'God created people to love, not to hate': Holocaust survivor Marianne Miller delivers powerful speech at UN

Marianne Miller, a Holocaust survivor and mother of Israeli comedian Adir Miller, spoke at the UN marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, delivering a moving speech about the horrors of the Holocaust

Marianne Miller|
Holocaust survivor Marianne Miller, mother of Israeli comedian Adir Miller, captivated the audience in New York on Monday evening when she delivered a heartfelt speech at the United Nations’ annual assembly marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Speaking shortly after Israel's President Isaac Herzog, she received widespread applause and praise for her appearance. Below is her full speech:
Marianne Miller at the UN
(Video: UN)
"My name is Marianne Miller, and I am a Holocaust survivor. I represent the remaining Holocaust survivors, who are getting older, weaker and sicker, leaving us day by day. I was a baby during the Holocaust, but I can still say it, clear and loud: I have been there.
"My parents, Alfred and Violetta Nobel, were a young couple deeply in love. Before my father was taken to a labor camp, my mother wanted to become pregnant. My father was against it. ‘You don’t bring a child into a world where sure death is waiting for them everywhere,’ he said. But my mother, so in love, replied, ‘Maybe one of us will stay alive, and they will have a memory of the other.’
"Under these conditions, I came into the world – a world where death awaited me at every corner.
"Budapest, 1944. A freezing December night. Mothers are marching with their babies in deadly silence, heading toward the railway station. The destination: Auschwitz.
"Then, something unprecedented happened. With a sudden movement, my mother tore off her yellow star and ran out of the line, holding me in her arms. She hid under a gate, thinking no one had seen her.
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ניצולת השואה מריאן מילר נואמת בעצרת האו"ם
ניצולת השואה מריאן מילר נואמת בעצרת האו"ם
Marinne Miller with her children at the United Nations
"But a young Hungarian Nazi chased after her, shouting and aiming his rifle at her chest. ‘How dare you take off the yellow star?’ he roared. ‘Now I’m going to kill your child and make you watch. Then you’ll go back to the line without your baby.’
"There was no point in begging for mercy. All my mother had was a thin golden wedding ring. She held it out to him, saying: ‘Look! Look! You kill people and take their jewelry, but this ring is different – it is not covered in blood. It shines because you didn’t murder anyone for it. Take it. There is a blessing on it. You gave life to a mother and her child. Take it!’
"Maybe, in that one moment, he found a spark of humanity within himself. He didn’t follow her. He let her run, and we were saved.
"My father’s story is no less remarkable. Taken to the hunger camp of Bergen-Belsen, he survived on one slice of bread per week. He had the willpower to divide it into seven pieces, eating one each day. At liberation, he weighed only 35 kilograms – the weight of a child.
"Most of my family was not as fortunate. Many were shot into the Danube River. My mother’s sister Nicolet, a partisan, was executed. My cousin Gabor, just 13 years old, was killed – he could have become a world-famous poet.
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"Today, I stand here having lost my husband, Yoel, two months ago. He was my best friend for 58 years. As a child, he survived the Terezin concentration camp, becoming a father figure to his baby brother.
"Last April, I was honored to lead the March of the Living in Budapest and Auschwitz. I was deeply shaken by the mountains of shoes, glasses and hair left behind. Six million lives were brutally taken simply for being Jewish.
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Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
(Photo: theauschwitztours.com)
"I came here today with my children and grandchildren – my personal answer to Hitler. Antisemitism is lifting its ugly head again across the world. We must remember: God created people to love, not to hate. God wants to be proud of mankind, not ashamed of it.
"I represent today the six million Holocaust victims who were murdered just because they were Jewish. I demand the world remember what happened only 80 years ago. Never. Never. Never, let it happen again.
"Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to Ambassador Danny Danon and President Isaac Herzog for making my presence here today possible."
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