Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance paid a solemn visit on Thursday to the Dachau Concentration Camp and Memorial Site, the location of Nazi Germany’s inaugural and longest-operating concentration camp.
Upon arrival, the Vice President and Second Lady were warmly welcomed by Holocaust survivor Abba Naor—who endured captivity at Dachau—Director of the Bavarian Memorial Foundation Karl Freller, as well as by Dr. Gabrielle Hammerman and Dr. Dirk Riedel from the Dachau Memorial Site.
This visit comes in anticipation of the Vice President’s participation at the Munich Security Conference and just ahead of the 80th anniversary of Dachau’s liberation by American forces on April 29, 1945.
“I’ve read a lot about the Holocaust in books,” Vance said at the camp, as quoted by The Associated Press. “But being here, and seeing it up close in person, really drives home what unspeakable evil was committed and why we should be committed to ensuring that it never happens again.”
During the ceremony, the Vice President placed a wreath adorned with a red, white, and blue ribbon, featuring “We remember” and “United States of America” in gold embossing, at a prominent sculpture known as the International Monument.
“I really am moved by this site,” he continued in later remarks, adding, “It’s very important that it’s here, and it’s very important that those of us who are lucky enough to be alive and can walk around, can know what happened here and commit ourselves to do everything to prevent it from happening again.”
The historical significance of Dachau is underscored by the fact that over 200,000 individuals from across Europe were detained there since its establishment in 1933, with more than 41,000 lives lost.
{Matzav.com}