Looking back. Looking ahead. 2020-2025

176   SPEECHES | POLITICS AND SOCIETY Politics and Society ©Bavarian State Parliament Photo Archive / S. Obermeier Ladies and Gentlemen, Honourable Director of the Foundation and Vice-President Karl Freller, Honourable Members of Parliament, the Presidium und the Parliamentary Groups, Honourable Deputy Minister-President Joachim Herrmann, Honourable Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter, Dear Ms W ęż yk, Dear Mr Doyen Gábor Tordai-Lejkó, Today, we are joined by representatives from many nations – especially from countries where Nazi terror claimed countless lives. Esteemed Consul General Ma ł kiewicz, A warm welcome to our Polish guests – it is important for us to remember together. We are truly humbled by the presence of survivors and   contemporary witnesses, Mr Abba Naor and Mr Ernst Grube, as well as numerous relatives of the victims we commemorate today. Dear Dr Schuster,  Dear Mr Schneeberger, Esteemed Representatives from Municipalities, Politics,   Business, Science, Culture and Society,  Esteemed Representatives of Religious Communities, Esteemed Representatives of Associations and Organisations, Esteemed Ambassadors of RemembranceWork in Bavaria, I am delighted to see so many distinguished guests. Please forgive me if I cannot welcome each of you by name. Your   presence honours the victims. Thank you so much for being with us here today! I would also like to welcome the musicians of the LAVA Quartet. Ilse Aigner, MdL President of the Bavarian State Parliament Act of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism  at Ehrenhain I, Perlacher Forst cemetery Ladies and Gentlemen! “One death is a tragedy; the death of millions is a statistic”. This sentence appears in Tucholsky, though it is often attrib- uted to Stalin. Regardless of its origin, it reminds us to stay vigilant – to ensure that it does not become reality. The fate of a single person is enough to move and unsettle us. The fate of millions can overwhelm and fade with time. The Bavarian State Parliament and the Bavarian Memorial Foundation are committed to ensuring that the victims of National Socialism remain firmly in our hearts – and in our present.We remember. We commemorate.We acknowledge our responsibility in the present. Because we firmly believe that democracy needs a good memory! In recent years, we have deliberately focused on individual victims before broadening our perspective to the   incomprehensible enormity of crimes against humanity. Today, at Ehrenhain I, we honour the memory of 3,996 people murdered in concentration camps and “euthanasia” centres. They came from 17 European countries – over half from Poland. Their names are written here. They could not be more diverse: men, women and children, Jews, Sinti and Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, resistance fighters, communists, social democrats, trade unionists, people persecuted for their sexual orientation, those deemed “asocial” or “unworthy of life”, and those who did not conform to the Nazis’ inhumane worldview. They were left defenceless, exposed to arbitrary persecution and mur- dered. Nearly 4,000 victims, each life bearing witness to the manifold cruelty of the Nazi regime. Estimates suggest the Nazis and their collaborators murdered approximately 17 million people – not including the 60 to 65 million war casualties. Are these just statistics? Absolutely not! They were mothers, fathers, chil- dren, sisters, brothers, friends, colleagues, neighbours – people who were loved and tragically lost.