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| Live Updates: At Memorial in Israel, World Leaders Join Fight Against Anti-Semitism | Live Updates: At Memorial in Israel, World Leaders Join Fight Against Anti-Semitism |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Vice President Mike Pence and the Prince of Wales joined dozens of Western leaders in Jerusalem on Thursday morning for an extraordinary demonstration of resolve to fight anti-Semitism, set to take place at Yad Vashem, the hillside memorial to the Holocaust. | President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Vice President Mike Pence and the Prince of Wales joined dozens of Western leaders in Jerusalem on Thursday morning for an extraordinary demonstration of resolve to fight anti-Semitism, set to take place at Yad Vashem, the hillside memorial to the Holocaust. |
| The afternoon ceremony will recall the Jan. 27, 1945, liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in occupied Poland where 1.1 million people perished, by Red Army troops. But it will also draw connections to the resurgence of anti-Semitism across much of Europe and North America. | The afternoon ceremony will recall the Jan. 27, 1945, liberation of Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in occupied Poland where 1.1 million people perished, by Red Army troops. But it will also draw connections to the resurgence of anti-Semitism across much of Europe and North America. |
| Mr. Putin, Mr. Pence and Prince Charles are all scheduled to give addresses, along with President Emmanuel Macron of France. The German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has apologized for the Holocaust and for Germany’s role in starting World War II, will also speak. | Mr. Putin, Mr. Pence and Prince Charles are all scheduled to give addresses, along with President Emmanuel Macron of France. The German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has apologized for the Holocaust and for Germany’s role in starting World War II, will also speak. |
| Mr. Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, arrived in Israel on Air Force Two on Thursday morning. It was not his first official visit to commemorate the camp’s liberation: Last winter, he visited the concentration camp, alongside President Andrzej Duda of Poland. | |
| “We just felt waves of emotion,” Mr. Pence said about his time there. | |
| Later on Thursday, Mr. Pence is scheduled to visit the Western Wall and will also meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the new, and hotly contested, location of the United States Embassy in Jerusalem. | |
| It is the biggest political gathering in Israel’s history, and the Holy City was teeming with police officers, with some schools canceling classes and the main highway from the airport closed as motorcades streamed through with arriving heads of state. | It is the biggest political gathering in Israel’s history, and the Holy City was teeming with police officers, with some schools canceling classes and the main highway from the airport closed as motorcades streamed through with arriving heads of state. |
| The event has not been without moments of friction: Mr. Macron’s visit on Tuesday afternoon to a church in the Old City that France considers its sovereign territory was briefly marred by a dispute between Mr. Macron and accompanying Israeli security officers. | The event has not been without moments of friction: Mr. Macron’s visit on Tuesday afternoon to a church in the Old City that France considers its sovereign territory was briefly marred by a dispute between Mr. Macron and accompanying Israeli security officers. |
| For Mr. Netanyahu, the presence of so many global chieftains — and the opportunity to meet with them in bilateral talks — was an important boon at an opportune time. Mr. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, is battling for his political life, awaiting trial on serious corruption charges even as he campaigns for re-election in the third ballot in a year, set to take place on March 2. The previous two elections were inconclusive. | |
| His centrist opponent, Benny Gantz, a former army chief, was holding his own meetings, including a morning session with the United States’ House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and a bipartisan congressional delegation. | His centrist opponent, Benny Gantz, a former army chief, was holding his own meetings, including a morning session with the United States’ House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and a bipartisan congressional delegation. |
| After months of hope and suspense in Israel, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia hinted soon after his arrival that the painful saga of a young Israeli woman imprisoned in Russia might be coming to an end, telling her mother, “Everything will be fine.” | |
| The Israeli-American citizen, Naama Issachar, 26, was sentenced last year to a long prison term in Russia after the authorities found a few grams of marijuana in her luggage as she waited at the Moscow airport to board a connecting flight home. | The Israeli-American citizen, Naama Issachar, 26, was sentenced last year to a long prison term in Russia after the authorities found a few grams of marijuana in her luggage as she waited at the Moscow airport to board a connecting flight home. |
| Ms. Issachar’s mother, Yaffa Issachar, joined Mr. Putin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for part of a breakfast meeting in Jerusalem. The older woman had spent months in Russia dealing with lawyers and the authorities and leading an emotional public campaign for her daughter’s release, winning the hearts of many Israelis. | Ms. Issachar’s mother, Yaffa Issachar, joined Mr. Putin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for part of a breakfast meeting in Jerusalem. The older woman had spent months in Russia dealing with lawyers and the authorities and leading an emotional public campaign for her daughter’s release, winning the hearts of many Israelis. |
