Press release of 5, April 2025
Omri Boehm’s speech at the Buchenwald Memorial: Disinvitationitis strikes again
Israeli philosopher Omri Boehm, winner of the 2024 Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding and a member of PEN Berlin, was to speak tomorrow at the central commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps. According to the foundation’s director, Jens-Christian Wagner, he had been invited by the memorial because »we can expect from him ethically well-founded reflections on the relationship between history and memory, in particular on the value of universal human rights and their significance in the light of Nazi crimes«.
The Israeli ambassador in Berlin, Ron Prosor, seemed to have expected something quite different: »Wherever Omri Boehm appears, he leaves broken porcelain in his wake. The idea of the director of the foundation, Jens-Christian Wagner, to offer him, of all people, a stage for the 80th anniversary of the Buchenwald concentration camp was ludicrous.«
»Ludicrous« is not the worst term to describe the whole process. From PEN Berlin’s point of view, Omri Boehm would have been an eminently suitable speaker for the commemoration. Now the Israeli ambassador to Germany is free to see things differently. But it shows a rather idiosyncratic understanding of his office if Ron Prosor sees himself as a kind of arbiter of German remembrance culture, who, as he announced via dpa, is »proud to show the red card« to forms of Holocaust remembrance that do not suit him or the Netanyahu government. This, of course, includes »a commemoration of the Shoa that relativises the suffering of the survivors or calls the State of Israel into question«. He wants to prevent this – also in the name of those »who can no longer raise their voices«.
Is it really necessary to point out that Omri Boehm himself is the grandson of a Holocaust survivor? Who is to deny Ron Prosor, another Jewish Israeli, the right to speak on behalf of those »who can no longer raise their voices«? Jens-Christian Wagner refers to those who can raise their voices because they survived the murderous terror of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps to justify withdrawing the invitation to Omri Boehm. The memorial wanted to prevent “the survivors, many of whom are emotionally scarred, from being instrumentalised and drawn further into this conflict [with representatives of the Israeli government]«, according to an official statement.
In his statement, distributed by the dpa news agency, Ron Prosor accused Jens-Christian Wagner of »cowardice« for »hiding behind Holocaust survivors to justify his personal decision«. At first glance, one might agree with Prosor on this point. But wasn’t it Prosor who instrumentalised Holocaust survivors to stir up sentiment against Omri Boehm, who is unpopular with the Netanyahu government?
Commenting on the disinvitation of Omri Boehm, PEN Berlin spokeswoman Thea Dorn said: »The motto of the Buchenwald Memorial is ‘Understanding History – Learning for the Future’. I doubt that anything has been learned for the future if, as has now happened, one betrays one’s own convictions and gives in to the pressure of a representative of a government with autocratic traits. There is much to suggest that efforts to restrict freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of the arts and freedom of science will continue to increase in many places. Institutions dedicated to protecting these freedoms will have to learn to withstand these pressures better than they have in the recent past.
PEN Berlin appeals to Jens-Christian Wagner and the Buchenwald Memorial to follow through on their announcement to give Omri Boehm the opportunity to give his planned speech at another time as soon as possible.
PEN Berlin. We stand by our word.