A memorial showcase and plaque to the victims of the Holocaust

On April 1998, on the first anniversary of the unveiling of the Memorial Mural to the Victims of the Holocaust inside the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio paid tribute to the millions of people murdered by the Nazis. It was inaugurated by Cardinal Antonio Quarracino on 14 April 1997, following an idea of Baruch Tenembaum, founder of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.

In a letter addressed to Tenembaum, dated 26 December 1997, only two months before his passing, Cardinal Quarracino wrote the following:

“It will soon be the first anniversary of the unveiling of this worthy monument within the Cathedral, before which I have invited all Jews to cover their heads if they wish to do so. The permanent site of emplacement of this Mural is to be close to the final resting place which I am hoping for inside the Cathedral, so that I may continue preaching for brotherhood as I have done all my life.”

“I have no doubt that once the time comes to succeed me, Archbishop Monsignor Jorge Bergoglio will continue the same road of reconciliation and fraternity with our elder brothers.”

The Mural, an impressive work of fine silversmith, is an unprecedented artistic monument in the history of the Jewish-Christian relations. Its dimensions are 1,80 mts. long by 1,20 mts. wide. It is composed of two glass panels between which are placed sheets of books of prayers rescued from the ruins of the Treblinka and Auschwitz concentration camps as well as the Warsaw ghetto. The work also pays tribute to those killed in the attacks on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires (1992) and the AMIA Jewish Community Center building (1994). The Mural was unveiled by Nobel Peace Prize, Lech Walesa.

The visitor will probably be amazed when appreciating the Hebrew alphabet letters in Argentina’s main Catholic temple. Among the texts, those which illustrate a Hagadah of Pesach (ritual prayer book of the Jewish Easter), rescued from a concentration camp in the Toulouse area (France) in 1942, donated by Mrs. Myriam Kesler, daughter of one of the victims, can be appreciated. Those are the same characters which illustrate the only stamp with Hebrew letters ever issued in Argentina, launched in 1998 by the Correo Argentino postal service.

The tree of life, a Menorah (candelabrum), the Tables of the Law and the Star of David can be seen engraved in the four corners of the silver-wrought frame.

Following his wish, after the passing of Cardinal Quarracino the Mural was moved to the Virgen de Luján Chapel, where Quarracino is buried.

In 2004 a replica was inaugurated at the Vaterunser Kirche, Berlin.

On 1 November she visited the Shoah Memorial Mural installed inside the Evangelische Vaterunser Kirche in Berlin. Her hostess was Pastor Annemarie Werner, head of the congregation.

Mrs. Klarsfeld is the daughter of a Christian, German-born, regular Wehrmacht soldier. She lived in Germany during the Second World War. At the age of 21 she traveled to Paris to study and work. In 1963 she met Serge Klarsfeld whom through she joined the French intellectual milieu and became interested in the fate of the Jews during the Holocaust.

Serge Klarsfeld was born in Bucharest, Romania. He is a writer, historian and lawyer. His family moved to France at the beginning of the Second World War. In 1943, his father was arrested by the SS in a massive raid in the city of Nice, being deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, where he was murdered. Serge, with his mother and sister survived the war. He obtained a degree in advanced studies in history at the Sorbonne and in political science at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris.

The Mural, that was unveiled in 2004 in a moving interconfessional ceremony, is a replica of the one inaugurated in 1997 inside the Buenos Aires’ Cathedral.

Recently, a replica of the Mural was inaugurated in the Vaterunser Protestant Church in Berlin in the course of a very moving ceremony.

Bishop Wolfang Huber, president of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD), the largest church in Germany; the German Secretary of State, Otto Schily; the president of the Berlin Jewish Community, Stephen Kramer; the Deputy Mayor of Berlin, Karin Schubert; the Catholic Bishop Wolfgang Weider; the Argentine Ambassador to Germany, Enrique Candiotti and the President of the Wallenberg Foundation, Baruj Tenembaum attended the ceremony.

The Mural contains pieces of religious books rescued from the extermination camps of Auschwitz and Treblinka and other relics like a partiture of the Kadish which belonged to the Synagogue of the Ghetto of Warsaw.

It also contains fragments of the Book of Samuel, rescued from the debris of the Embassy Of Israel and pieces of the Talmud found among the ruins of the AMIA.

