Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid made a special visit Thursday to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Lapid was joined by the Chancellor of Austria, Karl Nehammer, along with Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, and the President of the Austrian Jewish Community, Oskar Deutsch.
"The Nazis thought they were the future, and that Jews would be something you only find in a museum. Instead, the Jewish state is the future, and Mauthausen is a museum,” Lapid said during the event, commemorating his grandfather, Bella Lampel, one of the victims killed at Mauthausen.
"I came here today to remind the world that Bela Lampel was not a number. He sent me here today to say on his behalf, that the Jews have not surrendered. They’ve established a strong, free, and proud Jewish state, and they sent his grandson, to represent them here today."
In his speech, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer addressed Minister Lapid, offering his apologies for Lampel’s death.
“Dear Yair, I apologize on behalf of the Republic of Austria for the crimes committed here. I apologize that your grandfather was murdered here.”
Minister Lapid said the Mourner's Kaddish and laid a wreath on behalf of the Israeli government. Later in the tour, the Minister lit a candle in the Room of Names in memory of his grandfather, Bela Lampel , and in memory of all who perished at Mauthausen.