There were more 40 world leaders present for Thursday's ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. But it was an Auschwitz survivor who stole the show.
As President Moshe Katsav, the first foreign dignitary to address the gathering, was winding up his speech, a woman sitting in the rows of survivors got up from her seat and walked over to the speakers' podium, where she stood, waiting with arms folded until Katsav finished talking.
Auschwitz survivor Miriam Yahav (previously Merka Szevach), who was not listed on the program to speak, then jumped onto the podium and positioned herself in front of the microphone.
Grabbing the spotlight for a few seconds, she asked why she, an innocent 16-year-old, had been brought to this place and reduced to something less than human.
"They took away my name and gave me a number. I was no longer Merka Szevach. What right did they have to kill my family? What right did they have to kill my people?" she asked. "Why? Why did they do that, and why did they burn my whole family here?"
Then, calming down somewhat, Yahav, who now lives in Israel, added proudly: "I now have a country, an army and a president."
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you tell 'em .