Translation: María Lía Macchi

In a ceremony of deep inter-religious content on September 26th 2004, a commemorative monument to the victims of the Holocaust was inaugurated in the Vaterunser church in Berlin.

High-ranking political figures as well as representatives of diverse religions were present at the ceremony, initiated by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF) with the cooperation of the Evangelic Church of Germany.

In a church filled with hundreds amidst strong security measures, the ceremony opened with organ played Bach music. Following there were speeches by Bishop Wolfgang Huber, Head of the German church EKD, Baruch Tenembaum, the founder of the IRWF, the German minister of internal affairs, Otto Schily; Ilan Mor, Minister of the Embassy of Israel in Berlin, Stephan Kramer representing the Jewish Community of Germany, Mrs. Karin Schubert, the Mayor of Berlin and the Catholic Bishop Wolfgang Weider.

The mural was unveiled by Tenembaum and Huber, who emphasized the importance and the privilege it is for Germany to be the second country in history to host within a Christian church a Holocaust memorial.

Cantor Isaak Scheffer moved the audience with his interpretation of the ”El Maale Rachamim” prayer.

The Argentine Ambassador Enrique Candioti mentioned that the Mural serves also as a memorial to the victims of the terrorist attacks on the Jewish Community Center AMIA (1994) and on the Israeli Embassy (1992).

David Gill, Martin Vogel and Joachim Gärtner, authorities of the EKD in Berlin also attended the ceremony.

Closing the ceremony, the Berlin Choir directed by Heinrich Schutz interpreted ”By the Rivers of Babylon”.

The first version of the Mural was unveiled by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Lech Walesa in April 1997 inside the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires.

Hours after the ceremony, Tenembaum presented a miniature replica of the Mural to the President of Germany in the central offices of the German Government in Berlin.

Among the letters of support received for this unprecedented event in the Jewish -Christian relations it is worth mentioning : Nina Lagergren (Raoul Wallenberg’s sister); Congressman Tom Lantos, Spanish President José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero; President of Chile Mr. Ricardo Lagos; Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark; the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone; Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Comission of relations with the Jews of the Vatican; and the Mayor of Nicosia, Prime Ministers of St. Vincent and of Samoa, among many others.

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My Dear Sisters and Brothers,

I apologize for not being able to address my feelings in German, the language of Heinrich Heine, Moshe Mendelsohn, Franz Kafka, Goethe and so many others renowned artists and intellectuals. Since I was told that delivering my little speech in English will make it I follow therefore the instruction of my Jewish roots that says: ”Whatever your host asks, just obey”

I came to Berlin 3 years ago. In the course of a visit I paid to the then President Rau we exchanged views on the best way of strengthening bonds among people of good will. Since he was well aware of the efforts of the Wallenberg Foundation to promote the values of understanding, solidarity, dialogue and civic courage, keeping alive the memory of the tragedies of the past and simultaneously stimulating humanitarian values for the future, I underlined to Mister Rau the importance of the colossal ingredient that solidifies the future: I am referring to the concept of Hope.

My dear sister and brothers: we are now CELEBRATING this very moment.

It may sound strange but, as I said, it was three years ago when we started to walk this long and difficult road. Three years of hard perseverance, starting at the very moment I told President Rau that we must find a Church, precisely in Germany, precisely in Berlin, where to place the seed of Memory and Hope, where to place this Mural created in Buenos Aires and unveiled in 1997 at the Metropolitan Cathedral, the main Catholic Church of Argentina, thanks to the courage and wisdom of the then Primate Cardinal, Antonio Quarracino.

Cardinal Quarracino asked in a posthumous letter to be buried beside the Mural just a few weeks before his death, as you may read in one of those panels fixed to the wall as well as in the brochure you were given a few moments ago. And there Cardinal Quarracino rests in peace.

Within the same letter Cardinal Quarracino also expressed his wish that all the Jewish people that visit the Mural inside the Cathedral may cover their heads. That was another clear signal of accepting the right of everybody to be different Not just tolerate the other but accept him/her.

We celebrate these signals of brotherhood!

We do celebrate together something that is greeted by some as a miracle, saluted by Heads of State, Nobel Prize Laureates and intellectuals from around the globe.

Therefore, this Mural is in itself a symbol of celebration.

So, in that same year of 2001, as I was telling you, I went to see Dr Joachim Gartner at the main offices of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland in Berlin just after my meeting with President Rau was over. Dr Gartner welcomed the idea warmly and from that very moment, March 2001, we began to work hard with the only purpose of crystallizing the idea, something that all of you today are fortunately witnessing.

