Testimony “If even the Jews side with the extreme right, we will never end it”, regrets Ginette Kolinka, survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau

The day after 80 years of commemoration of June 18 and tributes to the Resistance fighters who liberated France, another great voice of the Second World War is heard, that of Ginette Kolinka. A survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, she continues, at the age of 99, to testify to students. A testimony against hatred which echoes the current political situation, also a few days after the declaration of Serge Klarsfeld who chose to vote for the extreme right in the event of a duel with the left.

In her room, in front of her TV, Ginette Kolinka sometimes watches the political debates and analysis of the moment: “What do they call absolute majority?” The one who survived Nazi barbarity and the death camps, deported with part of her family in 1944 to Auschwitz Birkenau, admits without shame: she is not an expert in politics.

But the recent position taken by Serge Klarsfeld affirming that he would vote for National Rally in the event of a duel in the second round with France Insoumise does not leave her indifferent: “I don’t understand his reaction. When you see Klarsfeld agreeing with them, you say to yourself that there is something wrong anymore. If even the Jews side with the extreme right , we will never end it.”

As for Serge Klarsfeld’s argument of a National Rally which would have changed and supports the Jews: “Maybe they are doing it in words to get the votes of our corporation but once he has the votes, what will he do?”

“We can’t believe that the far right can defend us.”

Ginette Kolinka

at franceinfo

Faced with the National Rally, what defense then? Ginette Kolinka is largely in touch on a possible New Popular Front vote: “Anything extreme is dangerous.” And recalls his speech against hatred and for tolerance, repeated daily in schools for 25 years: “I only speak to children, I don’t speak to adults. There are adults who listen to me but it’s to children that I speak. And children, I don’t play politics, I’m against everything what can make you hate someone. I’m for tolerance. Which party tells you ‘We all love each other’? Ginette Kolinka who also highlights one of her favorite formulas: “Hate is already a foot in Auschwitz.”