their presence: This ceremony is our homage to the victims of the camp. From today, this tribute gains a new form and meaning – 180,000 Jewish women, children, and men are now honoured with a new commemoration that complements the exhibition which we opened three years ago. Thus, the international project undertaken by Poland, Israel, the Netherlands, and Slovakia comes to an end. That initiative – as defined in the agreement signed by those countries – was to establish a museum that would convey the history of the genocide to the present and the future generations – he summarised.
After the speeches, prayers were said by the representatives of various religions and faiths. The Chief Rabbi of Poland, Mr Michael Schudrich initiated this part with a message: I do not have to tell you, how after the days of transport the people arrived here, they were separated from their families, and – above all – murdered, just because they were Jews. I do not have to tell you, that it all started with hate speech. […] I do not have to tell you what is happening just a few kilometres from here in Ukraine. […] I do not have to tell you what happened in Israel last Shabbat on the day of the Simchat Torah. I have no words for that. I thought about the word “bestiality”. Not enough. “Barbarity” – a bit closer. But maybe – oh dear God – we have to coin a new word to name this – hamasism. The prayers were also said by Fr. Dr Kazimierz Gruda – the bishop of Siedlce, Fr. Dr Jarosław Szczur – the parson of the John the Evangelist orthodox church parish in Chełm, and Fr. Wojciech Rudkowski – the parson of the evangelic-Augsburg parish in Radom and Kielce.
At the end of the ceremony, the survivors’ families, state delegations, and representatives of various memorials and institutions, lead wreathes at the clearing with the mass graves – the place where the ashes of the Sobibór victims rest.