Allow me to salute today a few people, some of them present, some not.

I welcome the Minister of Interior, Mr Otto Schily, Bishop Wolfgang Huber, Dr David Gill, Dr Joachim Gartner, the Argentine Ambassador to Berlin, Enrique Candioti, the Deputy Ambassador of Israel, Ilan Mor, the Secretary General of the Central Jewish Community, Mr Stephan Kramer, Mayor Karin Schubert, Dr. Karl-Heinrich Lutcke, Cantor Isaac Scheffer, Ambassador Herzl Inbar and Dr Natalio Wengrower, Vicepresident of the Wallenberg Foundation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Wallenberg Foundation has among its members 62 Heads of State, including the King of an Islamic country and the Chancellor of Germany. In spite of this fact, let me tell you, we do not ask and did not receive any government participation.

The daily work of the Foundation is carried out by volunteers, believers and agnostics, educational organizations and other social factors. Its President is Father Horacio Moreno, a Catholic Priest. We accept everybody as long as he/she accepts everybody who accepts everybody. We love love and we do not hate even hate.

You may know that Wallenberg’s sister, Mrs. Nina Lagergren, is at this very moment in Budapest inaugurating a school that will bear the name of the ”Hero without a Grave” as Dr. Yoav Tenembaum defined Wallenberg.

That is why Nina can not be here today and I can not be there. But she sent us a nice letter of endorsement. Nina is the mother of Nane Annan, wife of Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations … but, strange as it may sound, you will not find our Foundation involved in mundane politics.

So, as I stated a while ago, the first Mural was placed inside a Catholic temple while the second is unveiled in a Protestant one. Buenos Aires and Berlin, sister cities, are in this way united by a strong bond for the years to come.

Pastor Werner is persuaded that we met each other just a couple of days ago which is a certain fact of the calendar, but nevertheless I am convinced that our souls know each other for generations, we two both bear the responsibility of continuing a dialogue which started between David and Jonathan.

We, the Jewish people, assumed that we participated in all the steps of the past and, therefore, we are responsible for each other in the future.

We, the Jewish People of the present times were slaves in Egypt, all of us strolled in the desert, received the Commandments, built the Temples, went to exile to Babylon, arrived to Europe and went again to the exile after the expulsion, came back and were the victims of the Shoah.

The Book of Genesis tells us that the Creator asked Cain: ”Where is Abel, your brother?”, and Cain answered: ”Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Yes!, my sisters and brothers, we celebrate this moment because we are the builders of a new world in which we are all of us keepers of all our sisters and brothers!!

Let us not permit that children be used as shields in the battlefields, let us not permit that schools be used as tools of blackmailing! Let us not allow that Hope be destroyed!

Children are the future!

I was given 10 minutes to deliver my speech and I am going to obey. But, please, my sisters and brothers, think for a moment: The killers, beside being criminals, are naïve! Yes, naïve! Because they can kill and destroy a body but they can never destroy the spirit. You can not kill ideas!

Listen criminals! You are naïve! The spirit will survive but you will vanish… you will dissappear from the face of the earth!

Listen criminals! Do not be naïve! Do not waste your time, do not waste your life, do not waste your hope, do not be naïve!

Instead, join us, put your energies at the service of a meaningful life! And be the keepers of our sisters and brothers!

Be part of those who feel that they were once slaves and now are liberated.

There are things in life that are more important than life itself, PEACE, LOVE AND RECONCILIATION.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.

The dialogue between God and Abraham in Genesis 18 is one of the most famous Biblical traditions. The sins of men in Sodom and Gomorrah went too far. The screams of the victims rouse God to judge the guilty acts. Abraham learns God’s plans. Worried, Abraham begs for the city of Sodom.

Abraham said: ”Will You destroy the innocent as well the guilty? Maybe there are fifty innocent people in the city; will You destroy everything and not forgive the place in spite of the fifty ones in it? Far from you to do that: make the innocent die with the guilty and the innocent treat as the guilty. Far from You! The Judge of all Earth have not to do the right?”

So Jehovah answered: ”If I find fifty innocent people in Sodom I will forgive all the place considering them.”

