Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Esteemed guests,
thank you very much for accepting our invitation to the commemorative concert tonight. It is an almost incredible historical stroke of luck that I, a representative of Germany, am standing in front of you tonight.

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That 81 years after perpetrating the worst crimes of humanity, Germany has long been readmitted into the family of nations. That 81 years after the defeat of a murderous regime, Germany is a free, democratic and prosperous country. That there is vibrant Jewish life in Germany. That there is a state of Israel. That there are trusting and deep German-Israeli relations. The very fact that I stand here tonight together with my dear colleague, his excellency the Ambassador of the State of Israel, Oded Joseph, fills me with deep gratitude. Let me assure you: we do not take any of this for granted.

The horrors of Auschwitz stopped 81 years ago. On the 27th of January 1945, Soviet forces reached and liberated Auschwitz. It should take another four months until the Nazi regime was defeated and the war ended in Europe; and four more until it ended in Asia.

The reality of what the Red Army found in Auschwitz on that January day in 1945 remains hard to comprehend, still today. Emaciated survivors, those who were too sick or weak to be taken by the SS on their death marches west. Piles of bodies covered in snow. Evidence of genocide, that the SS did not manage to destroy entirely on their hasty retreat.

How could this happen? One hundred years ago, German democracy was weak. Our institutions, our society did not withstand the pressure brought onto them by Hitler and his entourage. As soon as he acceded to power, Hitler dismantled democracy and the rule of law. Made the state power his personal powers. Ostracised whole groups of people and stripped them of their human rights. Censored the press. Burned books. Established an all-encompassing system of propaganda and propagandists. Pushed a genocidal ideology unto children and adults alike. Crushed dissent, imprisoned and killed those who resisted. Glorified violence.

Many Germans remained silent and looked away, and many followed Hitler enthusiastically. Too few offered active resistance – as it would have been extremely dangerous for them and their families. Thus, war and genocide turned from plan into reality.

In prisons and concentration camps, victims and survivors were Jews, Poles, Sinti and Roma, prisoners of war, individuals from many other nationalities, political dissidents, homosexuals and people with disabilities. Their lives were deemed unworthy by a regime that believed only in its own superiority. Meanwhile, the victims and survivors of the Holocaust demonstrated more humanity than their butchers. One striking example of this is the music that was written in the death camps. Music that encapsulates human strength and perseverance in the face of utter darkness. Music that survived. I am deeply grateful to Julia Broido for bringing this music to life for us tonight.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Today, we remember all those who were not liberated. We remember their lives, 6 million Jewish lives. We remember the individual and the collective tragedy that is the Holocaust. We honour the memory of all victims and survivors.

It is particularly meaningful for me marking this day in Moscow. Millions of Soviet citizens of all nationalities were victims of Nazi terror. A particularly horrendous war crime was the siege of the city of Leningrad that lasted for two and a half years and claimed more than one million lives, mostly by starvation. And Germany remembers with gratitude that it was Soviet forces, soldiers of the 60. Army of the first Ukrainian front, who liberated Auschwitz.

The guilt that we Germans incurred in the past century is perpetual. The pain, and the grief that Germany caused in so many countries and to so many peoples, will stay with us forever. We have a responsibility to bear and to never forget. There must be no distancing, relativizing nor forgetting.

Remembrance is not only about mourning the dead. It is also for upholding and reaffirming human dignity today, every day. Hatred and violence did not disappear. They resurface wherever history is distorted, wherever human dignity is denied, wherever international law is broken. Let me be clear: to invoke history to legitimise and glorify current wars is inadmissible. To call opponents „Nazis“ in order to be able to call soldiers heroes is an insult to the victims of actual Nazism, as well as to the Soviet soldiers and all their allies who heroically defeated it. „Never again“ are not just words. This is why, today, as we remember, we call and we pray for peace.