions of Jews and non-Jews burnt together in the Shoah-Holocaust flames and flames of death and concentration camps, to keep the humankind’s historical memory alive forever!

That is why I am happy to announce our Third International Forum “Let My People Live!” commemorating the 65th anniversary of the liberation by the Red Army of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp open.

Our Forum is blessed with: the personal patronage of the First European President Mr. Herman Van Rompuy, the personal patronage of the President of the European Parliament Mr. Jerzy Buzek, and by the honorary patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland Mr. Lech Kaczynski.

And now, as President of the World Holocaust Forum and the European Jewish Congress, I am delighted to give the floor to our dear patron Mr. Jerzy Buzek, who headed the biggest European delegation of more than 60 Members of European Parliament and whose personal involvement we cannot overestimate.

Mr. President, the floor is yours!