Vice President JD Vance greeted the 97-year-old Holocaust survivor on the premises in front of the Dachaunazi concentration camp on Thursday ahead of a critical meeting with Ukrainian President Voldy Mirzelensky at the Munich Security Conference this weekend.
“Abba, you look better than me, and I'm 40 years old.” Vance told Aba Naor, a non-occurrence It is just 10 miles outside the Bavarian capital after the pair was introduced outside the camp gates.
“Take care of yourself,” Naor replied. “Life is wonderful.”
The VP's visit with Second Lady Ushavance came two and a half months before the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Dachau by the US forces in April 1945, and nine days before the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The first conflict on the continent since World War II.
Vance laid out a wreath with red, white and blue ribbons. And at the international monument of the camp, one of the first constructed by the Adolf Hitler regime, there is a golden, white and blue ribbon and the words “We remember.”
“I've read a lot about the Holocaust in my book, but being here and looking at it in person is committed to ensuring that an unspeakable evil has been committed and that it will never happen again. It really drives you home why you should do it,” Vance said. I said.
“It's very important that people who are lucky enough to be able to walk around, find out what happened here and commit themselves to prevent it from happening again,” he added.
“It's a gloomy moment, a sad moment, but it's something I'll never forget and I'm grateful to be able to see it first hand.”
Between 1933 and 1945, approximately 160,000 prisoners passed through Dachau.
Tens of thousands were killed or killed by illness or malnutrition, but more were moved to death camps in Poland.
Some of those who survived after the war and returned to their homeland face abuse at the hands of the communist regime behind the iron curtains, the guide told Vance and his wife on the site.
The guide also said when they entered Dachau, the prisoners would be stripped of everything they had and gestured to an exhibition showing the property of the Czechoslovak prisoners that had been filmed.
Naor then pulled his prisoner registration card and showed it to Vance.
“I'm still here,” he told the Vice President, and Vance replied with his hand on his shoulder: “We are very fortunate that you are here.”
Munich's Zelensky and his vice president will meet on Friday as President Trump aims to end the Russian-Ukraine war.
