Peres to address German parliament on Holocaust Remembrance Day

President Shimon Peres is to make a state visit to Germany next month, where he will participate in an International Holocaust Remembrance Day event in the German Parliament.

According to Foreign Ministry sources, Peres, who will leave for Germany on January 25, will be the guest of German President Horst Kohler. Peres is also expected to hold working meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and other ministers.

The focus of Peres' visit will be his participation in a number of ceremonies in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls on January 27, of which the Bundestag event is the most central.
Peres, almost all of whose family was killed in the Holocaust, including his grandparents who were burned alive in a synagogue in Poland, will deliver a speech in Hebrew to the hundreds of members of the Bundestag. He will apparently be accompanied on his trip by survivors and their families, members of youth groups and Israel Defense Forces soldiers, who will be present at his speech and at the other events.

Israeli presidents have addressed the Bundestag before, but never on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Peres is expected to speak not only about the Holocaust, but about relations between Israel and "new Germany," which is one of Israel's strongest allies.

An Israel-German summit is scheduled to take place about a week before Peres' visit. The summit was to have been held a week ago, but was postponed due to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's illness. The summit, in which about 10 ministers from each government are to participate, will discuss upgrading economic, political and security relations between the two countries, as well as education, health and the environment.