President Trump: Thank you, Prime Minister Netanyahu,
Sara Netanyahu, Chairman Avner Shalev,
and Rabbi Israel Meir Lau for hosting us for this moving
wreath-laying ceremony.
We are here at Yad Vashem to honor the memory
of six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
Two-thirds of the Jews in Europe were sent to their deaths.
Words can never describe the bottomless depths
of that evil, or the scope of the anguish and destruction.
It was history's darkest hour.
Millions of innocent, wonderful, and beautiful lives --
men, women and children --
were extinguished as part of a systematic attempt
to eliminate the Jewish people.
It was the most savage crime against God
and his children.
And it is our solemn duty to remember, to mourn,
to grieve and to honor every single life
that was so cruelly and viciously taken.
As Elie Wiesel said, "For the dead and the living,
we must bear witness."
These words should be carved into the conscience
of humanity forever.
Only when we remember the families who were torn apart
from everyone they loved, who suffered
that terrible darkness and evil, who endured
the unbearable horror of the Holocaust --
only then can we prevent this agony from ever repeating.
This place, and this entire nation,
are a testament to the unbreakable spirit
of the Jewish people -- and the hope that light can shine
the path beyond the darkness.
Through persecution, oppression, death,
and destruction, the Jewish people have persevered.
They have thrived.
They've become so successful in so many places.
And they have enlightened the world.
The State of Israel is a strong and soaring
monument to the solemn pledge we repeat
and affirm, "Never again."
From the depths of the suffering, the Jewish
people have built a mighty nation -- and the Star of David
waves proudly above this cherished land.
As long as we refuse to be silent in the face
of evil, as long as we refuse to dim the light of truth
in the midst of darkness, as long as we refuse
to become bystanders to barbarity, then we know
that goodness, peace and justice will ultimately prevail.
With sadness for the lives and dreams that were
stolen from this Earth, with determination
to always keep the memories of the victims alive,
and with resolve to confront evil wherever it
threatens, we ask God to give us the strength,
wisdom and courage to chart the righteous path.
Thank you.
God bless the memory of the perished.
God bless the survivors.
God bless the Jewish people.
And God bless the State of Israel.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you.
Prime Minister Netanyahu: What an incredibly moving speech.
That, in so few words, said so much.
Thank you, Mr. President.
This adds to a historic visit.
You are the first American President who chose
to include Israel on his first foreign trip.
You're the first President in office to visit
the Western Wall.
We were so deeply moved to see that picture
of you touching the stones of the Wall.
And, may I say, we were deeply moved to see First
Lady Melania Trump touching the stone on that Wall.
And, equally moved, when we saw your daughter, Ivanka,
and your son-in-law, Jared, did the same.
Now, you touch other stones.
You honor today the memory of six million Jews
who were murdered in the Holocaust.
A few weeks ago, you gave a powerful speech
in the Holocaust Memorial Day in Washington, D.C.
And today, in this solemn place in Yad Vashem,
our great monuments of remembrance, we remember
the Holocaust.
We remember the hatred towards Jews that consumed
a defenseless people.
We pledge never to be defenseless against
that hatred again.
And to fulfill that pledge, Israel must always
be able to defend itself by itself against any threat.
I appreciate America's longstanding commitment
to that principle, and Mr. President,
I appreciate your commitment to that principle.
Your commitment to the security of the one
and only Jewish state, which is entrusted with securing
the Jewish future.
You said, Mr. President, just now, that we must
confront evil in the world.
We must confront the barbarians.
They are, sadly, still with us.
I want to say something about the bloody horror
in Manchester, last night.
The slaughter of innocents must be unconditionally
condemned, and unflinchingly confronted
no matter where it occurs.
In Manchester, San Bernardino, or Jerusalem,
terror is terror is terror.
We must all unite to defeat it.
Mr. President, today, you called the terrorists, "losers."
I know you agree with me that it's our job to make
sure that they continue to lose.
We will defeat them.
Thank you.
Thank you to First Lady Melania Trump.
Thank you for taking such a strong stand for Israel
and the Jewish people.
It comes from the heart of all of us.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Male Speaker: Mr. President, please, over here.
And the First Lady.
We have here a unique memorial token of remembrance.
In this box, we have a replica that was
specifically prepared for you of a young lady,
Ester Goldstein.
And here is Ester Goldstein.
Look at the eyes of this young lady.
Was murdered, but what we have here is her personal album.
As she filled and described from 1937
onward in Berlin.
And it went on an on until 1942.
She was deported to (unintelligible)
where she was murdered.
But, in this album, we have -- it's a replica,
exact replica of the album with all, you know,
what we can find here, Mr. President, is things
like this, "Don't forget me, Berlin."
The child wrote, and a bit afterwards, she was
deported to Auschwitz and murdered.
Here, you can see another of the lady's photographs.
Pivotal to the hopes, love, and fears of youngsters.
And the hope to fulfill life and all life
can bring with them.
Another lady, Sonia, that tried to have love,
the beautiful life, belief in God.
Don't be afraid of this, and wait for a better future.
This was written in 1942, which means in the midst
of the killing and the murder.
Still hope, still love, and still looking
in a positive way towards the world.
This is the exact replica of the lady.
We have here, Mr. President, behind the scenes,
the story of how this album came to us.
All the family members -- father, mother, brother,
were murdered in Auschwitz.
And one sister survived.
She was sent to Australia as a young girl,
and she survived.
After the war, a cousin of the family came back
to Berlin, and a neighbor was good and he kept
some papers of the family throughout the war.
And he was ready to give it back to the family,
and this is the way that the album came back
to the family.
And here we have, with us, the survivor.
Margaret, the sister that survived and came back
to build her life in Israel.
And she was so kind to donate this album
to be part of the collections of Yad Vashem, where we have
tens of thousands of personal documents
to remember and to learn and to know about Jewish life
during the war and the period of (inaudible).
For us, it's a unique moment to have glimpse
to the world of the children.
One and a half million children were murdered.
Most of them didn't leave any trace behind them.
So, we can't know about their lives, their wishes.
And they tragically had their life cut short,
and they couldn't fulfill, actually, the life --
their own life.
So, this kind of material gives us the opportunity
to study and to understand and to identify with these
kinds of human beings.
And I think that we shall do our duty, we shall
remember all of them.
We shall remember Sonia and Bella, and Ester,
and many others.
This is our duty, we shall continue to do it because
the remembrance of those human beings means
a lot for us.
As you have just said correctly, Mr. President,
we have to remember each human being, and we have
to remember the sake of their life and the destiny
they had to do and didn't do and didn't fulfill.
And it's specifically important in our world
full of tensions, and thank you so much.
And thank you, again.
The President: Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, appreciate it.