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Participants arrive in death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau to mark the annual Holocaust remembrance at in Oswiecim on April 21, 2009 during the annual March of the Living. The annual March of the Living, which commemorates the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust was launched in 1988, drawing thousands of people from around the world, including Jewish youngsters and elderly Holocaust survivors. Organisers said half of the 8,000 people who had gathered this year were not Jewish. (JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

OSWIECIM, Poland [CHI] — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem in order to overcome his Shoah-denial, Rabbi Yisrael Lau said Tuesday during an emotional speech in Auschwitz.

Rabbi Lau: Ahmadinejad should visit Yad Vashem

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Participants arrive in death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau to mark the annual Holocaust remembrance at in Oswiecim on April 21, 2009 during the annual March of the Living. The annual March of the Living, which commemorates the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust was launched in 1988, drawing thousands of people from around the world, including Jewish youngsters and elderly Holocaust survivors. Organisers said half of the 8,000 people who had gathered this year were not Jewish. (JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

OSWIECIM, Poland [CHI] — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem in order to overcome his Shoah-denial, Rabbi Yisrael Lau said Tuesday during an emotional speech in Auschwitz.

The speech followed the traditional March of the Living, which saw 7,500 Jewish and non-Jewish teenagers walking along the train tracks that led Jews to their death during World War II.

In his speech, Rabbi Lau slammed Iran’s leader for his hatred towards the Jewish people.

“Come to Yad Vashem, we will present you with all the documents, archives, and memories,” he said. “We will present you with all the testimonials so that you are convinced there really was a Holocaust.”

Shoah deniers do not wish to know the truth, the rabbi added, and therefore they proceed to spread lies.

Rabbi Lau also criticized the lack of international response to the extermination of the Jews during the war. “They did almost nothing in order to put an end to the killing,” he said, adding that American presidents chose not to address the Shoah in real time.

“The world’s silence is a lesson for humanity,” he said. “Next time we must not remain silent.”

Turning his attention to present-day developments, Rabbi Lau said the world must take “all those mad, crazy people seriously.” He also stressed the importance of maintaining the Jewish tradition, saying that abandoning the faith would make the Nazis triumphant.

The march to the death camp was quiet and charged. “We are marching in order to commemorate, and we believe that every Jew is here in his heart,” 17-year-old Maya Sadi from Afula told Ynet. “When all of us started to march together, I felt the patriotic atmosphere, especially alongside non-Jews.”

Sadi, who participated in the march on behalf of her grandfather, a Holocaust survivor who passed away two years ago, said “we are here to close the circle for him.”

Alona Gold, 18, also from Afula, said the march included some difficult moments.

“It’s a very difficult experience, to see all the places and try to understand what happened here,” she said. “Everything is green and blossoming around us and it’s difficult to imagine the horror that took place here. This march needs to be experienced in order to be understood.”

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