00:00Thank you for joining us today on Holocaust Remembrance Day in the European Parliament.
00:05But more importantly is that we are joined by Tatiana Bucci.
00:10She is one of the last living survivors of the Holocaust.
00:13And she is here to give an address to the European Parliament and through the delegates to the world.
00:20Tatiana, thank you so much for joining us here on DW.
00:23I thank you because...
00:26Being a witness today is more important than ever, more important than yesterday.
00:33Ieri, proprio per quello che sta succedendo nel mondo.
00:36What are your feelings as you come here, your first time in this enormous Parliament,
00:42your audience is going to be some of the most influential people in their countries.
00:48How important is that that they hear you today?
00:50This is my first time with such an audience here in the Parliament and it makes me very emotional.
01:04I came to Brussels back in 1964 because my husband was working for the European institutions.
01:10And so I have a very European soul. It is very important for me to be here today.
01:16The Parliament has been holding this event for Remembrance Day since 2005.
01:22And we have been going to the schools and talking to the students with this intent since 2004.
01:29We are asking you to go back into your worst memories.
01:43It must be an enormous personal cost to revisit this in an effort to make people see how horrible humans can be to each other.
01:54As for the personal cost of having to go back to those hard times, to those black times,
02:05it is very hard because I have to go back in time every time that I talk about what happened in Birkenau
02:12and I still see myself as a kid there.
02:15And how do you view the world today?
02:21You have done your best to share your experiences, to share your hope that these things don't ever happen again
02:30and yet the world is not going in a very positive direction in most areas.
02:38How does that feel for you?
02:40Oggi vivo molto male quello che sta succedendo proprio perché troppi bambini.
02:52Concerning the direction that the world is taking today, I can only say that it's very hard for me to witness all that
02:58because too many children are dying in the world, everywhere in the world, children of all religions
03:04and I can only wish to those children that they can live to old age and become grandparents
03:12as I am an old lady and a grandparent.
03:16That is very important to me.
03:18But thinking of the hundreds of thousands of children that are already gone is very hard to acknowledge.
03:24So I will go on until I can and I will be doing this for them.
03:30There are hundreds of thousands of children that don't exist anymore.
03:36It makes me worse.
03:38Only the idea makes me worse.
03:40And so I will continue to do my testimonies just as I can.
03:44I will continue to do my testimonies just as I can for children.
03:48Tatiana, in fact, your own mother was born in Ukraine.
03:52You are speaking here in Brussels today to people who care very much about Ukraine,
03:58care very much about what happens there.
04:01Thinking of your mother, thinking of your own childhood where so much was damaged.
04:07What will be your message?
04:08What is your message today and for the rest of the years that you continue doing this?
04:13My mom fled Ukraine because there was a pogrom there and they moved to Fiume where she and her family were welcomed with open arms.
04:34And this is exactly what I wish were happening today.
04:39When the war erupted in the Ukraine, I felt Ukraine.
04:47I felt part of the country.
04:49Since the outbreak, I've been feeling more Ukrainian than ever.
04:53I had never given it much thought.
04:55And instead now, with the war, I can picture my mom as a child fleeing Ukraine in my head.
05:03My message is that we must be able to accept others, people different from us.
05:08My mom was born in 1908 and she was welcomed with open arms when she had to flee.
05:13How was my mom accepted when she came to Fiume in 1910, because she was born in 1908.
05:25And your message?
05:28Accogliere il diverso.
05:31So my message today is that we must welcome others, regardless of their religion, regardless of their color.
05:39We must not leave them to die in the sea, for instance.
05:42We must welcome others, even people who are different from us.
05:46Horribile.
05:47Accogliere il diverso in tutti i sensi.
05:49Thank you so much, 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Tatiana Bucci, joining us on DW today on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
05:56Thank you so much.
05:57Grazie.
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