GERMANY: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER EHUD BARAK AND CHANCELLOR GERHARD SCHROEDER VISIT NAZI SACHSENHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP

Record ID: 398972

  • Title: GERMANY: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER EHUD BARAK AND CHANCELLOR GERHARD SCHROEDER VISIT NAZI SACHSENHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP
  • Date: 22nd September 1999
  • Summary: SACHSENHAUSEN, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER, 22 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS EXTERIORS SACHSENHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP, VISITORS WAITING 0.11 2. SIGN OUTSIDE SACHSENHAUSEN CAMP 0.17 3. SV JEWISH RABBIS AND PEOPLE WAITING IN COURTYARD OF CONCENTRATION CAMP MUSEUM 0.29 4. CU SIGN "ARBEIT MACHT FREI" (WORK WILL SET YOU FREE) 0.36 5
  • Embargoed: 7th October 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SACHSENHAUSEN, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVAA2WZ1F0X1W9LCYO03TIBFFQ1L
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and German
    Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder have arrived at the
    Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin for an emotional
    and symbolic visit.

    Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and German
    Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, accompanied by their wives,
    walked through the iron gates of the Sachsenhausen
    concentration camp with its infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei"
    ("Work Will Set You Free") sign.

    They toured buildings preserved in the memory of some
    200,000 slave labourers, many of them Jews, who were interned
    here from 1936 to 1945.

    Nearly half of them died in deplorable conditions.

    Barak is the first foreign leader to visit Germany since
    the government moved to the capital city in Berlin earlier
    this month.Barak turned down the chance to meet German
    business leaders to see Sachsenhausen, calling the visit a
    "moral necessity".

    A number of survivors attended the ceremonies under
    overcast skies at the Sachsenhausen camp just north of Berlin.

    Schroeder has set much store by having the Israeli leader
    as his first official guest since the German government ended
    its post-war exile in Bonn this summer.

    Schroeder, who donned a Jewish skull cap for a memorial
    service at the camp north of Berlin, said Germans, even as
    they looked to the future after decades of post-war division
    and occupation, must never forget their past.

    Barak, making his first visit to continental Europe since
    taking office in July, will also meet French leaders in Paris
    on Wednesday and Thursday for talks expected to concentrate on
    the search for a formula that would allow Israel and Syria to
    resume peace talks following a freeze of more than three
    years.

    Barak was elected in May on a promise to reach peace with
    the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register