Abraham is negotiating with the Lord of the World and asks God what would happen if there were only 45, 40, 30 or 20, or at least, no more than 10 innocent people in Sodom. God promised Abraham not to destroy the city if there, there were only 10 innocent people.

”Please, do not get angry, My Lord, if I speak only once again: Maybe there were there ten…”

And God answered: ”I will not destroy it considering the ten ones.” [Gen. 18,16-33]

In Sodom there were not even ten innocent people. The angels of the Lord looked for Lot and his family to get them out of the city before God made rain sulphide and fire from sky. Only four people saved: Lot, his wife and the two daughters.

The Bible shows us in a very impressive way Abraham claiming justice from God. The Judge of the Earth, have not to do the right? We know God let no innocent die. The angels saved Lot’s family.

In 1997 a Commemorative Mural was inaugurated in the Buenos Aires Cathedral by Cardinal Antonio Quarracino. This Mural is the first memorial dedicated to the victims of the Shoah placed inside a Christian Church. What Cardinal Quarracino and Mr. Baruch Tenembaum from the Wallenberg Foundation did, deserve our admiration and worldwide repercussion.

It’s hard to describe the symbolic force of this Mural with words. Between two glasses there are sheets of prayer books which were recovered from the ruins of the Treblinka and Auschwitz concentration camps and Warsaw ghetto as well.

There was no angel to protect and save people from the calamity and the harm of the Nazi dead camps. There was no Grace. There was no guardian angel to warn men in Buenos Aires on July 18th, 1994. At 9:53 a bomb exploded before the Jewish Cultural and Community Center and killed 85 innocent men and women. More than 300 people were hurt seriously.

The Mural contains the covers of two books: one of iddish stories, founded in the AMIA ruins. The other belongs to a book saved by the rescue team that was looking for survivors of the attack perpretated against the Israeli Embassy, in Buenos Aires, in 1992. Another piece, a Hagadá, comes from a concentration camp near Toulouse, the zone which was under the Vichy government’s administration.

Martin Niemöller, the founder of the Confessional Church in Germany during Nazism didn’t claim justice from God as Abraham had done. But he said with sorrow before God:

”When the Nazis detained the communists, I remained silent, as I was not a communist.

When the democrat socialists were arrested, I remained silent, as I was not a socialist.

When the union leaders were detained, I remained silent, as I was not a union leader.

When the Jews were detained, I remained silent, as I was not a Jew.

When I was detained, there was nobody left to help me.”

In the morning of March 8th, 2001, the idea of placing a replica of the Mural in a Berlin Church was taking shape. The founder of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, Baruch Tenembaum, visited the Plenipotentiary’s office of the EKD Counsel in Berlin. The day before, Mr. Tenembaum had paid a memorable visit to the then President of Germany, Johannes Rau. The Foundation’s activities were discussed intensively as the organization was a non governmental one and it devotes to the investigation and memory of the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from the nazi in the Second World War.

At the Plenipotentiary’s office of the EKD Counsel, when Mr. Tenembaum informed us about his meeting with the Federal President and the many activities of the Foundation, the idea of placing a replica of the Buenos Aires Mural in a Berlin Church came out, building a bridge between the two cities and underlining the common cause in the fight against the intolerance and in favour of the reconciliation and the understanding among the great Monotheistic Religions. Besides, the project was going to be included in the Berlin and Buenos Aires Cooperation Program which is celebrating its tenth anniversary today.

And today, finally, we inaugurate the replica of the Mural in the Vaterunser Church. I’m very moved because it is here in Berlin that such an initiative takes place. It is a sign of the memory of the criminal unjustice and, also, of our union with the Jewish people, in the same city where the Holocaust was conceived and made true.

I had the chance of meditating on the deep dimension of today’s act when I was talking to the Cardinal Walter Kasper who told me about his recent visit to Buenos Aires and the special distinction he received from the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. He asked me to give his regards to those present here today and, specially to you, dear Mr. Tenembaum.

Besides we inaugurate the Mural in a church of the neighbourhood of the Swedish Community and the Birger Forell School. So, in this way, the memory of the Swedish Diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is united to the memory of the Pastor Birger Forell, who was the Pastor of the Swedish Community for many years. During the Nazi Regime Pastor Forell saved Jews who were persecuted and, for many years after the War, he took care of the refugees tirelessly.

Two Great Swedes whose acts we will never forget!