| She and the two leaders, along with Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister’s wife, emerged from the meeting on Thursday smiling. | She and the two leaders, along with Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister’s wife, emerged from the meeting on Thursday smiling. |
| “I have just met with Naama’s mother,” Mr. Putin said, speaking in Russian. “It’s clear to me that Naama comes from a very good and decent family.” | |
| “The mother is very worried and I see this,” he added. “I told her, and I would like to repeat it, that everything will be fine. | |
| Apparently referring to Mr. Netanyahu’s push for a pardon for Ms. Issachar, Mr. Putin said he was aware of the Israeli leader’s position, adding, “All this will be taken into account in the taking of a final decision.” He said that Ms. Issachar would meet later Thursday with the person responsible for maintaining human rights in Russia. | |
| Mr. Netanyahu described their working meeting as “excellent” and the part including Yaffa Issachar as “very moving.” He referred to Mr. Putin as “my friend, the president.” Officials have been tight-lipped about the terms of any deal for Ms. Issachar’s freedom, but Russia and Israel share a host of interests in the region. | |
| President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine arrived in Israel before dawn on Thursday and quickly stirred up dust, announcing that he would not attend the Yad Vashem commemoration after all. | |
| He asked that his delegation’s handful of seats be given instead to Holocaust survivors, following the lead of several Israeli government ministers who had done so after learning that only a few dozen survivors would be among the nearly 800 guests at the ceremony. | |
| “These people deserve these honors most of all,” Mr. Zelensky, Ukraine’s first Jewish president, said on Twitter. He headed instead to the Western Wall for a private visit. | |
| But officials at Yad Vashem said that it was far too late to arrange to bring frail survivors to the ceremony, and called Mr. Zelensky’s decision regrettable. | |
| “It is a shame he decided to take such a step at an event under the banner of the memory of the Holocaust and fighting anti-Semitism,” the officials said in a statement. | |
| The pomp and circumstance surrounding the Jerusalem gathering at a time when 45,000 survivors of the Holocaust live below the poverty line in Israel has drawn growing anger. Some protesters picketed outside Yad Vashem with signs calling it unseemly that such a somber event had been turned into a “celebration.” | |
| On Friday, Mr. Zelensky was to meet Israel’s president, prime minister and Parliament speaker. | |
| When Piotr Cywinsk took over as the director of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland more than a decade ago, every day he would meet a survivor. Their stories were invariably wrenching, often surprising and always stirring. | |
| But as the years have passed, he said, those encounters have grown scarce. | But as the years have passed, he said, those encounters have grown scarce. |
| “We barely meet with survivors now in our daily educational work,” he said. | “We barely meet with survivors now in our daily educational work,” he said. |
| So the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp seemed like a chance — perhaps the last one — to bring together as many as they could to mark the occasion. | |
| On Monday, when the liberation will be marked by a solemn ceremony, some 200 survivors will make their way back to the camp. | On Monday, when the liberation will be marked by a solemn ceremony, some 200 survivors will make their way back to the camp. |
| While the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, will speak — given that the German death camp was in occupied Poland — Mr. Cywinsk said, they had sought to keep the event as free from politics as possible. | While the Polish president, Andrzej Duda, will speak — given that the German death camp was in occupied Poland — Mr. Cywinsk said, they had sought to keep the event as free from politics as possible. |
| Mr. Duda had been invited to the Jerusalem gathering but declined to attend over what he saw as a snub: He was not given a slot to speak, though the Russian president was. | |
| “This place is too sacred to allow it to be used in an opportunistic way,” Mr. Cywinsk said. “And politics, by its nature, is opportunistic.” | |
| Instead, the focus will be on survivors and their stories. The philanthropist Ronald S. Lauder, who will also speak at the event, said that was as it should be. | Instead, the focus will be on survivors and their stories. The philanthropist Ronald S. Lauder, who will also speak at the event, said that was as it should be. |
| “Almost half the survivors have died in the last five years,” Mr. Lauder noted in an interview. | “Almost half the survivors have died in the last five years,” Mr. Lauder noted in an interview. |
| In view of the rise in anti-Semitism across Europe, he said, their voices needed to be heard both as a reminder and a warning. Mr. Lauder has been involved in conservation efforts at Auschwitz for more than three decades, and Mr. Cywinsk said those conservation efforts were essential in battling those who would distort or deny what had taken place here. | In view of the rise in anti-Semitism across Europe, he said, their voices needed to be heard both as a reminder and a warning. Mr. Lauder has been involved in conservation efforts at Auschwitz for more than three decades, and Mr. Cywinsk said those conservation efforts were essential in battling those who would distort or deny what had taken place here. |
| But the burden of telling that story, he said, should no longer fall on the shoulders of the survivors. | But the burden of telling that story, he said, should no longer fall on the shoulders of the survivors. |
| “They have done their job,” he said. “It is our responsibility now.” | “They have done their job,” he said. “It is our responsibility now.” |
| Katie Rogers contributed reporting. |