Israeli President Tours Nazi Death Camp

Chaim Herzog, the first president of Israel to visit West Germany, said here Monday at the site of a Nazi concentration camp that Jewish victims will never be forgotten.

In a tribute to the people who died here, Herzog said: “The grief of your death will eternally be with us, not as a perpetual hatred, not as barren, paralyzing hostility, but as a call to strength and steadfastness. In the name of the Jewish people and in the name of the State of Israel, I repeat our oath never to forget you, and to be forever faithful to your bequest--the imperative of life.”

Herzog, who was born in Belfast and was decorated as a British army officer in World War II, was present in 1945 for the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.

“I was here for the first time 42 years ago,” said Herzog. “Then I was a Jewish soldier from the Land of Israel, participating in the destruction of the Nazi regime. The memory of those shocking sights will never, ever leave me.”

Herzog dedicated a plaque carved from Jerusalem stone to the Jewish victims of the camp, thought to number at least 30,000. They included Anne Frank, the Amsterdam teen-ager whose diary of her days hiding from Nazi occupiers was inspirational to millions.

Herzog, who is on a five-day trip to West Germany, flew here by helicopter accompanied by West German President Richard von Weizsaecker, who walked with him on a tour of the camp.

Criticized by Right Wing

The Israeli president’s visit has been criticized by right-wing Israelis, who contend that it is still too soon for an Israeli leader to visit Germany. Rejecting this view, Herzog said West Germany has proved to be Israel’s best friend after the United States.

Herzog and Von Weizsaecker, who has visited Israel, both said that the past should bind the two nations together.

In a speech later at a dinner in Bonn, Herzog said that “here in Germany some of the great leaders of Zionism laid the organizational foundation of our national liberation movement,” and he added:

“We are, for better or for worse, part of each other’s histories. Jews lived in Germany for 1,600 years . . . before Nazi Germany. They contributed to the great development of German culture in modern times.”

Responding, Von Weizsaecker said: “There can be no forgetting the Holocaust. I think we do understand those of your countrymen who have conflicting feelings at the thought of their president visiting Germany as representative of the people of Israel. This afternoon, together, we visited the site of the former concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. Your visit here today was a moving expression of the sentiments of your people and the whole of mankind.”

Herzog then said: “Despite all the problems and difficulties which beset us, we shall always adhere to these ideals. Let us say, in the words of the psalmist, ‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.’ ”