The Jewish community held its annual commemoration of the end of World War II in Antwerp on Thursday, marking the 80th anniversary of the Allied victory.
For the first time, Bart De Wever attended the commemoration not as the city’s mayor but as Prime Minister.
De Wever reiterated warnings about the rise of anti-Semitism, cautioning that “images from the Middle East are being misused to equate the Jewish people with evil.”
He added that “the creeping poison of anti-Semitism has never completely disappeared, but it has been increasing in recent years, especially after the horrific terrorist acts of 7 October 2023.”
However, the Belgian Prime Minister refrained from further discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He focused his speech on the horrors of the Holocaust, stressing the importance of remembrance to continue learning from history and addressing the issue of the Jewish community’s security amid the threat of anti-Semitism. Though the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023 were briefly mentioned, subsequent events were not discussed.
“I want to emphasise once again that the security of the Jewish community in Antwerp, and now also the rest of the country, remains a top priority,” Bart De Wever stressed. The Prime Minister also highlighted Antwerp’s achievements in Holocaust education, such as a permanent exhibition at the MAS Museum and educational modules for schools.
Bart De Wever further acknowledged the work of SEGESOMA, the State Archives’ Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society.
Under historian Nico Wouters, the centre conducted a study on how the SNCB organised transports to Nazi death camps.
