Representaives of the Jewish community have asked the President not to attend Holocaust Memorial Day this year amid claims he has ‘lost their confidence’. 

The annual event commemorates the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp and the lives of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis. 

This year, President Michael D Higgins is scheduled to make a speech but the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland has asked him to reconsider, citing his remarks last year. 

In 2024, President Higgins noted the “very significant trauma of recent events” and said that “too many lives… have been lost” in the Middle East. 

This afternoon’s #HMD2024 commemoration will be live-streamed at this link, tune in from 4pm: https://t.co/RDZQpl9n9e

— Holocaust Education Ireland (@he_ireland) January 28, 2024

“It is incumbent on all nations to redouble their efforts for an end to the loss of life, an immediate ceasefire [and] the release of all hostages,” he told attendees. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, Holocaust Awareness Ireland founder Oliver Sears said President Higgins had been wrong to bring politics into an event that “requires the utmost respect”. 

“In a nutshell, he’s lost our confidence - we don’t feel that he is empathetic,” Mr Sears said. 

“He has lurched from one crass statement to another. 

“[Holocaust] Memorial Day is a very significant day for us. It’s a very complicated day, it’s rather like a funeral. 

“It’s also a moment where we can have our worst pain, our worst suffering acknowledged publicly in a country that effectively abandoned us in the lead up to and during the Holocaust.”

Arrival of a train containing Jews deported to Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Picture by: Alamy.com

Mr Sears said Jewish people “get criticism all day, everyday” about events in the Middle East and that they would like just one hour every year to focus on their “private grief”. 

“It’s interesting also that this year - which is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz - the Auschwitz memorial who run the camp, on this occasion have decided that no politicians will speak,” he said. 

“So, they are concentrating on survivors and their families - which I always think, being the son of a Holocaust survivor, is the voice that is most significant and the one that should be heard first and foremost during this ceremony.”

'It's also a moment where we can have our worst pain acknowledged publicly, in a country that effectively abandoned us, in the lead-up and during the Holocaust.

The Jewish community in Ireland has objected to President Michael D Higgins giving the keynote speech at the Holocaust… pic.twitter.com/83QZRxn0FM

— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) January 15, 2025

Previously, Holocaust Memorial Day has also been addressed by the Taoiseach or the Tánaiste of the day. 

“Micheál Martin, who has not been shy about criticising the current actions of the Israeli Government, would have been perfectly acceptable,” Mr Sears said. 

“If the keynote address had to be made by a senior politician, I would prefer it to be made by Micheál Martin.” 

Áras an Uachtaráin has been contacted for comment.

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Main image: President Michael D. Higgins. Picture by: Alamy.com