The Raoul Wallenberg’s example shows us in a positive way the possibilities of any individual who decides to do the good. Wallenberg saved tens of thousands people. Also, many Berlirners, more than anyone would think, attempted to help people. They wanted to save and protect their neighbour too.

In the Father’s proverbs it’s asked in what the world is based on. The Talmud’s answer says: ”The world is based on three pillars: on the Torá, on the prayer and on the dedication to the neighbour.”

We Christians have four criteria which arise from the New Testament. They are described by four greek words: Liturgia, Martyria, Diakonia and Koinonia; the praise of God, the testimony in the world, the service to the neighbour and the living community.

Before this Mural we remember that the Christians had denied our ideals. Placing this Mural in an Evangelical Church, we confess our guilty before those who Dietrich Bonhöffer named ”the weaker and helpless brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ”. Remember Peter who in the night of the betrayal, renounced three times of his Lord and Master. But remember also that this Lord and Master didn’t go away from the one who had become separated from Him.

Because of this we accept this Mural with humility and gratefully as a sign of a new beginning.

Placing it inside an Evangelical Church we want to prove that we’re aware of the responsibility entrusted by us.

God gives us the strength of making justice.

Translation: Marcela Marino

Only four years after his death, Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, former Archbishop of Buenos Aires and Primate of Argentina, will receive a well deserved tribute that underlines his indefatigable work promoting the interreligious dialogue.

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, together with the Evangelical Church of Germany, will unveil a replica of the commemorative mural that pays tribute to the victims of the holocaust. The memorial will be placed inside the Vaterunser Church, in the renewed city of Berlin.

This mural is a permanent symbol of the Christian- Jewish reconciliation, that Cardinal Quarracino promoted so intensely during his tenure as head of the Catholic Church. We must remember that the original version of the mural was located inside our Metropolitan Cathedral in April, 1997, following an idea of Baruj Tenembaum, the founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. The work has a moving remainder, as it includes pages of several prayer books which were rescued from the ruins of the Nazi extermination camps. Short before his death Monsignor Quarracino asked to be buried near this mural believing that, in this way, he could continue proclaiming the values of the interreligious fraternity.

In times when the fundamentalist intransigency seems to take hold of some hearts with its shuddering death message, it is fair to extol the memory of an Argentinian who tirelessly toiled in favor of the dialogue, as he had understood that it is the only way to make peace among nations a long lasting reality.

Translation: Nora Bellettieri

Accompanied by Baruch Tenembaum, President of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, Monsignor Bernardini expressed his satisfaction when he contemplated the piece of art inaugurated in 1997 by former Primate of Argentina, Cardinal Antonio Quarracino (1923-1998).

The only remembrance to the victims of the Shoah installed within a Christian temple is located inside the Virgin of Lujan Chapel, near Cardinal Quarracino´s grave, as requested by the late Primate in a posthumous letter.

Secretary of Cult of the Nation, Ambassador Guillermo Olivieri, as well as Monsignor Nicola Girasoli of the Apostolic Nunciature, accompanied Monsignor Bernardini during his visit.

The Mural was designed by Architect Norberto Silva and made by the goldsmith Carlos Pallarols. The Mural also pays tribute to the people murdered in the attacks against the Embassy of Israel (1992) and the Argentine Jewish Center (1994).

The IRWF authorities, Dr. Natalio Wengrower and Oscar Vicente participated in the ceremony.

After having heard Tenembaum’s description of the piece of art, and of the valuable documents it exhibited, Monsignor Bernardini placed some flowers over Cardinal Quarracino´s grave.

Following the Jewish tradition for those people who visit cemeteries, Wengrower and Tomás Kertesz, Holocaust survivor saved by Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest in 1944, placed stones over the grave as a sign of grief and pain.

Bernardini is another high prelate who visited the Mural as the Vatican State Secretary, Cardinal Angelo Sodano and the former Primate Cardinal of New York, John O’Connor.

On 2 June 2 2003, at the Apostolic Nunciature in Buenos Aires, the Wallenberg Foundation presented the commemorative Postal Card of Monsignor Roncalli, who was a savior of Jews and other persecuted by nazism during his mission as Apostolic Delegate to Istanbul in 1944. The philatelic piece was issued by the Argentine Postal Service following an idea of the IRWF.

In 1998 the Argentine Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp of the Mural. It is the only postal stamp, in the history of Argentine philately, that bears letters of the Hebrew alphabet.