Peres, ‘Deeply Moved,’ Visits Bergen-Belsen Camp

Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres on Monday visited Bergen-Belsen, the old Nazi concentration camp, and as snowflakes swirled around his head, bare except for a yarmulke, he placed a wreath in memory of the 100,000 people who died there, 30,000 of them Jews.

The wreath was made of blue-and-white flowers, Israel’s national colors. As a cantor sang the prayer for the dead for the 6 million Jews who died in the Nazi Holocaust, Peres declared before a monument to the victims that “Israel and the world shall remember.”

Grandfather a Victim

“I am shaken and deeply moved,” he said.

The night before, Peres, who left his native Poland with his parents in 1934 to settle in what was then the British mandate of Palestine, had recalled that his grandfather and several other members of his family were victims of the Nazis.

In an interview with the newspaper Bild Zeitung, Peres said that Jews could never let the Holocaust be forgotten, but he added that the new Germany gives cause for hope.

As Peres and his party visited the concentration camp Monday, the sound of artillery fire could be heard in the distance, echoes of exercises being carried out by forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

First Since Rabin

Peres is the first Israeli head of government to visit West Germany since Yitzhak Rabin in 1975. He is winding up a European tour that already has taken him to the Netherlands and Britain.

In London, he took part in diplomatic talks aimed at breaking a deadlock in the Mideast peace negotiations sponsored by the United States. He is expected to brief West German leaders, including Chancellor Helmut Kohl and President Richard von Weizsaecker, on his views of the efforts to bring the Israelis, the Jordanians and possibly some Palestinians to the negotiating table.

A spokesman for the West German government, Friedhelm Ost, said the talks here will also touch on trade and Israel’s ties to the European Communities.

Research to Be Discussed

Yitzhak Ben-Ari, Israel’s ambassador to West Germany, said Peres will also discuss proposals for a joint research foundation. He said Bonn and Jerusalem are expected to pledge between $25 million and $41 million for the project.

Peres will return to Israel on Wednesday. On Thursday, Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak will arrive in Bonn.