4 No. 76 JUSTICE t is my honor to open the International Conference of the IJL, entitled: “Antisemitism and the Jewish People in the Legal Aftermath of October 7th.” We are holding this Conference at the Polin Museum, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The Polin Museum stands in the heart of what was the Warsaw Ghetto, established by the Nazis in the heart of Warsaw, where the Jews of Warsaw and the surrounding districts were herded together. There, the Jews died of hunger, sickness, torture, and executions. From there, hundreds of thousands of Jews were sent to the death camp at Treblinka. Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked in Israel each year on 27th Nissan, the day on which, in 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising broke out. The Warsaw Ghetto is a symbol of the Holocaust and Heroism, but for me, the Warsaw Ghetto is not just a symbol, but something very personal. My mother, Ita Linzen (née Weissman), together with a large portion of her family, were banished from Skranivicia (a small town near Warsaw), and other towns, to the Warsaw Ghetto. They lived only a few hundred meters from here, on 32 Zamenhof Street. My grandmother, my mother, several of her sisters and her brothers, together with other family members, squeezed into a small apartment. Those who remained in the Ghetto either perished there or were sent to their death in Treblinka. My mother escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto and survived the Holocaust. Escape from the Ghetto – Yes. Survived – Yes. But her personal story symbolizes the fate of the Jews of Poland. After she fled from the Ghetto, my mother was caught and sent to Labor Camps near Warsaw. From a Labor Camp in Pionki, my mother was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and from there she was sent to the Hindenburg Labor Camp, in an area of Poland that was annexed to Germany. As the Red Army approached, my mother was sent to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, where she spent several months in a building housing 1,500 Jews. Of those 1,500 Jews, around 40 survived. Most died of hunger and sickness. Of the 40 who survived, many died soon after the War. One of the liberators of Bergen-Belsen, an officer in the liberating British Army, was Captain Haim Herzog, later President of the State of Israel, and before that honor, my mentor as an Attorney. On January 27, 1945, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz. That day is recognized as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The day following the ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a Conference was held here in the Polin Museum, on the subject of Holocaust Denial. I was supposed to discuss legal aspects of Holocaust Denial, but for me, Holocaust Denial is not only a public or legal issue. It is a truly personal issue. Holocaust Denial is, to a large extent, a denial of my own personality. Were my grandfathers, on both my mother and father’s side, not killed in the Holocaust? Were my uncles and cousins not murdered in the Holocaust? Were not hundreds of my family murdered in the Holocaust? If you deny the Holocaust, you deny my identity, which stretches back through generations, over hundreds of years. Several weeks ago, a court in Milan convicted the online personality Cecilia Parodi of offenses of incitement, in connection with her antisemitic outbursts. Both the IJL and I personally joined the criminal proceedings. I want to quote Ms. Parodi: I hate everyone, all the Jews, I hate everyone, all the Israelis… I hate everyone who defends them… all the journalists, all the politicians, all the cowards, everyone, I hate you. Why did you ruin the world? You have robbed us of every right… If one day I see you all hanging by your feet, and Piazza Loreto is not enough, Piazza Tiananmen is needed, I swear to you I will be in the front row spitting on you. Outbursts like these are flooding the internet almost daily. Throughout Europe there are antisemitic IJL Warsaw Conference Opening Remarks* Meir Linzen * Opening address at the IJL International Conference on “Antisemitism and the Jewish People in the Legal Aftermath of October 7th,” Warsaw, November 19, 2025. I
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