The worst and the best of mankind

Germany, Norway, Italy and Britain report increases in antisemitism, while an Anti-Defamation League survey found that antisemitic attitudes are at "disturbing levels" in 10 European countries, rising in Hungary from 47 to 63 percent since 2009 and in Britain from 10 to 17.

A Jobbik MP recently invoked a centuries-old blood libel, while desecrations of synagogues have occurred in Croatia, Greece, Lithuania and Poland, and a synagogue in Malmo, Sweden, has been fortified to be not merely bullet-proof, but rocket-proof.

Days ago, French President François Hollande delivered an inspirational address at the site of the original Velodrome. Acknowledging that France had betrayed its people and its values, he said: "Across time, beyond grief, my presence bears witness to France's determination to protect the memory of her lost children and honour these souls who died but have no graves, whose only tomb is our memory.

"We're here to fight the battle against oblivion and testify what barbarity is capable of. Ignorance is the source of many abuses."

Guaranteeing Holocaust education in France's curriculum, he continued: "The Shoah was not created from a vacuum and did not emerge from nowhere. True, it was set in motion by the terrifying combination of single-mindedness in its racist frenzy and industrial rationality in its execution. But it was also made possible by blindness, stupidity, lies, hatred. It was preceded by warning signs, which failed to alert consciences.

"No nation is immune from evil. Let us not forget this verdict by Primo Levi on his persecutors: `Save the exceptions, they were not monsters, they had our faces'. Let us remain alert so that we detect monstrosity under its guises. Being silent about antisemitism, dissimulating it, explaining it, already means accepting it.The safety of France's Jews is not just a matter for Jews, it is a matter for all French people."

The Round-up and Raoul Wallenberg encapsulate the worst and the best of mankind. The lessons of both resonate to this day.