I am a Holocaust survivor. UK police interviewed me for protesting genocide

In March 1944, Germany invaded and occupied Hungary, their unreliable ally. I’m now 87 years old because of this. However, I can still recall vividly the utter destruction of the climactic fighting between a captured German Army and the Red Army, as well as my hiding as a hunted Jew on false papers. I can see the bodies of burned-out cars, tanks, bodies of dead horses and people, ammunition and helmets everywhere, as well as the rubble-filled mountains and broken glass that Gaza looks so tragically today.

It has been known for more than a year that Israel’s intention is to impose as many Palestinians as possible on Gaza. Although this approach differs significantly from Nazi Germany’s strategy to systematically destroy Jewish Europe, it also shares many traits. As a Holocaust survivor, I felt compelled to march alongside various pro-Palestine protests in London.

These protests have been numerous and frequently significant. So it should come as no surprise that the authorities have put more restrictions on them to avert people’s attendance. However, when the Metropolitan Police called me in for an interview, I was still surprised.

We’re unsure of how far the people in power intend to go with the right to protest. However, we are aware that they intend to portray anti-Semitism in London’s pro-Palestine demos. Despite the fact that thousands of Jews have attended these protests, and that many of them, including myself, have addressed the demonstrators from the stage,

I gave my first speech on a stage in Hyde Park a year ago, in April 2024, telling the crowded audience that Adolf Eichmann had planned to send 400, 000 Jews to Auschwitz. I also discussed my father’s transfer to the concentration camps in Belsen and Theresienstadt, as well as the 15 members of my own family who perished there. We Jews who survived all this suffering, suffering, humiliation, and destruction are against the government of Israel’s use of the Holocaust as a justification for the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

The enormous crowd listened in such respectful silence and then applauded with such enthusiasm was what struck me most about the speech, not what I said. It is absurd to suggest that such a crowd was anti-Semitic, let alone violent. However, that is exactly what several newspapers did the day after publishing falsely claiming that the crowd had threatened to vandalise Hyde Park’s Holocaust memorial.

Pro-Israel politicians and journalists have been making claims that our protests are “hate marches” or “no-go areas for Jews” ever since. This relentless, but pointless campaign is furthered by recent assertions that our marches are a threat to London’s synagogues. Anyone who has witnessed the unwavering support and warmth that our group of Holocaust survivors and the wider Jewish bloc frequently experience on the marches will understand how baseless it all is.

Most importantly, the main focus of this campaign is to stop the current genocide in Gaza. It’s crucial for everyone in Britain to speak out now about Israel’s complicity in the genocide as it resumes its indiscriminate bombing of hundreds of civilians in Gaza.