Foreign Minister Jair Lapid leaves for Austria on Wednesday to attend a memorial ceremony at the Mauthausen concentration camp, his testament announced on Tuesday.
The event will take place on Thursday to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehmer, Foreign Minister Alexander Schellenberg, Interior Minister Gerhard Kerner and local Jewish sectarian leaders will also take part in the showa ceremony at the concentration camp.
About 119,000 prisoners died, including 38,120 Jews in the complex, which was mainly used for opponents of the Nazi regime.
Later, Lapid is set to take part in the “We Remember” ceremony at Vienna’s new Holocaust memorial. He will be joined by Austrian President Alexander Van der Belen, Nehmer and other Austrian politicians.
Lapid, whose father Tommy survived the Holocaust, will be joined by Aliza Bin-Naun, deputy director general of Europe’s foreign ministry.
His office did not say when he planned to return to Israel.
A woman is seen at the Showa Naam Wall Memorial in Vienna at its opening on November 9, 2021. (George Hochmuth/APA/AFP)
Nehmer, 49, a former soldier appointed by the country’s conservatives to calm the waters in Austria after a corruption investigation into former leader Sebastian Kurz, took office on 6 December.
Kurz stepped down in October in an effort to defuse the government crisis, triggered by prosecutors’ announcement that he was the target of a corruption investigation.
Kurz enjoys warm relations with former Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and credits him with helping him realize, relatively early in the coronavirus pandemic, measures to try to stop the spread of COVID-19. need to ratchet up.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehmer speaks with the media at the EU summit at the European Council building on December 16, 2021 in Brussels. (Kenzo Triboulard/Pool Photo via AP)
Kurz’s government has also been widely supportive of Israel internationally. In May, in the midst of fighting between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza, the Israeli flag was hoisted over the Austrian Federal Chancellor’s Building, and Kurz explicitly blamed Hamas for the violence.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had a phone call with Nehmer in late December, congratulating him on taking office and inviting him to visit Israel.
Also on Thursday, Knesset Speaker Mickey Levi will address the Bundestag in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the first time a Knesset speaker has addressed a full German parliament.