Before we begin, I would like to convey regrets from our president Ronald S. Lauder.

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1 WJC CEO Robert Singer Address at 75 th anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 19 April 2018 Before we begin, I would like to convey regrets from our president Ronald S. Lauder. Just two days ago he underwent back surgery. He made a huge effort, against his doctors orders, to be with us in Warsaw for a few hours. Today, April 19th, 2018, we mark the anniversary of two momentous events in the history of the Jewish people. As we are all aware, today is the 75th anniversary of the revolt in the Warsaw Ghetto, and on the Hebrew calendar, it is the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel. The first, reminds us of the attempt by Nazi Germany to wipe out European Jewry. The second marks the miracle of our time: the restoration of the Jewish nation state, after almost two thousand years of exile. Few battles in human history have so inspired humankind as did the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. In April 1943, the last Jews of Warsaw, which had been one of the greatest centers of Jewish civilization and culture, rose up against their executioners. As the Germans were about to liquidate the ghetto, a group of heroic young Jews greeted them with gunfire and grenades. Armed with home-made Molotov cocktails and a limited supply of arms and ammunition, the Jewish fighters surprised the German forces and held them off for nearly a month. Some Poles on the so-called Aryan side were uplifted when they saw the Polish and Jewish flags flying over Muranowski Square and at least at that moment saw the Jews as comrades in arms in their struggle against the Germans. Sadly, the Jews of Warsaw, the Jews of Poland, in fact all Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe, were practicaly alone and abandoned. We are all aware of the chilling tragedy played out in Warsaw seventy-five years ago. But this is also the place in which generations of Jews lived, loved, 1

2 worked, and worshiped. Bakers, rabbis, teachers, butchers, physicians, carpenters, professors, shopkeepers, poets, lawyers, Zionists, Hassidim, Bundists, mothers and fathers, children, grandparents wives and husbands, friends, family and neighbors. This is also the ground where today, a revived Jewish community flourishes, thanks in large part to the support and friendship of Polish people and the Polish government. We also take this opportunity to recognize the tremendous efforts of our president Ronald Lauder over the past three decades to enable Polish Jews, and Jews elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe, to reclaim their Jewish heritage and identity. I am pleased to say that during this mission to Warsaw we held constructive meetings with President Duda, Prime Minister Morawiecki to discuss many important issues on our agenda. The discussions were candid and we made clear our feelings on the problematic law on Holocaust memory. We also raised our concern about the alarming uptick in antisemitism in Poland and what can be done to combat it. Later in the day, our delegation took part in the state ceremony held at the Rapoport monument to the Ghetto Fighters. The fact that so many representatives of civil society and various faith communities-- including a number of Christian denominations-- paid tribute to the fallen was especially moving. People from all over the world were gathered together to remember--and that is cause for hope. 2

3 During our stay in Warsaw, we also visited the Polin museum. That institution stands as an outstanding, living monument to the legacy of Polish Jewry. It ensures that their year presence in this country will never be forgotten. Future generations will learn of the extraordinary incubator that was Jewish Poland. Today, we also remember the fearless Poles who refused to close their eyes to the tragedy unfolding on their doorstep, men and women such as Jan Karski, Vladyslav Bartoshevski, and Irena Sendler. They, and others like them, drawn from all walks of life, demonstrated the true meaning of the Biblical injunction, "Love thy Neighbor as Thyself." We are honored to have with us this evening, Josef Walaszak, one of the righteous. And a representative of the second generation of the righteous, Ms. Elzbieta Wojcik daughter of Zbigniew Mankowski, and I would ask everyone to stand up to express to them our esteem. But as we gather here today, we cannot ignore the fact that much of Polish society which had itself been brutalized by the Germans, looked on with indifference to what was happening to their Jewish neighbors. Sadly, there were Poles who blackmailed and betrayed Jews, and even murdered them. Of course, we will never forget that it was Nazi Germany that established and operated the death camps in occupied Poland. It is also a fact that alongside the three million Polish Jews murdered by the Germans and their helpers, vast numbers of Gentile Polish civilians lost their lives in World War II. Poles fought and died in the struggle against Nazism from the very first day of the war until the last. The city of Warsaw was utterly devastated. That it was rebuilt and is today one of Europe's most vibrant capitals is a tribute to the unbreakable spirit of Poland's people. The history of the Warsaw Ghetto, the history of the Shoah, the history of the suffering endured by Poles under German domination, is complex and complicated. It must never be politicized. We must insist, therefore, that history be recorded with absolute accuracy. 3

4 That is why the so-called Holocaust law is counter-productive and endangers honest discussion and research. The only solution is objective scholarship. Such research is being conducted by dedicated Polish historians for whom we have the highest esteem. We need extensive education and sincere dialogue, not legislation. Only then will Jews and Poles better understand one another. Five years after the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, and three years after the end of the Shoah, David Ben Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. the Jewish people arose anew like a phoenix. Once again, we were surrounded by enemies bent on our destruction. only this time we the Jewish people the new Jewish state prevailed. This was the beginning of a new and glorious chapter in Jewish history that is being written as we speak. And so today, let us pay tribute to the heroic fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the heroic soldiers of the Israeli armed forces, who fell in the defense of the Jewish people. And let us never forget that our past, our present, and our future are linked. And let us proclaim, as did the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, and in fact in all the ghettos and camps 4

5 and in also the forests: Am Yisrael Chai the Jewish people is eternal. 5